Fortify Rights

Where Hundreds of Undocumented Migrants Have Died in Custody

🇲🇾 Malaysian authorities must end their abusive campaign of immigration crackdowns and investigate deaths in detention centers.

“Detainees face severe torture, both physical and psychological.”, Yap Lay Sheng told the New York Times.

www.nytimes.com/2025/11/29/w...

As the Myanmar junta prepares its “sham elections”, it is escalating deadly airstrikes on civilians in Karenni State and along Karenni-Shan state border. Fortify Rights’s new report documents 12 airstrikes that killed at least 55 people, including children.

Read the report: bit.ly/HorrificSigh...

🇲🇾 NEW: Survivors of the Langkawi tragedy, who are Rohingya refugees fleeing genocide and likely victims of trafficking, are being prosecuted for “irregular entry.” Malaysia must drop charges against Rohingya shipwreck survivors.

Read the full news release: www.fortifyrights.org/mly-inv-2025...

Read our recent reports:

Crashing Down On Us: bit.ly/AirstrikeReportEN

Horrific Sight To Witness: bit.ly/HorrificSightToWitness

DHS Terminating Temporary Protected Status for Burma Today, Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem announced the termination of Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Burma (Myanmar).

🇺🇸 The US Govt just ended Temporary Protected Status for people from Burma/Myanmar, ignoring realities on the ground.

Myanmar is not safe, and the junta’s so-called “elections” are nowhere near free or fair. Forcing people to return now puts lives at serious risk.

www.uscis.gov/newsroom/new...

Read the latest report by Fortify Rights: bit.ly/HorrificSigh...

🇲🇲At least five miners were killed and others injured in a junta airstrike on Mawchi on November 21.

This comes after a series of deadly attacks on Mawchi from June to August, reflecting the same pattern of airstrikes on civilian areas that Fortify Rights recently documented across Karenni.

Read the full report: bit.ly/HorrificSigh...

New Fortify Rights report ties airstrikes to elections in Myanmar - DVB Human rights group Fortify Rights released a report on Wednesday called Horrible Sight to Witness: Airstrikes on Civilians by Myanmar’s Military Junta Ahead of Sham Elections accusing the regime in Na...

🇲🇲 DVB English covered our latest report on the Myanmar military junta's airstrikes killing and injuring civilians ahead of its sham 2025–26 "elections".

It documents attacks across Karenni and Karenni-Shan State border from June to September 2025.

english.dvb.no/new-fortify-...

🇲🇲 သတင်းထုတ်ပြန်ချက် - Fortify Rights မှ ယနေ့ထုတ်ပြန်သည့် အစီရင်ခံစာတွင် မြန်မာအာဏာသိမ်းစစ်အုပ်စုသည် “အတုအယောင်ရွေးကောက်ပွဲ” မတိုင်မီကာလအတွင်း ကရင်နီပြည်နယ်နှင့် ကရင်နီ–ရှမ်းနယ်စပ်ဒေသများရှိ အရပ်သားများအပေါ် ပစ်မှတ်ထားသည့် လေကြောင်းတိုက်ခိုက်မှုများကို တိုးမြှင့်လုပ်ဆောင်လျက်ရှိသည်ဟု ဖော်ပြထားသည်။

သတင်းထုတ်ပြန်ချက် အပြည့်အစုံကို ဖတ်ရှုရန် - shorturl.at/2V3id

အစီရင်ခံစာအပြည့်အစုံကို ဖတ်ရှုရန် - bit.ly/HorrificSigh...

🇲🇲 NEW: The Myanmar junta is waging deadly airstrikes on civilians in Karenni State and the Karenni-Shan State border, ahead of its “sham elections,” said Fortify Rights in a new report published today.

Full news release: www.fortifyrights.org/mya-inv-2025...

Full report: bit.ly/HorrificSigh...

Myanmar: Junta violence and repression are trapping persons with disabilities in daily fight for survival, says Special Rapporteur GENEVA – Junta forces have executed, tortured and sexually assaulted persons with disabilities while their relentless repression and violence are trapping many in a daily fight for survival according ...

📄 New UN Report — The Hidden Crisis: Disability Rights in Post-Coup Myanmar

Myanmar’s junta is executing, torturing, and burning alive persons with disabilities, leaving many in a daily fight for survival.

Read the report: www.ohchr.org/en/press-rel...

🇨🇳 NEW: Fortify Rights calls on China to immediately and unconditionally release Pastor Ezra Jin Mingri and nearly 30 detained pastors and members of the Zion Church network.

