Myanmar: Human Rights

Wednesday 10th June 2026 Westminster Hall

14:49

[Derek Twigg (in the Chair)]

I will call Sir Jeremy Hunt to move the motion and then call the Minister to respond. I remind Members that they may make a speech only with prior permission from the Member in charge of the debate and the Minister. There will not be an opportunity for the Member in charge to wind up, as is the convention for 30-minute debates. I call Sir Jeremy Hunt to move the motion.

[Sir Jeremy Hunt (Godalming and Ash) (Con)]

I beg to move,

That this House has considered Government support for human rights in Myanmar.

I have not spoken under your chairmanship before, Mr Twigg—it is an honour to do so. I thank the Minister for attending. We have had meetings with his colleague at the Foreign Office, and I know it is an issue of great interest to the Government.

Ukraine, Iran and Sudan have captured the headlines, but Myanmar is the civil war the world has forgotten. I went as Foreign Secretary in 2018, deeply concerned about the genocide of the Rohingya that had happened a year earlier. I was fobbed off by the Tatmadaw, the Burmese army and the Myanmar authorities. But at least we thought the country was taking tentative steps towards democracy, and following extensive engagement, we did manage to get two Reuters journalists, Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo, released after they had reported on the genocide. Then things started going backwards.

In 2021 we had a military coup. Aung San Suu Kyi was imprisoned, and since then we have had a vicious civil war with appalling human rights abuses by the military dictatorship. Some 7,000 to 8,000 people have been killed, 30,000 have been arbitrarily detained, 40 political parties have been banned, and there are now 14,000 political prisoners, including nearly all the pro-democracy candidates in past elections. There are daily airstrikes on homes, schools, hospitals, clinics, churches and other places of worship. There is arson, torture and sexual violence, and 4 million people displaced from homes.

[Luke Akehurst (North Durham) (Lab)]

I thank the right hon. Gentleman for giving way as he is beginning to make a very cogent case about the human rights abuses happening in Myanmar. I intervene because he raised the issue of airstrikes. Since the last sanctions were imposed on Myanmar by the UK 591 days ago, there has been a significant increase in airstrikes by the Burmese military. Does he agree that we need a new round of sanctions, including potentially targeting the military-owned Mytel mobile phone network, as well as vessels and companies identified by Amnesty and Reuters as delivering jet fuel and materials for making explosives, some of it originating in Iran?

[Sir Jeremy Hunt]

The hon. Gentleman has pre-empted what I was going to say, but I absolutely agree that we have to go further. In terms of the current situation, in nine days’ time, Aung San Suu Kyi will mark her 81st birthday. She has recently moved to house arrest but is still unable to contact her family. We must not forget that life under military rule means no freedom of expression, no free press, no free courts, internet restrictions, sham elections and total bloodshed as the Government conduct a vicious civil war with total impunity when it comes to civilian casualties.

[Afzal Khan (Manchester Rusholme) (Lab)]

The genocide against the Rohingya Muslims, which has been ongoing for almost a decade, is one of the most horrifying examples of Islamophobia. Does the right hon. Member agree that the UK should join the EU and the USA in imposing sanctions on the military-controlled Myanmar oil and gas enterprises, which is a major source of revenue for the military?

[Sir Jeremy Hunt]

I will respond to that as soon as I have taken the final intervention that I am going to take.

[Jim Shannon (Strangford) (DUP)]

I commend the right hon. Gentleman for securing this debate. Since the illegal military coup, the junta has executed a brutal, calculated campaign targeting predominantly Christian ethnic regions in Chin, Kayah and Kachin states as well as Sagaing and Yangon. Reports from Open Doors confirmed that historical Christian communities face unprecedented violence, with churches being bombed via indiscriminate military airstrikes. Villages have been razed to the ground and Christian pastors are being unlawfully detained, disappeared or killed. Will the right hon. Gentleman join me in urging the Government to do all in their power to support those Christians, as well as Muslims and all those persecuted for their faith in that nation?

