Legal Climate with Burma
Burma’s judiciary has regressed to a system of politically orchestrated, undue and unfair trials that are more akin to kangaroo courts. Under the 2008 Constitution, the military exploits its judiciary system to justify the arrest and oppression of those that oppose their military rule. The military passes vague and overly broad laws, hand-picks judges and uses compliant police who do the bidding for the junta.
The current legal framework is rooted in colonial-era laws imposed by the British to subjugate the population. Statutes such as the 1860 Penal Code, the 1908 Unlawful Associations Act, the Prison Act, and other restrictive regulations were designed to suppress political resistance. After independence, successive governments retained these repressive laws and added new ones, such as the 1950 State Emergency Act, further embedding legal tools of control. Military regimes have since amended or expanded these laws to target critics and dissenters.
Since the 2021 military coup, individuals have been charged under new and spurious charges, using vague and broad laws to restrict freedom of movement, expression, thought, and political belief. The vagueness falls short of international human rights requirements for arrests or detentions and thereby impose infringements on the right to liberty.
The junta has misused broad and ill-defined laws that criminalize freedom of expression, movement, and political belief. Section 505A of SAC Law No. 5/2021, punishable by up to three years in prison, has become a catch-all provision to imprison anyone accused of causing “fear,” spreading “false news,” or agitating against government officials. Courts routinely manipulate these vague clauses to justify detaining activists, journalists, and civilians.
Later, it became more common for the military to use its Counter-Terrorism Law to charge political prisoners with longer sentences than that of Penal Code 505A. In March 2023, the SAC issued an Addendum which expanded military powers against anyone identified as a ‘terrorist’. As part of such changes, the Minister of Home Affairs, Soe Htut, announced Order 239/2023 approving the application of the law by relevant ministries.
Other laws to arrest political prisoners include “The Explosive Substances Act”, “Unlawful Association Act”, “The Telecommunication Law” “The Law Relating to Registration of Association”, and the newly introduced, “Cybersecurity Law”. During the 2025 sham election, the junta promulgated, “The Law Protection of Multiparty Democratic General Elections from Obstruction, Disruption, and Destruction:” yet another law to detain anyone opposing the staged election.
Information leaks from legal sources to media and civil society have confirmed that the junta-controlled courts systematically continue to violate core principles of independence and impartiality. Lawyers defending political cases would indicate that the evidence in question is not in line with the Burma Evidence Act, yet judges who do the bidding for the junta, disregard or refuse to admit exculpatory evidence, and sentences tend to increase if lawyers attempt to dispute the charges against their client or the decisions of the judge.
They issue disproportionately long sentences in the absence of credible incriminating evidence and/or on the basis of torture-forced confessions or false evidence. Trials frequently occur behind closed doors in special courts inside prisons, usually without legal representation for the defendant.
Now, any perceived threat to military rule can lead to arrest and the junta is detaining the family members of intended targets as hostages. The legal system, the judiciary, police, and prisons alike, functions as an integrated machinery of military rule. Rather than protecting rights, Burma’s laws and courts have become mechanisms for intimidation, collective punishment, and the suppression of fundamental freedoms.