On the political situation in Myanmar including the humanitarian crisis of the Rohingya

B100510/2025

European Parliament resolution on the political situation in Myanmar including the humanitarian crisis of the Rohingya

(2025/2986(RSP))

The European Parliament,

–having regard to its previous resolutions on Myanmar and on the situation of the Rohingya,

–having regard to the previous Council decisions on restrictive measures over the military coup and subsequent repression,

–having regard to the relevant declarations and statements on Myanmar by the Vice-Presidents of Commission / High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy,

–having regard to the reports of the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar, of the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, and of the supervisory mechanism of the International Labour Organization,

–having regard to the relevant resolutions adopted by the UN Human Rights Council on Myanmar and the Rohingya minority, notably the resolution of 4 July 2025 entitled ‘Situation of human rights of Rohingya Muslims and other minorities in Myanmar’,

–having regard to the Geneva Conventions of 1949 and the additional protocols thereto,

–having regard to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948,

–having regard to the 1951 UN Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees and the 1967 Protocol thereto,

–having regard to the 1948 UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (Genocide Convention),

–having regard to Rule 136(2) of its Rules of Procedure,

A.whereas, since the military coup of 1 February 2021 against Myanmar’s legitimate civilian government, the Myanmar armed forces (the Tatmadaw) have imposed a violent and illegitimate regime, systematically dismantling the rule of law and the country’s nascent democratic system; whereas, according to reports, the junta has arrested around 30 000 people for political reasons since the coup, with more than 20 000 political prisoners still in detention; whereas the junta has maintained the state of emergency imposed on 1 February 2021, and 63 townships across the country remain under martial law, many of which are effectively controlled by anti-military armed forces;

B.whereas the coup has plunged Myanmar into a severe political, economic, social, human rights and humanitarian crisis, marked by widespread violence and systematic abuses by the military regime, including airstrikes on civilians and infrastructure, arbitrary arrests, torture and extrajudicial killings, amounting to crimes against humanity and war crimes; whereas natural disasters, such as Typhoon Yagi in 2024 and the March 2025 earthquake, have further compounded the suffering; whereas, despite this devastation and its announced temporary ceasefires, the military has continued airstrikes and heavy-weapons attacks in civilian and disaster-affected areas without taking measures to protect civilians; whereas the military has continued to restrict humanitarian access to earthquake-affected communities outside their control and in areas inhabited by ethnic minorities;

C.whereas since 2021, the number of people in need of urgent assistance has increased dramatically from 1 million to almost 20 million; whereas an estimated 15.2 million people are in need of food assistance; whereas the conflict has resulted in the internal displacement of over 3.5 million people; whereas tens of thousands have fled to neighbouring countries;

D.whereas anti-military armed groups have also carried out attacks on civilians, such as massive arson attacks to drive people from their homes and villages, and have spread hate speech and committed other atrocities, including against the Rohingya minority, although these have not been comparable in scale, scope, intensity or brutality with the violations committed by the military; whereas these armed groups have also carried out targeted killings of individuals suspected of association with the military, including civil servants;

E.whereas Myanmar’s predominantly Muslim Rohingya minority has endured more than five decades of state-led marginalisation, including discriminatory restrictions, denial of citizenship, which renders them stateless, and systematic hate campaigns inciting anti-Rohingya sentiment; whereas they have been deprived of basic rights and freedoms, including access to healthcare, education, employment, birth registration and marriage rights; whereas the Myanmar military has subjected the Rohingya to atrocious violence amounting to crimes against humanity and war crimes; whereas the United Nations has described the Rohingya as ‘the most persecuted minority in the world’;

F.whereas the Myanmar military’s 2016 and 2017 ‘clearance operations’ forcibly displaced more than 750 000 Rohingya from Rakhine State to Bangladesh; whereas the UN Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar documented widespread and systematic abuses against the Rohingya, including extrajudicial killings, torture, rape and other forms of sexual and gender-based violence; whereas the Rohingya refugee population has increased to over one million as a result of the conflict, which has been ongoing since the 2021 military coup; whereas renewed fighting between the Myanmar military and the Arakan Army has forced more than 150 000 additional Rohingya to flee to Bangladesh since late 2023; whereas living conditions for the Rohingya, already marked by insecurity, abductions, extortion and attacks on community leaders, have further deteriorated due to the forced recruitment of Rohingya men and boys for the junta, exacerbating intercommunal tensions and anti-Rohingya sentiment;