[Sir Jeremy Hunt]

The hon. Member for Strangford (Jim Shannon) and I have campaigned for many years on freedom of religion and belief, and I agree that what is happening to Christians in Myanmar is an absolute tragedy. I totally agree with the hon. Member for Manchester Rusholme (Afzal Khan) that we have to do more when it comes to sanctions.

I say to the Minister that I am very aware of the trade-offs and challenges in foreign policy, and that the environment we are in at the moment is far from benign when it comes to human rights. Tempting though it may be to say—although I know the Minister would not—that because the UK has its own problems, we should not get too involved in this, we matter when it comes to Myanmar. That is for a very simple, straightforward reason, which is that, on the Security Council, we hold the pen when it comes to Myanmar, so it is our responsibility to make sure that the UN is aware of what is happening there. Given what is happening, it is a special responsibility for us to galvanise the United Nations to do everything in its power to end the bloodshed and brutal oppression of the Burmese people.

I recognise that sanctions are in place, and I know that the Minister cares deeply about human rights, but we can do more. One of the biggest things we can do is repeat what I did in 2018 and organise a high-level meeting on Myanmar, chaired by the Foreign Secretary, at the United Nations General Assembly in September to make sure that we draw the attention of everyone who attends that vital meeting in New York to what is happening and to the terrible suffering of the Burmese people. If it is the only thing we do—I do not believe it is the only thing we can do—at least the UK will have made sure that the world knows what is happening in Myanmar.

Myanmar might not care too much about the UK as a country, but it cares about China, the country that is protecting it; it cares about the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, which is sitting on the fence apart from the brave exception of the Philippines; and it cares about the UN, so this is a major moment where we must make sure that we do our duty. There are other things. We all know that the aid budget is being cut, but if the UK finds something to support humanitarian efforts—obviously, without channelling it through a corrupt and merciless Government—other countries will follow. And for the sake of posterity and of future victims, it is essential that we give full support to any efforts to assemble evidence of war crimes, genocide or crimes against humanity, including referring the Arakan army to the International Court of Justice.

Will the Minister commit to the Foreign Secretary chairing a high-level meeting at UNGA in September? Will the Government respond to the final report of the former UN special rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar, Tom Andrews? Will the Government consider invoking article 14 of the Rome statute of the International Criminal Court to request an investigation into mass atrocity crimes in Myanmar? Will the UK sanction military-controlled banks in the way that other countries have?

Sadly, the world’s most powerful democracy, the United States, is currently showing little interest in human rights across the world. Partly as a result, some autocrats are beginning to think that they can literally get away with murder, but the US is not the only democracy on the planet. There are us, European democracies, Australia, Canada, Japan, Korea and many other countries that share our democratic values. Britain does not have to stand on the sidelines, Britain must not stand on the sidelines, and I hope that when we hear from the Minister, he will tell us that Britain will not stand on the sidelines.

16:09

[Rushanara Ali (Bethnal Green and Stepney) (Lab)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Twigg. I am grateful to Burma Campaign UK for its support, as well as to other non-governmental organisations that have supported the all-party parliamentary group on Burma. Burma Campaign UK provides secretariat support to the APPG, which I co-chair with the right hon. Member for Godalming and Ash (Sir Jeremy Hunt). I congratulate him on securing this very important debate. I also thank him for his leadership on this issue both when he was Foreign Secretary and my party and I were in opposition, and from the Back Benches, and for his support to those of us who are campaigning on the plight of the Rohingya Muslims. Almost 1 million were expelled to Cox’s Bazar in neighbouring Bangladesh, and for seven years they have remained in the camps there. It is a population similar to that of Wales, and they are in horrific circumstances, so I am grateful for the support that the right hon. Member has provided.

Today we are debating the ongoing deterioration of human rights in Myanmar/Burma. Initially it was ethnic groups—the largest being the Rohingya population, although there were other ethnic groups—but now it is the whole population who face persecution by the Burmese military.

