The United Nations’ Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar (IIMM) has uncovered evidence of systematic torture and sexual violence in the country’s detention facilities, according to its annual report released on Tuesday.
The findings, covering the period from July 2024 to June 2025, detail horrific abuses, including beatings, electric shocks, strangulation, and sexual violence such as burning of body parts.
The report draws on over 1,300 sources, including nearly 600 eyewitness testimonies, photographs, videos, and forensic evidence.
The IIMM also documented the deaths of some detainees due to torture and the unlawful detention of children as proxies for their parents.
The IIMM’s investigations point to senior military commanders as key figures responsible for overseeing detention facilities where these abuses occur.
The report also highlights summary executions by both government forces and armed opposition groups, as well as aerial attacks on civilian infrastructure, including schools and hospitals, even during rescue operations following the March 2025 earthquake.
New probes have been launched into ongoing atrocities in Rakhine state, where the military and the Arakan Army are engaged in conflict, alongside continued investigations into the 2017 ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya minority, which displaced hundreds of thousands to Bangladesh.
The IIMM’s evidence has supported legal actions at the International Criminal Court, the International Court of Justice, and courts in Argentina, including a November 2024 request for an arrest warrant against Myanmar’s military leader, Min Aung Hlaing.
Despite progress, the mechanism faces significant hurdles, including a lack of direct access to Myanmar and a UN budget cut reducing its 2025 funding to 73% of the approved amount, necessitating a 20% staff reduction in 2026.
The report underscores the escalating brutality in Myanmar’s ongoing conflict, sparked by the 2021 military coup, which has displaced millions and deepened the country’s humanitarian crisis.