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Justice For Myanmar welcomes the opportunity to make this submission on the state of democracy and human rights in Myanmar.
Justice For Myanmar is a covert group of activists working to expose the financial architecture and global corporate complicity sustaining the Myanmar military junta’s international crimes through research, data visualization and reporting.
Since the Myanmar military’s coup attempt in 2021, we have independently and jointly with other members of civil society, communicated our calls for the Australian government to impose targeted sanctions against the Myanmar military junta and its sources of funds, arms, equipment and aviation fuel (for instance, see Annexes I and II). We have also exposed Australian executives, investors and companies that operate in the junta-dominated mining industry after the illegal coup attempt.
We believe that the Myanmar military junta’s access to funds, arms, equipment, aviation fuel and legitimacy remains a major barrier to the establishment of an inclusive federal democracy in Myanmar and must be decisively and systematically cut off.
Background: The Myanmar military junta’s sham election
On February 1, 2021, the Myanmar military launched a coup attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 general elections, which had delivered a decisive victory to the National League for Democracy. People across the country rose up in defiance of the military’s attempt to grab power. The military junta has responded by escalating its campaign of terror with extreme violence, by cracking down on protests, bombing villages, arbitrability detaining and torturing detainees, and massacring civilians with total impunity.
Five years after the military’s coup attempt, the people have continued their resistance against the junta’s tyranny with extraordinary courage, determination, and great personal sacrifice. Over 30,300 people have been arrested, and 22,700 people remain arbitrarily detained. According to the UN, over 7,000 people have been killed by the junta, with about a third being women and children.
While the junta has failed to gain territorial control as resistance forces have advanced across the country, it continues to receive vital support from its authoritarian allies, notably China and Russia, that have allowed it to cling on to its deadly tactics of oppression and avoid total collapse.
Amid the territorial losses and attempts to falsely gain legitimacy, the junta staged a sham “election” in December 2025 and January 2026. The junta’s attempts to manufacture legitimacy through this “election” have been widely considered a sham, with intensifying violence, indiscriminate airstrikes, low voter turnout despite coercion and intimidation, the banning of credible political groups, and charging hundreds of people for criticism and protest against the sham election. The sham process has no resemblance to a free, fair and inclusive election.
No legitimate government can emerge from this sham election staged by an illegal military junta responsible for ongoing international crimes committed with total impunity.
It is imperative that the Australian government publicly reject the results of the junta’s sham election and any institutions or authorities formed through the fraudulent process.
Slow pace and gaps in Australia’s sanctions
The junta’s continued survival is due in part to the reluctance of governments, including Australia, to adopt stronger and more coordinated financial tools of pressure, notably targeted sanctions that cover whole networks of the junta and its enablers. This has contributed to the military’s ability to commit international crimes and entrench its tyranny.
It took Australia two full years after the military’s coup attempt to impose sanctions on Myanmar, and to date, it has only imposed two rounds of sanctions against seven entities and 16 members of the junta.
In contrast, Australia’s allies—the USA, UK, Canada and EU—have imposed targeted sanctions on the junta and its sources of funds across multiple rounds, including entities and individuals connected to the military junta—although they too have been slow and insufficient in response to the junta’s intensification of violence.
While Australia’s 2023 sanctioning of two military conglomerates—Myanmar Economic Corporation (MEC) and Myanma Economic Holdings Limited (MEHL)—is important, the USA, UK and EU had swiftly sanctioned these military conglomerates in 2021.
Despite the UN Independent International Fact-Finding Mission’s calls to investigate and prosecute coup leader Min Aung Hlaing and his top military leaders for genocide, Min Aung Hlaing was not sanctioned until 2023 by Australia. In contrast, Canada had sanctioned him in 2020, and the USA, UK and EU followed suit in 2021.
It took Australia another year following its initial round of sanctions in 2023 to add five additional entities to its list and there has been action since.
Absent sanctions on the junta’s executive, legislative and judicial body
On February 2, 2021, the day after the coup attempt, Min Aung Hlaing established the 11-member “State Administration Council” (SAC) as the illegal junta’s executive, legislative and judicial body. Min Aung Hlaing appointed himself as chair of SAC, appointed his deputy commander-in-chief Soe Win as vice-chair, and stacked the body with other senior members of the military. The USA, EU, UK and Canada all responded to this by sanctioning SAC, while Australia stood out by leaving the junta’s central body unsanctioned.
Ahead of its planned sham election, the military junta dissolved the SAC on July 31, 2025, and rebranded its executive, legislative and judicial body as the so-called "State Security and Peace Commission" (SSPC).
As was the case with SAC, SSPC’s "chair" and "vice-chair" are the war criminals Min Aung Hlaing and Soe Win, who are sanctioned by Canada, EU, UK, USA and Australia. All 10 members of SSPC are sanctioned in at least one jurisdiction and all were senior members of the military before July 31.
Since its change of name to SSPC on July 31, the junta has further intensified its campaign of terror against the people, with indiscriminate airstrikes and shelling, arbitrary arrests, torture and the destruction of whole communities.
