Myanmar
Report
Against the odds: action for empowerment and accountability in challenging contexts
This research largely took a ‘citizen-eye’ view to the question of how authority is understood, and how citizens, especially marginalised groups, make claims, express grievances, seek to have their voices heard and hold authorities to account.
Report
Myanmar’s coup, ASEAN’s crisis and the implications for Australia
In this report, the authors assess the security situation in Myanmar, ASEAN’s collective response and the individual roles of key ASEAN member states in the mediating process. The report concludes with some policy implications for the wider region, particularly Australia.
Report
Myanmar’s latest coup: what is to be done?
The international community has never been able to agree on the best approach towards Myanmar, with policies ranging over the years from tough sanctions to uncritical engagement. This paper concedes that there are no quick or easy answers to the complex questions surrounding modern Myanmar.
Report
Military Ltd: the company financing human rights abuses in Myanmar
In this report, Amnesty International provides new information exposing the link between Myanma Economic Holdings Public Company Ltd (MEHL) and military units that are implicated in crimes under international law and other serious human rights violations.
Working paper
The Rohingya response in Bangladesh and the Global Compact on Refugees
This report explores how far the Global Compact on Refugees (GCR) – adopted by 181 UN Member States, including Bangladesh, in December 2018 – has informed the response to the Rohingya crisis.
Report
"I don't know what my future will be"
This advocacy update exposes the ongoing human rights violations that Rohingya refugees are facing in camps located in Bangladesh, near the border with Myanmar. Refugee testimonies are used to illustrate the impact that these violations are having on their daily lives, as well as their...
Report
Mapping conditions in Rakhine State
The Australian Strategic Policy Institute's International Cyber Policy Centre has combined open-source data with the collection and analysis of new satellite imagery to assess the current status of settlements in northern Rakhine State, Myanmar, which were burned, damaged or destroyed in 2017.
Report
"Fleeing my whole life": older people's experience of conflict and displacement in Myanmar
This report examines the impact of conflict and displacement on older people in areas of Myanmar where the military has undertaken recent operations—operations marred by crimes under international law, as Amnesty International has reported previously. It looks at the specific ways older people are affected...
Report
Avoiding a crisis within a crisis
This assessment report finds that the conditions for high levels of trafficking, smuggling and related exploitation are present and will only intensify with time, affecting both the Rohingya and Bangladeshi populations.
Report
Dashed hopes: the criminalization of peaceful expression in Myanmar
This report argues that concerned countries should press Myanmar to protect the rights to expression and assembly, and reform laws penalizing peaceful speech, to bring them back into line with international standards.
Report
Report of the independent international fact-finding mission on Myanmar
Human Rights Council resolution 34/22 established the independent international fact-finding mission on Myanmar (the Mission). The President of the Council appointed Marzuki Darusman (Indonesia) as chairperson and Radhika Coomaraswamy (Sri Lanka) and Christopher Sidoti (Australia) as members. A secretariat was recruited by the Office of...
Report
Indonesia and the Rohingya crisis
This report looks at Indonesia’s efforts to respond to the late 2017 violence against the Rohingya that led to one of the largest, fastest refugee flows on record, with more than 700,000 people flooding into Bangladesh in a matter of weeks.
Report
"We will destroy everything": Military responsibility for crimes against humanity in Rakhine State, Myanmar
This report provides new details about the Myanmar military’s command structure and troop deployments, as well as the security forces’ arrests, enforced disappearances and torture of Rohingya men and boys in the weeks directly before the current crisis unfolded.
Guide
Australia’s response to the Rohingya human rights and migrant crisis—a quick guide
As well as representing a human rights and humanitarian crisis in its own right, the ongoing Rohingya migrant crisis in Myanmar and Bangladesh demonstrates the linkages between unresolved internal conflicts, mass displacement and wider instability in Australia’s region.
Evaluation
Making it count: lessons from Australian electoral assistance 2006-16
This Office of Development Effectiveness evaluation examined the effectiveness, inclusiveness and efficiency of Australian electoral assistance to major national elections in eight countries between 2006 and 2016: Afghanistan, Myanmar, Indonesia, Timor-Leste, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Fiji and Tonga.
Report
‘I still don’t feel safe to go home’: voices of Rohingya refugees
The report is the result of interviews with more than 200 Rohingya refugees living in makeshift camps in Bangladesh, providing an opportunity for some of them to share their stories, hopes and experiences.
Report
"Caged without a roof" - Apartheid in Myanmar's Rakhine State
The Rohingya people in Myanmar are trapped in a vicious system of state-sponsored, institutionalised discrimination that amounts to apartheid, says Amnesty International in this major analysis into the root causes of the current crisis in Rakhine State.
Fact sheet
Fact Check: Does Myanmar's military have absolute freedom to do what it wishes?
Former prime minister Kevin Rudd claims Myanmar's military has "absolute freedom to do what they wish".
Report
"My world is finished" Rohingya targeted in crimes against humanity in Myanmar
This report describes how Myanmar’s security forces are carrying out a systematic, organised and ruthless campaign of violence against the Rohingya population as a whole in northern Rakhine State.
Guide
Defence cooperation with Myanmar—Australia and other countries: a quick guide
This quick guide provides a snapshot of current international defence engagement with Myanmar by the following countries—Australia, the United States, the United Kingdom, China, Russia, and India.
Report
Myanmar: a nonproliferation success story
Overview Myanmar has made a nonproliferation U-turn in recent years. Once regarded as a pariah state with connections to North Korea and possible nuclear-weapon ambitions, it has completely changed course. In the context of sweeping political and economic reforms that began in 2011, Myanmar has...
Report
“They can arrest you at any time”: the criminalization of peaceful expression in Burma
The past five years have been a time of liberalization and change in Burma. The abolition of prior censorship and a loosening of licensing requirements has led to a vibrant press, and the shift from formal military rule has emboldened civil society.
Discussion paper
Myanmar and the United States: prospects for a limited security partnership
A substantial security partnership between Washington and Naypyidaw, along the lines of other security relationships the United States maintains with declared non-aligned states in South-East Asia, would first of all require a different political consensus in America. Until now this consensus has been that the...
Article
The next steps on Myanmar's road to democracy
Myanmar’s election came down to a vote against authoritarianism. This week the National League for Democracy, president Thein Sein and the military will begin mapping the transition.
Report
The armed forces and the democratic transition in Myanmar
For decades, the armed forces have been the most powerful political institution in Myanmar. In 2008, this position was enshrined in a new constitution. Since 2011, the generals have been aiming for a controlled withdrawal from government, while retaining the Tatmadaw’s institutional independence and a...