The South East Asia National Human Rights Institutions Forum (SEANF), a regional umbrella group, has expelled a fig-leaf human rights body controlled by Myanmar’s military regime after it refused to cooperate with a compliance review.
SEANF on Monday said it has terminated the membership of the Myanmar National Human Rights Commission (MNHRC) because it is not an independent institution promoting and protecting human rights.
Established in 2007, SEANF now consist of just five national human rights commissions aiming to strengthen regional cooperation, from Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, the Philippines and Timor-Leste.
The decision, made on Oct. 1 and put into effect immediately, came at the 11th hour before Myanmar was to assume the umbrella group’s rotating chairmanship in 2027.
It follows a review of whether the MNHRC still met the Paris Principles standards for independence, effectiveness, and integrity, which SEANF uses to define a national human rights institution.
SEANF told the MNHRC in early September to respond, but the MNHRC refused, saying the review “did not comply with” the network’s procedural rules—a frequent fallback by the putschist regime in dealing with regional organizations of which it has fallen foul.
SEANF then decided unilaterally that the MNHRC “no longer satisfies the definition of a national human rights institution under amended Article 1 of the SEANF Rules of Procedure,” namely being independent to promote and protect human rights, it said in Monday’s statement. The decision was made in “a fair, transparent and evidence-based manner,” it added.”
The MNHRC was also kicked out of the Global Alliance of National Human Rights Institutions (GANHRI) and the Asia-Pacific Forum (AFP) in 2025.
SEANF added the MNHRC can reapply for membership if it can demonstrate efforts to comply with the Paris Principles.
Established under the quasi-civilian Thein Sein administration in 2011 and once recognized as a “partially independent” body, the MNHRC went rapidly downhill when its leadership was replaced with regime loyalists after the 2021 coup.
It has since remained conspicuously silent about the regime’s glaring human rights violations while offering it a veneer of respectability and protection from scrutiny. Anecdotal evidence suggests that anyone coming to the MNHRC with a complaint could expect a knock on the door from the regime’s enforcers soon after.
Rights groups in Myanmar and beyond have long called its removal from global networks.
Prominent activist Khin Ohmar of Progressive Voice told the Irrawaddy that SEANF’s decision was “a long-awaited principled action” and “strips the criminal military junta-controlled MNHRC of regional legitimacy.”
“This decision sends a clear message that this body can no longer hide behind a SEANF membership card,” she added.
