A coalition of 15 rights groups, including Amnesty International, Article 19 and Politics for Women Myanmar, released a joint public statement on Tuesday, expressing concern over reports of an ever-worsening human rights crisis in Myanmar prisons.

The letter condemned the military regime for its widespread use of torture and the systematic denial of healthcare to political prisoners, noting the rising number of deaths in detention. Human rights organizations also urged the military to immediately cease all forms of torture and ill-treatment of detainees, and to align its detention practices with international legal standards:

We demand that the Myanmar military urgently provide people deprived of their liberty access to adequate healthcare, of the same standard and with the same options as are available in the community and accessible to all detainees without discrimination, and put an immediate end to the torture and other ill-treatment of detainees. 

The statement comes in the wake of the deaths of Ma Wutt Yee Aung and Ko Pyae Sone Aung, political prisoners who died in July 2025 as a result of the inhumane conditions and treatment they endured in detention. Ma Wutt Yee Aung, 26, an executive of the Dagon University Students Union, was arrested on September 14, 2021, over alleged terrorism and incitement charges and given a seven-year sentence. Ko Pyae Sone Aung, 44, was a representative of the National League of Democracy in Mon State’s Belin Township. He was arrested in January 2022 and sentenced to six years in prison for sedition and terrorism.

According to the organizations, Political Prisoners Network-Myanmar noted that at least 190 political prisoners have died from abusive interrogation, other ill-treatment, or a denial of access to adequate healthcare since the current military regime took power in a 2021 coup. No member of the ruling military junta has been held accountable for these deaths.

These figures align with data published by the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP), which estimates that as of August 6, 2025, a total of 29,507 individuals have been arrested since the 2021 military coup, with 22,269 still in detention. The AAPP also reports that approximately 7,041 have been killed by the junta, while only 7,238 have been released. More than 3.5 million people have been internally displaced due to the ongoing armed conflict.

The United Nations has repeatedly condemned the killing of civilians, expressing its continued concern over the ongoing humanitarian crisis, often citing the provisional measures ordered by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in the case of The Gambia v. Myanmar in 2020. However, according to reports by human rights organizations, “genocidal practices” persist under the military regime.