A coalition of 21 Myanmar civil society organizations, operating as the CSO Working Group on Independent National Human Rights Institutions (Burma/Myanmar), issued a statement on Wednesday hailing the South East Asia National Human Rights Institutions Forum’s (SEANF) decision to formally disqualify the Myanmar National Human Rights Commission (MNHRC).
Effective Oct. 1, the expulsion was adopted by consensus across SEANF member chairpersons from Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, and Timor-Leste following a formal eligibility review launched in August.
The MNHRC refused to participate in the process, rejecting the review in a Sept. 24 letter and a press release two days later.
As a direct result of the ruling, the regime-controlled commission has been stripped of its scheduled rotating chairpersonship for 2027 and barred from attending the 23rd SEANF Annual Conference.
Denouncing the MNHRC as an entity that has actively whitewashed atrocities, denied documented abuses, and shielded perpetrators since its inception in 2011, civil society leaders praised SEANF for taking action alongside international bodies like the Global Alliance of National Human Rights Institutions (GANHRI) and the Asia Pacific Forum (APF).
“We thank SEANF for its leadership in protection of the human rights of the people of Myanmar, who face daily violence and violations at the hands of the military. MNHRC is a military body in human rights clothing… Expelling this criminal junta-controlled commission from its ranks is truly a principled action,” said Khin Ohmar, the founder and acting executive director of Progressive Voice.
“This is a long-awaited decision. Our civil society has called for the removal of MNHRC from global and regional NHRI bodies such as GANHRI, APF, and SEANF since 2021… We thank SEANF for heeding the voices of civil society,” said Bo Bo, the executive director of Generation Wave.
The CSO Working Group emphasized that SEANF’s condition for any future reapplication—demonstrating sustained, independent compliance with the U.N. Paris Principles—is structurally impossible while the commission remains under the control of the regime, which seized power in Myanmar during the February 2021 military coup.
Originally established in 2019 as the CSO Working Group on MNHRC Reform, the 21-member coalition acknowledged the support of the Asian NGO Network on National Human Rights Institutions (ANNI) and reaffirmed its ultimate objective: establishing a genuinely independent body, tentatively named the Union Human Rights Commission, to safeguard human rights and account for past atrocities in a restored democratic Myanmar.
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