The Building and Wood Workers' International welcomes the decision of the Southeast Asia National Human Rights Institutions Forum (SEANF) to formally review whether the Myanmar National Human Rights Commission (MNHRC) is still eligible for membership. We thank SUHAKAM, Komnas HAM, the Commission on Human Rights of the Philippines, the National Human Rights Commission of Thailand, and the Provedor de Direitos Humanos e Justiça iça of Timor-Leste for taking this step. 

This review is overdue. Since the military seized power in February 2021, the MNHRC has not acted as an independent institution. It has stayed silent while the junta killed, jailed and tortured civilians, burned villages and forced millions from their homes. It has done nothing for workers and trade unionists. In March 2021 the junta declared 16 labour organisations illegal. Union leaders have been arrested, forced into hiding or driven into exile. Our own affiliate, the Building and Wood Workers Federation of Myanmar, and its members have lived through this. 

The Paris Principles are the minimum standards for any national human rights institution. They require a board mandate to protect human rights, independence from government, a pluralist membership, enough resources to work, and the willingness to speak out when rights are violated. SEANF has written these principles into its own rules. Amended Article 1 of its Rules of Procedure recognises as a national human rights institution only a body that "complies with the Paris Principles." Membership in SEANF is therefore not a formality. It tells the people of the region that an institution can be trusted to take their side against abuse, including abuse by the state. 

SEANF does not have to act alone or invent a new approach. The Global Alliance of National Human Rights Institutions (GANHRI), through its Sub-Committee on Accreditation, regularly reviews its members and has not hesitated to raise concerns or lower an institution's status when it no longer meets the Paris Principles. Its 2024 findings on the MNHRC are among the materials now before the SEANF Governing Board. The Asia Pacific Forum of National Human Rights Institutions (APF) has set out in its Constitution a clear and fair process for acting on a member that no longer qualifies: written notice, a real chance to respond, then a decision. SEANF has rightly followed that process here. GANHRI and APF have shown that holding members to account protects a network's credibility. It does not weaken it. We urge SEANF to follow their example to the end. 

The ILO Commission of Inquiry found in 2023 that the military authorities seriously violated the Freedom of Association Convention and the Forced Labour Convention. In 2024, the International Labour Conference invoked Article 33 of the ILO Constitution against Myanmar, a measure it has used only once before. The MNHRC made no meaningful response to any of this. A human rights institution that says nothing about forced labour and the destruction of trade unions in its own country does not meet the Paris Principles. 

SEANF gave the MNHRC notice and a fair chance to answer. That was the right process. But we have to be clear about what is at stake on 1 October. If the review ends without a decision, the MNHRC is due to take over the SEANF Chairpersonship in 2027. A commission that works under the junta would then speak for the region's human rights institutions. That would harm SEANF's credibility and put at risk the people across Southeast Asia who look to these institutions for protection. 

BWI therefore calls on the SEANF Governing Board to: 

1. Find that the MNHRC no longer meets SEANF's membership standards under amended Article 1 of the Rules of Procedure, and disqualify it; 
2. Declare the MNHRC ineligible to take up the 2027 Chairpersonship; and 
3. Open regular channels with Myanmar civil society, independent trade unions such as the Confederation of Trade Unions Myanmar (CTUM), and the National Unity Government, so that the Forum keeps hearing from the people of Myanmar. 

We also ask our affiliates in Southeast Asia to write to their national human rights institutions this week and support a firm decision. 

The people of Myanmar, including the construction and wood workers who have lost their jobs, their unions and in many cases, their lives, deserve human rights institutions that stand on their side. BWI will keep supporting them until democracy and workers' rights are restored.