Member states of United Nations and their inter-governmental forums are failing to mitigate the atrocities of Myanmar military, says the Special Advisory Council for Myanmar (SAC-M) in its new report.

The SAC-M report entitled “How the UN is Failing Myanmar”, also pointed out that the UN Country Team (UNCT) is pursuing the same failed approach of appeasing the military despite growing risks and ever-fewer results, and the UN Secretary-General António Guterres has neglected his responsibilities to the Myanmar people as head of the UN Secretariat.

SAC-M was co-founded by three former UN officials Yanghee Lee, Marzuki Darusman and Chris Sidoti.

The report criticized the UN's component parts - the UN intergovernmental forums, the UN Secretariat and the UN Entities, represented in Myanmar by the UNCT – after reviewing the responses of these UN bodies to the crisis in Myanmar caused by the coup in February 2021.

The report pointed out the UN system is failing to respond in a manner that reflects the gravity of the crisis, while the objections of Myanmar civil society to the actions of UN officials are being ignored.

Humanitarian Relief

The Myanmar Humanitarian Response Plan (HRP) 2023, produced by OCHA on behalf of the Humanitarian Country Team (HCT) and partners, said that the humanitarian needs in Myanmar are extreme and have grown rapidly.

As of the beginning of 2023, out of a population of 56 million people, at least 25 million were identified as living in poverty, 17.6 million needed humanitarian assistance and 1.5 million were internally displaced, in comparison with 1 million people in need of humanitarian assistance and 350,000 internally displaced at the beginning of 2021, when the coup began.

The OCHA has verified 1.9 million internally displaced persons (IDPs) inside Myanmar by August 2023.

The SAC-M report also mentions the junta’s arbitrary administrative tools, such as a complex bureaucratic system for travel authorisations, registration processes and visa issuance, to restrict the

movements of humanitarian actors, with delaying customs clearance or confiscation of humanitarian supplies, and tight controls on the banking system.

The report also suggested that the UN entities should ensure an effective approach to providing humanitarian assistance by working directly with the resistance forces which are close to the vast majority of the people and to support established civil society by utilising cross-border channel networks which were requested by the National Unity Government (NUG) and Ethnic Revolutionary Organizations (EROs).

The role of Secretary General

The SAC-M also severely criticized the UN Secretary-General who failed to use his powers set for the office by the UN Charter enabling considerable scope for action although he made an immediate response to the coup, saying that the UN would do everything it could to mobilise all key actors in the international community to put enough pressure on Myanmar to make sure the coup fails.

However, the Secretary-General has not treated Myanmar as a priority, and he did not visit the region until September 2023, more than two and a half years into the crisis and has made limited public statements on Myanmar, showing his lack of priority given to the crisis in Myanmar, in contrast with his response to the crisis in Ukraine.

The SAC-M report also pointed out that the Secretary-General’s distance from the Myanmar situation became apparent in an error he made in a formal statement at a press conference on 31 August 2023.

In the statement, he referred to the junta as “the de facto authorities”, a status the junta has craved but been denied since the coup began, reflecting his lack of understanding of the situation in Myanmar.

His statement called for “the de facto authorities” to “launch an inclusive process to return to the democratic institutions”. This is contrary to ASEAN’s official position and thus subverted ASEAN’s centrality in resolving the Myanmar crisis, a centrality repeatedly affirmed by the General Assembly, the Security Council and UN officials, including the Secretary-General himself.

Recommendations of SAC-M

In conclusion, SAC-M recommended to the Security Council to adopt a resolution on Myanmar under Chapter 7 of the UN Charter, in light of the junta’s non-compliance with Resolution 2669, with imposing a comprehensive arms embargo on Myanmar with a mechanism to monitor and enforce it, imposing targeted financial sanctions against senior military officials and all military-owned companies and their subsidiaries, referring the situation in Myanmar to the International Criminal Court, and calling for delivery of humanitarian relief through the most effective means and all available channels.

The suggestions to the General Assembly are to accept the credentials of Ambassador Kyaw Moe Tun as representative of Myanmar to the UN for the 78th Session of the General Assembly, to adopt an annual resolution on the situation in Myanmar in addition to the resolution on the situation of Rohingya and other minorities or, as a lesser alternative, expand the annual resolution on the situation of Rohingya and other minorities to include the situation in Myanmar in its entirety, to require an annual report from the Secretary-General or designated senior UN official on progress in implementing, in relation to Myanmar specifically, the recommendations made in the Rosenthal Report, and to consider ways for the General Assembly to establish a Special Court to try international crimes committed in Myanmar.

The SAC-M also urged the Human Rights Council to request the Secretary-General to report on progress in implementing, for Myanmar specifically, the recommendations made in the Rosenthal Report, to clearly oppose repatriation of Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh to Myanmar until conditions are deemed conducive for voluntary, safe, dignified and sustainable returns, to support the work of the OHCHR Myanmar section and call for its placement inside Myanmar with a full mandate, to consider expanding the mandate of the Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar (IIMM) to include the capacity to commence prosecutions.

The recommendation of SAC-M to the Secretariat and the Secretary-General emphasized the use of the good Offices to engage personally on Myanmar and hold a closed-door discussion on the UN response to Myanmar to assess the UN’s performance in meeting its commitment to democracy, peace, human rights and the rule of law and identify fresh approaches and entry points including red lines on engagement with Myanmar actors to ensure respect for UN principles and international norms.