UN annual report shows a sharp increase in Myanmar’s human rights crisis, especially for children

Mizzima

Myanmar’s human rights crisis deepened sharply in 2025, with the year becoming the deadliest for children since the 2021 military coup, according to the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.

In its annual update released on 24 February, the UN rights office said violence against civilians escalated across the country, with verified civilian deaths from airstrikes reaching their highest levels since the coup. Girls were particularly affected by the violence in 2025.

The military governance, said the UN report, remained characterised by repression of political dissent, mass arbitrary arrests, conscription, widespread surveillance, and shrinking civic space.

Nearly a quarter of Myanmar’s population faced severe acute food insecurity in 2025, the report found. The report warned of further deterioration due to economic mismanagement and restrictions on humanitarian access. Natural disasters compounded the crisis, including a 7.7-magnitude earthquake in March that killed more than 4,000 people and displaced over one million, followed by floods that affected another million.

The report was also critical of the military’s nationwide elections. The polls imposed by the junta lacked “basic elements of freedom, fairness, and representativeness” and risked exacerbating violence and societal polarisation.

Despite announcing an end to the state of emergency in July, the military expanded offensives and repression, including through new surveillance technologies and an “election protection law” used to target critics.

The Rohingya population remained exposed to “systematic violations and abuses” by both the military and the Arakan Army (AA), further entrenching what the UN described as a catastrophic situation.

The report also warned that both the military and opposition armed groups allowed transnational criminal networks to expand in areas under their control amid what it described as total impunity. The growth in illicit economies included drug production, scam centres, and illicit resource extraction.

Developments in international accountability continued, including universal jurisdiction cases and preparations for hearings on the merits in The Gambia’s genocide case against Myanmar at the International Court of Justice.

The UN concluded that Myanmar’s crisis is generating regional consequences, including displacement, human trafficking, and transnational crime, underscoring the urgent need for accountability and protection of civilians.