Special Advisory Council for MYANMAR Rohingya and Other Myanmar Minorities Reclaim the Human Rights Council’s Attention 7 July 2025 The Special Advisory Council for Myanmar (SAC-M) welcomes the Human Rights Council’s adoption of its latest resolution on the situation of human rights of Rohingya Muslims and other minorities in Myanmar. Adopted without a vote, the resolution ratchets up pressure on the military junta. SAC-M now calls on the UN General Assembly to seize on this momentum by adopting a new plenary resolution on the situation in Myanmar as well as a strengthened annual resolution on the Rohingya and other Myanmar minorities. The Council’s new resolution, an Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) initiative, caps off a June session where the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk and UN Special Rapporteur on Myanmar Tom Andrews jointly briefed the Council on the dire human rights situation in Myanmar. The High Commissioner presented his new future focused report on Myanmar, which sets out the people’s “vision of the future, and pathways to get there.” Communities consulted during the report’s development “were united in one message: that the military must play no role in public life. People yearn for a peaceful, inclusive and democratic society, grounded in accountability and human rights.” Special Rapporteur Tom Andrews in his oral update condemned the military junta’s exploitation of the catastrophic March earthquake by using “aid as a weapon” and cynically declaring a ceasefire while accelerating airstrikes on villages. He also slammed the junta’s planned sham election for later this year: “you cannot hold a democratic election when you arrest, detain, torture and execute opposition leaders– when it is illegal for journalists to report the truth or for people to freely express their opinions.” The Special Rapporteur added that the Rohingya Humanitarian Crisis Joint Response Plan remains only 22 percent funded, reflecting system-wide funding cuts that set “a terrible trajectory that is both tragic and dangerous”. Civil society representatives also addressed the Council. Bo Kyi, a former political prisoner and joint secretary of the Assistance Association For Political Prisoners, demanded the unconditional release of all political prisoners and shared a stark @SpecialCouncil info@specialadvisorycouncil.org www.specialadvisorycouncil.org special-council.bsky.social