[Catherine West (Hornsey and Friern Barnet) (Lab)]

Does my hon. Friend agree that, relative to the other crises in the world, in Sudan, Gaza and other places, the long-running and tragic dispute between the regime and the many people who live in Myanmar/Burma deserves much more attention—not just in this House, which is what we are providing as Back Benchers, but from the Government?

[Rushanara Ali]

I absolutely agree and I thank my hon. Friend for her work, in both opposition and government, on this very important issue.

It is five years since the military coup, and what we have seen is further deterioration of the situation. Despite the heroic resistance and international condemnation, the military have instituted a regime of repression and violence on a massive scale. Military abuses are widespread, and 3.6 million people have been internally displaced. That is on top of the 1 million who were forced out to neighbouring countries. According to Amnesty International, military atrocities, which include war crimes and crimes against humanity, have escalated as the junta has sought to entrench its rule through abusive military operations and stage-managed elections.

Armed conflict has also escalated further. The Burmese military are also stepping up airstrikes targeting health facilities and civilians, using deadly double-tap airstrikes for the first time. The regime has restricted freedom of speech, the media and the internet. As well as experiencing restrictions on human rights, the people are paying a huge economic price.

I visited Myanmar twice before the military coup, and the situation was already bad, but this is significantly worse. In Rakhine state, we saw massive human rights violations against the Rohingya Muslims, but also other minorities. At that time, 100,000 people were internally displaced. Their circumstances are even worse because of the conflict there. Many international investors have of course pulled out, and the economic circumstances have got worse.

In the UK, over the years before the military coup, a huge amount of work was done from the Back Benches to get our Government to play a strong leadership role. I am proud of the work that we did on a cross-party basis, which led to Britain playing a leading role in ensuring that people spoke up and sought a referral to the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court. Our strong historical ties leave us with not just a special responsibility, as the right hon. Member for Godalming and Ash pointed out, but an expectation from the people of Myanmar that we will stand with them in their struggle for human rights and democracy.

Following the 2021 military coup, the UK co-ordinated with global allies on the imposition of targeted sanctions, which limited the access of the Myanmar military to revenue and arms. In the absence of progress on a UN-mandated global arms embargo, which we campaigned for, we successfully lobbied countries to unilaterally impose their own arms embargoes. We joined international justice initiatives such as the Rohingya genocide case at the ICJ and publicly supported the referral of the situation in Myanmar to the International Criminal Court. I am grateful to Philippe Sands and others who have been involved with that work.

That did not happen by accident. It happened because Members of Parliament worked together to ensure that the UK Government supported the ICJ referral. However, we are going backwards. We are now at risk of losing that momentum and jeopardising our position of leadership on this critical issue.

Like the right hon. Member for Godalming and Ash, I recognise that there are huge pressures on our country, with conflicts raging in the middle east, Ukraine and elsewhere, but we have a responsibility to take action. We have seen that, when we work with our allies, we can make a difference.

Sadly, no new sanctions targeting the Myanmar military have been imposed since 2024 and since my party came into government. That is deeply disappointing and I hope that the Minister will work with us to look at what more we can do on sanctions.

In the following year, the number of airstrikes by the Myanmar military almost doubled. The tactics of the military have also changed. It is moving away from airstrikes mainly targeting frontlines to a greater focus on civilian targets, including health facilities. Tactics have since changed again, with several jets engaging in airstrikes simultaneously, dropping a far greater number of bombs.

Given the escalating human rights violations, the British Government should be doing everything they can to identify and sanction sources of revenue and arms and to encourage our allies to do the same.

I call on the Minister to make sure that we work with our partners. We have not joined Canada in sanctioning the jet fuel sector, despite the humanitarian and economic impacts of airstrikes, let alone the lives lost. We have not joined the European Union and the United States of America in sanctioning Myanma Oil and Gas Enterprise—the military-controlled body responsible for oil and gas extraction and a major source of revenue to the Myanmar military. We have not joined the United States of America in sanctioning international telecommunications company, Myanmar Mytel, which is not only a military joint-venture company that provides revenue to the military, but is also used to track and arrest human rights activists.

