Human Rights Watch is urging world leaders to step up pressure on Myanmar's military government, which it says continues to commit serious abuses against its own people more than four years after the 2021 coup. The rights group wants the issue placed firmly on the agenda when leaders gather in the Philippines from November 15 to 17, 2026, for the East Asia Summit and related ASEAN meetings.
In a letter sent on November 5 to Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos, the organization asked the Association of Southeast Asian Nations not to recognize the elections held earlier in 2026. Min Aung Hlaing, the army chief who led the coup, took the presidency after those polls. Human Rights Watch argues that a vote held under military control cannot confer legitimacy. The Philippine government has said Min Aung Hlaing will not attend the summit.
The group says the junta has rejected ASEAN's calls to respect human rights and to allow aid to reach those in need. Some governments in the region have nonetheless continued to host Min Aung Hlaing, a practice the group wants to see end. Its recommendations to the summit are concrete: keep blocking junta officials from representing Myanmar at ASEAN meetings, lift restrictions on humanitarian aid, end attacks on civilians, and begin credible dialogue on a transition to civilian rule.
Human Rights Watch says Min Aung Hlaing has overseen abusive operations since he seized power in February 2021. More than 32,000 people have been arrested for opposing military rule, and at least 2,300 are reported to have died in custody. Of those detained, more than 6,600 are women, and many have faced sexual violence. The group also reports that women have been denied prenatal and obstetric care while in detention, a situation that compounds the risks faced by pregnant detainees and their children.
The appeal to the summit comes as two international legal processes bear directly on the country's conduct. The International Court of Justice is scheduled to rule on November 19 in The Gambia's case against Myanmar, which accuses the country of genocide over a 2017 military campaign against the Rohingya in Rakhine State. The ruling will be among the most consequential decisions yet on the events that drove hundreds of thousands of Rohingya across the border into Bangladesh.
Separately, prosecutors at the International Criminal Court sought an arrest warrant in November 2024 for Min Aung Hlaing. The proposed charges include deportation and persecution of the Rohingya. The ICC judges have not publicly decided on that request, leaving the warrant pending while the regional and diplomatic debate over the junta's legitimacy continues.
For ASEAN, the question is whether a bloc that has long relied on consensus and non-interference can translate its statements on Myanmar into measures that change conditions on the ground. Human Rights Watch's letter makes clear that the group sees the November summit as a test of that resolve, and that the choices made in Manila will be watched closely by those still held in detention and by the communities displaced by the conflict.