G.whereas conditions for Rohingya refugees in camps – including the Cox’s Bazar complex, which is the largest in the world and hosts more than 1.2 million people, over 77 % of whom are women and children – are becoming more and more dire; whereas drastic cuts to international humanitarian and development aid, including due to the closure of the US Agency for International Development (USAID) in 2025, the United States being one of the main donors of aid to Myanmar, have severely undermined the ability of organisations on the ground to provide essential services, such as education, healthcare, nutrition and protection; whereas, in 2025, the UN’s World Food Programme faced the dangerous prospect of having to halve the monthly food voucher per person in the camps – from USD 12.50 to USD 6 ; whereas overcrowding, lack of safety, rising criminal activity and the increasing frequency of fires, landslides and climate-related disasters further compound the vulnerability of Rohingya refugees; whereas the absence of prospects for voluntary, safe and dignified return leaves the Rohingya in a state of protracted displacement and deepening despair;

H.whereas on 11 November 2019, The Gambia filed an application at the International Court of Justice, instituting proceedings against Myanmar, arguing that the country has failed to meet its obligations under the 1948 Genocide Convention; whereas oral hearings for the case will begin in January 2026;

I.whereas in November 2024, the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) requested an arrest warrant against the commander-in-chief of the Tatmadaw, Min Aung Hlaing, alleging his involvement in crimes against humanity targeting the Rohingya population;

J.whereas no meaningful accountability processes have taken place within Myanmar related to crimes perpetrated against the Rohingya during or prior to the 2017 ‘clearance operations’; whereas the most senior military figures who supervised the attacks against the Rohingya remain in their posts; whereas the authorities refuse to cooperate with UN mechanisms and no domestic accountability process is likely to take place in the foreseeable future; whereas, in the absence of any viable legal recourse within Myanmar, the Rohingya survivors have relied on various ongoing international efforts in the pursuit of justice; whereas the political will for the pursuit of justice and accountability for the Rohingya is constrained by an impasse at the UN Security Council, with Russia and China using their veto to protect the military junta;

K.whereas the military junta is seeking international legitimacy by organising sham elections in the few parts of the country it still controls; whereas the junta has intensified airstrikes in an attempt to reclaim lost territory to ensure that the election can take place in such areas, using aircraft and arms provided by China and Russia;

L.whereas the country’s legitimately elected representatives are either in exile or imprisoned;

M.whereas the military’s widespread atrocities in recent years have also included the arbitrary detention of opposition politicians, and the dissolution and criminalisation of opposition political parties; whereas the junta has further intensified its crackdown ahead of the planned elections;

N.whereas on 29 July 2025, the junta enacted the Law on the Protection of Multiparty Democratic General Elections from Obstruction, Disruption, and Destruction, which criminalises criticism of the elections by banning any speeches, organised gatherings or protests that disrupt any part of the electoral process, and provides for punishments of up to 20 years in prison and the death penalty; whereas, since August 2025, junta authorities have arrested 94 people under the new law for social media activity, distributing stickers and leaflets, delivering speeches and other alleged acts of election ‘interference’ and ‘disruption’; whereas there were at least four children among those arrested;

O.whereas the junta declared the opposition National Unity Government (NUG) and its parliamentary body, the Committee Representing Pyidaungsu Hluttaw, to be ‘terrorist organisations’; whereas opposition groups have made it clear that they object to any elections under the military junta;

P.whereas the deepening crisis and the breakdown of law and order have fuelled a substantial regional spillover of illicit activities, with Myanmar becoming one of the world’s most fertile criminal ecosystems; whereas the country is now a key producer of the world’s supply of methamphetamine and opium, which is trafficked to neighbouring countries; whereas this instability has also enabled a proliferation of human trafficking and cyber scam compounds, which leverage forced labour to perpetrate global online fraud and fuel demand for trafficked persons from across the region and beyond; whereas this illicit trade, which also includes the trafficking of natural resources, such as jade and timber, and of arms, threatens regional stability, strengthens armed actors and undermines the economies of neighbouring states;

