Documentation in Darkness: An Overview of the Human Rights Situation in Burma Releases

For Immediate Release

The latest report by the Network for Human Rights Documentation-Burma (ND-Burma), ‘Documentation in Darkness,’ presents an overview of the targeted assaults and attacks committed against innocent civilians between January and December 2024. ND-Burma member organizations recorded 1,032 violations across seven dates and six regions, including Yangon.

ND-Burma and its partners compiled case studies, interviews, partner reports, and eyewitness accounts to record the total number of human rights violations perpetrated by the Burmese Army, its junta-supported militias, and various Ethnic Revolutionary Organizations (EROs), alongside the People’s Defence Forces (PDFs) in Burma. It is essential to emphasize, however, that the military junta is responsible for the vast majority of the crimes and violence documented and presented in this report.

ND-Burma members have observed a notable increase in the intensity and brutality of targeted assaults by the Burmese military against civilians. Our members collaborate closely with local communities in urban and rural settings to directly monitor the human rights situation on the ground. The victims of the systematic and widespread attacks by the junta serve as a poignant reminder that every number signifies a human life interrupted, permanently altered, or lost due to the Burma Army’s four-cuts campaign and the civil war. We pay tribute to each of these victims of human rights violations in acknowledgement of their pain and remain committed to ongoing advocacy for justice in Burma.

Furthermore, it is clear based on the evidence and cases presented in this report that the military and several armed resistance groups continue to disregard and undermine civilian security. The military junta continues to benefit from decades of impunity, resulting from over 75 years of civil war, and is emboldened by a lack of accountability for its crimes in any meaningful way. ND-Burma urges immediate and urgent international action on the crisis that continues to worsen as the lives of more civilians, including women and children, are increasingly at risk.

ND-Burma supports a United Nations Security Council resolution for a global arms embargo, calls for immediate UN-led humanitarian assistance to tackle the ongoing famine and crisis areas resulting from the junta’s actions, and an urgent referral of the human rights situation in Burma to the International Criminal Court. We urge diplomatic, political, and economic pressure on the military junta to be intensified, and all ties with the junta to end. The preservation of human life and the protection of fundamental rights and freedoms must be meaningfully enforced by holding the military regime accountable.

For more information:

Name: Nai Aue Mon

Signal: +66 86 1679 741

Name: San Htoi

Signal: +66 64 195 6721

Download Full report in English