There are a number of other sanctions that other countries have been party to that we have not. I call on the Minister to look at those areas and to work with our partners on that.

I look forward to working with Ministers in the Foreign Office, as well as the right hon. Member for Godalming and Ash and other members of the all-party parliamentary group, to make sure that we take action to stand with the Burmese people and to ensure that they get justice.

16:17

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs (Mr Hamish Falconer)]

I am delighted to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Twigg. I am grateful to the right hon. Member for Godalming and Ash (Sir Jeremy Hunt) for securing this debate. I pay tribute to him and to my hon. Friend the Member for Bethnal Green and Stepney (Rushanara Ali) for their work as co-chairs of the all-party parliamentary group. As a Foreign Minister myself now, though in a lesser position than he occupied, I know that the right hon. Gentleman’s choice to prioritise Myanmar during his time as Foreign Secretary was important and made a difference. Both colleagues have helped to ensure that the voices of those in Myanmar suffering grave abuses of their fundamental human rights are not forgotten.

I am also grateful to the other hon. Members who have spoken today to show continued strong concern for the people of Myanmar from both sides of this House. I will endeavour to respond to the points raised.

Decades of impunity and military rule have eroded civil and political rights and left minority groups pushed to the margins. Since the coup in February 2021, the human rights crisis has fed directly into the humanitarian emergency described by the right hon. Gentleman and by my hon. Friend. Sustained international engagement, including by the UK, is essential. We will not stand by.

The military continues to commit serious violations of international human rights and humanitarian law. Airstrikes on civilian areas, including schools and hospitals, have become commonplace. Punitive village burnings continue and religious freedoms, which were referenced by the hon. Member for Strangford (Jim Shannon), are under constant threat.

Sexual violence, including the use of rape as a weapon of war, continues to be used as a political tool, particularly against women and LGBTQ individuals. More than 22,000 people are arbitrarily detained, including political leaders, journalists and human rights defenders. The announcement of the conditional release of former President Win Myint and the purported transfer to house arrest of Aung San Suu Kyi fall far short of the widespread and full releases that are urgently needed. The legal system in Myanmar continues to be used to silence dissent, as the ongoing unjust detention of Aung San Suu Kyi and many others makes clear. We are deeply concerned by reports of torture and by restricted access to medical care in detention.

Civic space in the country is immensely constrained, and digital surveillance and repression have turned Myanmar into one of the most restrictive online environments in the world. Registration laws continue to limit the ability of civil society organisations to operate across the country. The recent elections held by the regime were neither free nor fair: all meaningful opposition was excluded, and the elections were accompanied by intimidation, coercion and abuse, including severe sentences under the election protection law.

As the right hon. Member for Godalming and Ash said, the impact of those violations extends far beyond Myanmar’s borders. More than 1 million Rohingya refugees remain in Bangladesh, with many more displaced across the region. At the same time, organised criminal networks, including scam centres relying on trafficked labour, continue to thrive in an environment of lawlessness. This poses risks to regional and international security.

Against that grim backdrop, this country must continue to stand in solidarity with the people of Myanmar. We are a leading donor, and are continuing to take practical action. In the past financial year, we have provided more than £80 million in lifesaving assistance, including emergency healthcare, protection, education and food, delivered through trusted partners. Human rights considerations are rightly central to our programming, with a focus on women, children, people with disabilities and other groups at heightened risk. We work to ensure that more than 65% of our funding goes to local organisations, including faith-based organisations.

[Catherine West]

Given the decline in the aid budget, will those commitments remain, or may there have to be a reduction in aid to Myanmar?

