‘New levels of depravity’: Myanmar’s crisis worsens five years after coup, Human Rights Watch warns

At today’s Asia launch of its World Report 2026, the international monitoring organisation Human Rights Watch (HRW) warned today that Myanmar’s human rights crisis is deepening, with the country standing among the region’s clearest examples of rising authoritarianism. Five years after the military seized power, the regime it installed continues to commit crimes against humanity and war crimes relentlessly, the group said, inflicting constant violence and a worsening humanitarian catastrophe on Myanmar’s people. “Unfortunately, what we’ve seen in Myanmar over the last five years is a trajectory that’s only getting worse,” said Bryony Lau, HRW’s Deputy Asia Director. Junta forces carry out unrelenting attacks, both targeted and indiscriminate, according to Lau, often striking schools, monasteries, markets, and healthcare facilities. The military’s conduct reached “new levels of depravity” after a devastating 7.7 magnitude earthquake in March 2025, she said, noting that “more than 500 attacks occurred in the two months after the quake.” Myanmar now has 3.6 million people internally displaced, with thousands more having fled abroad. Food insecurity, preventable deaths, and the collapse of healthcare systems are accelerating, compounded by deliberate junta attacks on medical workers.The regime’s growing use of drones and paramotors has introduced new, unpredictable threats to civilians, even as it continues to deploy internationally banned cluster munitions and landmines. Following the March earthquake, which killed thousands and affected an estimated 17 million people, the military blocked emergency aid to resistance-held areas. Despite announcing a ceasefire, the military also carried out hundreds of attacks in the months following the disaster, the impacts of which were aggravated by years of assaults on healthcare facilities and workers that left communities unable to respond and leading to more preventable deaths and suffering. Human Rights Watch also said recent fighting in Rakhine State has left Rohingya civilians trapped between the Myanmar military and the Arakan Army, driving mass displacement and dangerous flight. The group says severe movement restrictions, forced labor, arbitrary detention and aid blockages have worsened hunger, pushing thousands to flee by sea despite deadly risks The report also highlights mass arbitrary detention and forced conscription.“When we talk about the 22,000 political prisoners, every one of those people has a family,” Lau said, also noting that children and young people are “disappearing due to efforts by military recruiters to conscript.” HRW also dismissed recent elections organised by the junta—held in three phases between December and January—as a sham.“They are in no way a solution or a path out of the current crisis,” Lau said, pointing to support from authoritarian regimes in China, Russia, and Belarus as a sign of the polls’ illegitimacy. She stressed that meaningful action must come from outside Myanmar.“It’s only at the [United Nations] Security Council that we could see a binding arms embargo and a referral to the International Criminal Court,” she said, urging governments to expand sanctions against the Myanmar military and its network of enablers, support mechanisms for accountability, and provide humanitarian aid through local civil society groups.“For the people of Myanmar,” she said, “international pressure and protection are no longer optional, they are essential.”

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