The Australia government should respond to this rebranding by finally taking action to sanction the junta’s executive, legislative and judicial body, either SSPC or its successor formed through the junta’s sham election. This is urgent and necessary to prevent loopholes created through the dissolution of SAC and creation of SSPC, and to prevent the SSPC’s access to the international financial system (see Annex III for further details and analysis).
Absent sanctions on junta controlled state-owned enterprises
Furthermore, Australia lags far behind the USA, UK, EU and Canada in sanctioning state-owned enterprises, and this is particularly concerning in the extractives sector. State-owned enterprise illegally under Myanmar military junta control in extractive industries provide the junta with its single biggest source of foreign revenue, funnelling billions of dollars to it and funding the purchase of arms, equipment and aviation fuel. The state-owned enterprises in the extractive industries, Myanma Oil and Gas Enterprise (MOGE), Myanma Gems Enterprise (MGE), Mining Enterprise No. 1 (ME1), Mining Enterprise No. 2 (ME2), Myanma Timber Enterprise (MTE) and Myanma Pearl Enterprise (MPE), have all been sanctioned by one or more of Australia’s allies. Yet, not one of these have been sanctioned by Australia, and Australian companies have imported over AU$1.4 million in pearls, gems and aluminium between 2021 and 2024, according to DFAT figures on Australia’s merchandise imports. Australia should urgently close loopholes created by its absence of sanctions on these enterprises by designating them for targeted sanctions.
Additionally, Myanma Petrochemical Enterprise (MPE), which is responsible for the import, storage, distribution and refinement of aviation fuel that is used in the junta’s indiscriminate airstrikes, needs to be sanctioned.
Myanmar’s mining sector
Australian executives, investors and companies are omnipresent in the Myanmar mining sector and have continued to operate after the illegal coup attempt. They are engaged in extraction, exploration and services that provide the junta with revenue, or support the maintenance of a sector that bankrolls junta atrocities.
Our report, “Mines Against Humanity” uncovered 10 such companies that remained active in Myanmar following the coup attempt at the time of publishing in January 2024 (see Annex IV for the full report). Some companies identified had links with the Australian sanctioned military conglomerates.
Myanmar generates significant revenue through the mining sector, which the junta receives without the authority or entitlement to do so through its illegal control of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environmental Conservation (MONREC) and its state-owned enterprises. These payments fund the junta’s ongoing atrocity crimes.
The state-owned enterprise MGE that sits within MONREC was sanctioned by the USA, UK, Canada and the EU. ME1 and ME2—two significant MONREC agencies—have also been sanctioned by the USA, UK, Canada and the EU but not Australia.
Australia’s timber imports from Myanmar
According to DFAT statistics on Australia’s merchandise imports, wood and wood manufactures imports from Myanmar between 2021 and 2024 amount to over AU$8 million. In Myanmar, the Myanma Timber Enterprise (MTE) has sole responsibility for the sale of timber in Myanmar, auctioning logs for export, a state-owned enterprise illegally controlled by the junta through MONREC. Through MTE, the junta takes a percentage of export revenue, and this helps finance their atrocities.
Australia has also not sanctioned the MTE which has been sanctioned by the USA, UK, Canada and the EU.
Recommendations:
The people of Myanmar have courageously resisted the military junta for five years. It is time for Australia step up and show that it is standing with the Myanmar people. Australia needs to stop lagging behind its allies and strengthen its response to the crisis in Myanmar by taking decisive steps to block the junta’s access to funds, arms, equipment and aviation fuel. The expansion of targeted sanctions that include the junta and its key sources of revenue would support Myanmar people’s aspirations for an inclusive federal democracy.
We call on the Australian government to urgently:
- Publicly reject the results of the junta’s sham election and any institutions or authorities formed through this fraudulent process.
- Impose targeted sanctions on the SSPC or any successor body that the junta forms through its sham election.
- Impose targeted sanctions on state-owned enterprises illegally under junta control, including Myanma Oil and Gas Enterprise, Myanma Timber Enterprise, Myanma Pearl Enterprise, Mining Enterprise No. 1, Mining Enterprise No. 2, Myanma Gems Enterprise and Myanma Petrochemical Enterprise.
- Coordinate and harmonise targeted sanctions with allies and close loopholes that have been created through Australia’s slow pace and lack of sanctions designations on Myanmar and weak coordination with its allies.
- Encourage the UN Security Council to impose a global arms embargo and targeted sanctions on the Myanmar military junta and its enablers, and refer the Myanmar situation to the International Criminal Court.
Annexes
Annex I: Justice For Myanmar and the Sentry (2025). Sanctions 2.0: Thwarting the Myanmar Junta’s Rebranding and Cutting Off Their International Enablers.
Annex II: Justice For Myanmar (2024). Mines Against Humanity.
Annex III: Justice For Myanmar (2026). Canada urged to enforce Myanmar sanctions against four Canadians in pearl business with junta following police submission.
Annex IV: Justice For Myanmar (2026). Justice For Myanmar calls for new and coordinated sanctions on junta’s aviation fuel supply chain.
Update (March 2026)
Read the Australian Senate, Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade References Committee inquiry on Democracy and human rights in Myanmar final report here
