The Building and Wood Workers’ International (BWI) welcomes the decision of the South East Asia National Human Rights Institutions Forum (SEANF) to disqualify the junta-controlled Myanmar National Human Rights Commission (MNHRC) from membership. The SEANF Governing Board adopted the resolution by consensus on 1 October 2026, and SUHAKAM made it public on 19 October.

This decision is long overdue, and it is the right one. Since the February 2021 coup, the MNHRC has served the military rather than the people of Myanmar. It stayed silent as peaceful protesters were killed and as communities came under attack. It also stayed silent as the junta hunted down workers and trade unionists. Independent labour organisations have been declared illegal, and union leaders have been arrested, forced into hiding or driven into exile. A body that looks away from all of this is not a human rights institution.

SEANF has now said so formally. After a review that began on 14 August, the Board found that the MNHRC no longer meets the Forum’s definition of an independent national human rights institution that complies with the Paris Principles. The MNHRC was given written notice and a fair chance to respond. Instead of answering the concerns, it rejected the review outright. It is now barred from the 2027 SEANF chairpersonship and from all Forum meetings, including this year’s Annual Conference.

SEANF now joins the Global Alliance of National Human Rights Institutions (GANHRI) and the Asia Pacific Forum (APF), which both removed the MNHRC in 2025. The junta’s commission is isolated at every level: global, Asia-Pacific, and Southeast Asian.

BWI thanks the five Chairpersons who acted together: Komnas HAM (Indonesia), SUHAKAM (Malaysia), the Commission on Human Rights of the Philippines, the National Human Rights Commission of Thailand, and the Provedor de Direitos Humanos e Justiça (Timor-Leste). We especially recognise SUHAKAM, which held firm as SEANF Chair despite the MNHRC’s attacks on it earlier this year. We also honour the Myanmar and regional civil society groups whose years of persistent advocacy made this outcome possible.

The pattern is clear: what the junta cannot control, it counterfeits. It runs a captive human rights commission. It sponsors fake unions that have stolen CTUM's and our affiliate BWFM's names and logos. Regional institutions must refuse legitimacy to every one of these fronts.

BWI therefore calls on SEANF and its members to:

• Hold the line on re-admission. The door should reopen only to a genuinely independent institution, not to a rebranded junta body.
• Avoid bilateral engagement that gives the MNHRC the recognition it has lost in SEANF.
• Open regular channels for Myanmar’s independent trade unions, civil society and human rights defenders, including those in exile, so that they help shape regional discussions on their country.
• Support efforts to build a credible, Paris Principles-compliant national human rights institution for Myanmar.

BWI stands with BWFM and with all the workers and trade unionists who continue to organise at great personal risk. They deserve institutions that defend them, not institutions that cover for their oppressors. We will keep fighting alongside them for democracy, freedom of association and justice.