1.Condemns in the strongest terms the Myanmar military regime’s ongoing war crimes and crimes against humanity, including indiscriminate and deliberate airstrikes on civilians, repression, including the arbitrary arrest of about 30 000 people since the coup, and the rampant use of torture, sexual violence, gender-based violence, and other ill treatment in prisons, interrogation centres, military bases, and other detention sites, as well as the deliberate blocking of humanitarian aid;

2.Is deeply concerned about the ongoing militarisation and forced conscription of civilians, including children and the Rohingya and other minorities, across the country, both by the military and by some other armed groups, and urges all actors to immediately stop this practice;

3.Urges the Myanmar military regime to immediately end all forms of violence, including harming civilians and damaging civilian infrastructure, and to immediately and unconditionally release all political prisoners, including President Win Myint and State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi, who are being held under house arrest;

4.Strongly rejects any attempt by military leaders to legitimise their undemocratic power through sham elections; warns that any elections held without prior inclusive dialogue between all parties and that lack popular support and broad participation are likely to exacerbate violence and instability in Myanmar;

5.Calls on the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), its members and all other foreign governments to strongly reject the junta’s plans to hold elections from late December 2025 through January 2026, as they will not be free, fair or inclusive;

6.Denounces China and Russia for continuing to provide the Myanmar military junta with numerous fighter jets and armoured vehicles and backing the sham elections, and for their continuous support for the abusive military rule both bilaterally and in the UN Security Council;

7.Underlines that any path towards a sustainable and peaceful resolution to the conflict requires inclusive dialogue involving all relevant stakeholders that oppose the coup, while preventing the legitimisation of the actions of the military regime;

8.Calls for the EU, the Member States and other like-minded partner countries to provide the NUG and other organisations, such as the National Unity Consultative Council, with capacity building on governance and federalism, to allow the free movement of representatives of the NUG and ethnic armed organisations, as well as of other pro-democracy activists, by granting special visas and passports if necessary, so that they can travel to lobby for their cause, to invite pro-democracy and ethnic representatives to speak at national parliaments to explain the situation in Myanmar to lawmakers worldwide, and to allow the NUG to open delegations in their countries and with international organisations;

9.Calls for the EU and its Member States to expand their humanitarian assistance to address the needs of nearly 3.6 million internally displaced people across Myanmar, including by engaging with local partners who have the networks and experience to navigate the difficult environment, channelling aid through local civil society groups and cross-border efforts, supporting unregistered organisations, adopting flexible reporting requirements, and allowing the transfer of funds outside Myanmar’s formal banking system;

10.Expresses deep alarm at the desperate situation of the Rohingya in Myanmar, Bangladesh and throughout the region; is appalled at the situation of the Rohingya in refugee camps in Bangladesh, and notably the extremely high vulnerability of women and young girls, who are very exposed to situations of violence and exploitation, as well as the overall situation of children and young people who, with no other prospects, are at high risk of becoming a lost generation; deplores the closure of USAID, which has abruptly provoked a drastic reduction in the already insufficient available funding;

11.Calls for the EU and its Member States to urgently and substantially scale up their political, financial and humanitarian support to Bangladesh, as host to over a million refugees, and to international and civil society organisations providing assistance; calls, furthermore, for the EU and its Member States to commit to increasing resettlement opportunities or alternative visas for the Rohingya; stresses the urgent need to ensure uninterrupted access to essential services, including food, healthcare, protection and shelter; highlights, in particular, the need to ensure continuity in providing education to children, including young girls; urges the EU to mobilise additional resources, step up its leadership in coordinating international efforts, encourage the relevant non-EU countries to increase their engagement and step up to their responsibility, and work towards long-term strategies that uphold the rights and dignity of refugees, while addressing the root causes of their displacement;