[Mr Falconer]

I pay tribute to my hon. Friend, who did such a good job in her previous guise as the Minister for the Indo-Pacific. We are standing by these commitments. It will be for the current Minister for the Indo-Pacific, my hon. Friend the Member for Feltham and Heston (Seema Malhotra), to make future determinations about her portfolio.

Over the past year, we have reached more than 1.4 million people with humanitarian assistance and provided 1.3 million with essential health services. We will continue to stand by those who have been most affected.

[Jim Shannon]

In my earlier intervention, I mentioned the work that Open Doors does in Myanmar and across the world. Has the Minister had an opportunity—I suspect that he has—to contact Open Doors, find out what it is trying to do there, and work in partnership with it, for everyone’s benefit?

[Mr Falconer]

Sorry—I could not quite hear the hon. Gentleman, but I think he was asking whether we have been engaging with faith-based groups in Myanmar. We have, and the Minister for the Indo-Pacific has been focused on those questions. We recognise that the best way of reaching those most in need in these difficult times is through some of the faith-based groups in Myanmar.

Alongside critical humanitarian assistance, longer-term action is needed to end impunity and break cycles of violence. We will continue to support international accountability mechanisms, including the United Nations independent investigative mechanism for Myanmar. That work is already contributing to proceedings at the International Court of Justice and to the important investigations of the ICC. As colleagues are aware, we established the Myanmar Witness project, which verifies evidence using open-source intelligence and trains local actors to do the same.

I hear from colleagues the desire for further sanctions, but I am sure they are familiar with why Foreign Office Ministers are circumspect on such questions. We have imposed 19 rounds of sanctions already, targeting individuals and entities responsible for serious human rights abuses, but of course we keep these questions under regular review.

It is vital to lay the foundations for an inclusive future led by the people of Myanmar. That is why we support efforts to protect civic space, strengthen local civil society and enable dialogue. That includes work to improve women’s participation in peace and security, support bottom-up approaches to governance, and reinforce economic and social rights through education, health and livelihoods initiatives. Through the John Bunyan fund, we have supported organisations working to tackle hate speech, misinformation and online harms that drive discrimination and violence.

We continue to support the Rohingya, who, as many colleagues powerfully set out, have faced decades of persecution. In Bangladesh, the UK is the second largest donor to the Rohingya crisis, and the Foreign Secretary announced an additional £27 million in September 2025. That includes targeted protection and support for women and girls, delivered through local partners. My colleague, Baroness Chapman, visited Cox’s Bazar camps in November 2025 and saw at first hand the UK’s programmes of support. That reaffirms our commitment to life-saving assistance and the safe, voluntary return of refugees when conditions allow.

The right hon. Member for Godalming and Ash spoke with authority and experience about how central multilateral action is on these questions. As he says, we are indeed the penholder, and we are working to keep the situation firmly on the Security Council’s agenda, including through resolution 2669 and regular meetings. At the Human Rights Council and the General Assembly, we continue to lead and support resolutions that maintain international scrutiny and mandate independent mechanisms. We work closely with the UN special rapporteur and the Secretary-General’s special envoy. We engage actively with partners in New York and Geneva to amplify Myanmar voices on international platforms. I heard the right hon. Gentleman’s suggestion for the Foreign Secretary in high-level week, and I will pass that on.

We also recognise the importance of regional engagement—particularly the leadership of ASEAN and the five-point consensus. Through our international engagement, we consistently push for progress on ending violence, securing humanitarian access and advancing inclusive dialogue—all are essential to improving the human rights situation.

The human rights situation in Myanmar remains grave, but withdrawal or silence is not an option, and we will certainly not sit on the sidelines. Sustained pressure, co-ordinated engagement and targeted support can reduce harm, advance accountability and help lay the foundations for a future that respects the rights of all. The resilience and courage shown by communities across Myanmar, even in the face of extraordinary hardship, demands nothing less. We are committed to upholding international human rights standards and working with partners across the House to support the aspirations of the people of Myanmar for an inclusive and peaceful future.

Question put and agreed to.