Statement by Salai Za Uk Ling, Executive Director of Chin Human Rights Organization
At the 1st Meeting – 60th Session of the UN Human Rights Council
Enhanced Interactive Dialogue on Myanmar
10:00 AM, 8 September 2025
Assembly Hall, Palais des Nations, Geneva
Mr. President, Excellencies, Distinguished Delegates,
Special Rapporteur Tom Andrews has often described this body as the Conscience of the World. That description is increasingly true — and increasingly urgent. In a world scarred by insanity, barbarism, and the erosion of compassion and empathy, those of us living through some of the darkest situations look to this Council as the last source of hope and moral compass. Now, more than ever, this Council must not merely be a forum of speeches, but must act decisively to inspire that last hope.
I stand before you not as a politician or a general, but as a human rights defender — a believer in truth, justice, and freedom. Like thousands of others, I have spent my entire adult life defending the dignity of Myanmar’s most marginalized peoples. I will not repeat the counting of our dead or the tally of our destroyed lives. Enough has been said. Instead, I ask this Council, and each Member State represented here, to confront a single question:
In the immediate aftermath of the 2021 coup, the Secretary-General declared: “We will do everything we can to mobilize all the key actors and international community to put enough pressure on Myanmar to make sure that this coup fails.”
Four years later, this Council — the so-called conscience of the world — must look itself in the mirror and ask: Have we truly done everything? Have Member States done enough to make the coup fail?
Because the junta is doing everything to make it succeed — through relentless airstrikes, massacres, and terror aimed at silencing the population so it can stage a sham election built on fear.
I cannot forget the faces behind these crimes. My colleague, Tui Dim, a journalist and human rights defender, was among them. On January 6, 2022, he and nine others — including a 13-year-old boy — were taken by soldiers in Matupi Township. Two days later, they were found murdered, their bodies bound, gagged, and brutally stabbed.
That single act of cruelty captures the daily reality for thousands across Myanmar — ordinary people silenced with unimaginable violence, their lives erased without justice.
In this climate of terror, the weakest — ethnic and religious minorities — have become easy prey. Villages are burned, churches and mosques destroyed, entire communities erased simply for who they are. If this Council is truly the conscience of humanity, then its Member States cannot turn away while the most vulnerable are sacrificed first.
Mr. President, it is no longer enough for Member States to issue statements while doing little to stop the impunity with which the military murders, burns, and terrorizes. It is no longer enough to stand by in silence while bombs fall on children, or to whisper concern while minorities are hunted down. Impunity — whether by the junta or non-state actors — must end.
Therefore, today we call on this Council and all Member States of the United Nations to:
- Urge the Security Council to refer the situation in Myanmar to the International Criminal Court, to ensure those responsible for war crimes and crimes against humanity are held to account.
- Adopt and enforce a comprehensive global arms embargo, including an immediate ban on aviation fuel, so that no more bombs fall on villages, hospitals, schools, and places of worship.
- Impose stronger, coordinated sanctions targeting the military’s sources of revenue and power, so it can no longer finance its campaign of terror.
Excellencies, this is the test of whether the “Conscience of the World” has meaning — or whether it is just words. History will judge us all, but the people of Myanmar cannot wait for history. They need action, and they need it now.
The world promised this coup would fail. It is time for Member States to make good on that promise.
I thank you Mr. President