12.Commends Bangladesh for its crucial support and generosity in hosting over one million members of the Rohingya community, despite enormous challenges, and the engagement of the local populations in the Cox’s Bazar and Chittagong districts in providing support; encourages the Bangladeshi authorities to continue allowing for more flexibility for the integration of Rohingya people into Bangladeshi society for as long as the conditions for their return to Myanmar are not met and urges the EU and its Member States to step up support to Bangladesh for this endeavour;

13.Urges the UN agencies, Bangladesh, India and the governments of other neighbouring countries to only engage in repatriation efforts for refugees from Myanmar, notably the Rohingya, once conditions for their voluntary, safe and dignified return have been created;

14.Welcomes the numerous rounds of targeted sanctions adopted by the EU against those responsible for the crackdown in Myanmar; calls for the EU and its Member States to introduce additional targeted sanctions against the Myanmar military and its business interests, including measures to block the sale or delivery of aviation fuel to the military and measures to sanction the State Security and Peace Commission, the Myanma Foreign Trade Bank, Myanma Investment and Commercial Bank, Myanma Economic Bank, and the Myanma Petrochemical Enterprise, and to rigorously enforce the implementation of these measures in coordination with other governments and authorities imposing sanctions;

15.Urges the EU, its Member States and the international community to coordinate and use all available political avenues to work with ASEAN and other regional actors on overcoming the crisis, including significantly increasing support for the NUG and democratic opposition groups, working towards instituting a global arms embargo on Myanmar, referring the situation in the country to the ICC, imposing additional sanctions and rapidly enforcing their implementation, closing loopholes and preventing sanctions circumvention;

16.Urges governments and financial authorities in Thailand, Singapore and other countries in which the Myanmar military continues to utilise banking services, to freeze their assets and block transactions that support and enable the military’s ongoing abuses;

17.Notes that the Five-Point Consensus has not led to any results and calls on ASEAN to acknowledge that Min Aung Hlaing’s junta is not a reliable partner; urges ASEAN and its members to review the Five-Point Consensus in cooperation with the NUG and representatives of ethnic armed organisations and to include enforcement mechanisms in the agreement, with a view to achieving a future sustainable and democratic resolution to the crisis;

18.Regrets the UN Security Council’s failure to adopt stronger measures to address the Myanmar crisis, due to diplomatic resistance from China, Russia and other UN member states; urges the UN Security Council to hold an open meeting on the Myanmar military’s atrocities ahead of the elections in the country, maintain attention on the crisis and build momentum for more tangible measures, such as a UN Security Council referral of the situation in Myanmar to the ICC;

19.Calls for the EU and its Member States to explore all avenues for justice and accountability for grave international crimes committed by the security forces, including crimes against humanity committed in the wake of the coup, as well as decades of crimes against humanity, war crimes and acts of genocide committed in Rakhine State and other ethnic regions; underlines that accountability must also include reparations, including restitution, compensation, rehabilitation and guarantees of non-repetition for victims and affected communities; urges the EU to promote international efforts to secure meaningful redress and justice for all survivors;

20.Calls for the EU and its Member States to continue to support the critical work of the ICC and the Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar, strongly condemn threats and attacks against the ICC, its officials and those cooperating with it, including the US sanctions, call for the swift revocation of the executive order authorising the sanctions, and take concrete actions to limit or, where possible, nullify the effects of the sanctions, including through the swift activation of the EU blocking statute;

21.Calls on the Commission to demonstrate that the Everything but Arms scheme does not benefit the junta in any way or to temporarily withdraw the mechanism;

22.Strongly urges EU-based businesses with operations or supply chains in Myanmar to conduct heightened human rights due diligence, and to ensure that they have no ties with Myanmar’s security forces, their individual members, or entities owned or controlled by them, and that they do not contribute, directly or indirectly, to the junta’s crackdown on democracy and human rights; calls on EU-based businesses to publicly disclose their conclusions and to work on continually improving labour conditions and environmental standards within their undertakings in Myanmar;

23.Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the National Unity Government of Myanmar and the Committee Representing Pyidaungsu Hluttaw, the Tatmadaw of Myanmar, the governments and parliaments of the countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, the governments and parliaments of India, Bangladesh and China, the Secretary-General of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, the Secretary-General of the United Nations, the Vice-President of the Commission / High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, the Commission, and the governments and parliaments of the Member States.