Read the full news release: www.fortifyrights.org/eas-inv-2025...

Read Fortify Rights latest news release: www.fortifyrights.org/mly-inv-2025...

31 bodies found in search for Rohingya at sea LANGKAWI: A total of 31 bodies have been found – 22 in Malaysian waters and nine in Thailand, along with 14 survivors.

31 bodies recovered, 14 survivors rescued after a boat carrying mostly Rohingya refugees sank near Langkawi, with many still unaccounted for. Malaysia must urgently coordinate search-and-rescue efforts with regional governments and allow safe disembarkation of refugees fleeing persecution.

🇲🇾 NEW: Fortify Rights urges Malaysia to coordinate with Thailand, Indonesia, and other Southeast Asian governments to urgently rescue Rohingya refugees missing at sea and ensure safe disembarkation for survivors.

Read the full news release: www.fortifyrights.org/mly-inv-2025...

Fortify Rights Senior Director Benedict Rogers attended the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC) Summit at the European Parliament in Brussels on Friday and Saturday.

#IPACBrussels25 #StandTogether

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Fortify Rights reveals how the AA forces Rohingya, Hindu, and other ethnic minorities into life-threatening work, with many detained, tortured and forced to work over months.

Read more: www.fortifyrights.org/mya-inv-2025...

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🇲🇲 The Arakan Army (AA) must stop using ethnic minorities in Rakhine State for dangerous forced labor at the conflict frontlines.

Vatican acts as if China’s underground Church doesn't exist - UCA News This op-ed critiques the Vatican's silence on the death of Bishop Julius Jia Zhiguo, a persecuted Chinese underground leader, questioning if it's a move to appease the CCP.

🇨🇳 In this latest op-ed, Fortify Rights Senior Director Benedict Rogers calls on the Vatican to honor Bishop Jia’s courage and stand with China’s persecuted Church.

www.ucanews.com/news/vatican...

Timor-Leste has vital role to play in holding ASEAN’s feet to the fire - UCA News This op-ed argues that new ASEAN member Timor-Leste, led by José Ramos-Horta, has a moral duty to push the bloc to hold Myanmar's junta accountable at the ICC and reject its sham elections.

🇹🇱 Timor-Leste’s accession to ASEAN marks a powerful moment for democracy and human rights in the region.

In his latest op-ed, Fortify Rights Benedict Rogers reflects on Timor-Leste’s journey and urges its leaders to use their ASEAN role to advance justice for Myanmar.

shorturl.at/FXi4m

The Committee for Freedom in Hong Kong Foundation’s new report “Backdoor to the Battlefield” exposes how Hong Kong-based shell companies channel Canadian electronics into Russia’s weapons supply chain—and why weak sanctions enforcement allows it to continue.

Read the report: shorturl.at/PdBef

NEW: As world leaders gather for the Asia Pacific Economic Co-operation (APEC) Summit in Seoul, Fortify Rights is calling on U.S. President Donald Trump to press Xi Jinping and other Asian leaders on grave human rights violations across the region.

🔗 www.fortifyrights.org/reg-inv-2025...

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📝 From June–Sept 2025, Fortify Rights published 20 op-eds in major outlets—exposing atrocity crimes in Myanmar, refugee abuses in Thailand, shrinking civic space in the Mekong, and threats to freedoms from Russia to Hong Kong.

Here are 10 op-eds that capture what drives our work.

Malaysia: Abducted Refugee Detained in Myanmar The Malaysian government should press Myanmar’s junta for the immediate release of a refugee family abducted from Kuala Lumpur in July 2023.

🇲🇾 Myanmar pro-democracy activist and refugee Thuzar Maung and her family, forcibly abducted from their home in Kuala Lumpur in 2023, have been confirmed to be in the custody of Myanmar’s junta two years after their disappearance.

🔗 www.hrw.org/news/2025/10...

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1/2 🧵 The joint letter calls on Timor-Leste to refer the situation in Myanmar to the International Criminal Court and to reject the junta’s planned sham elections in December.

Read the full joint letter: bit.ly/JointLetterT...

🇹🇱 NEW: 36 human rights organizations, including Fortify Rights, are urging President José Ramos-Horta to use the country’s new regional role — and its ICC membership — to push for accountability for atrocity crimes in Myanmar.

Read the full news release: www.fortifyrights.org/mya-inv-2025...