Myanmar Enabling Environment Snapshot

Period covered by the report: June 2025 - March 2026.
 

During the reporting period, Myanmar has experienced a further deterioration in political, security, and economic conditions, deeply shaping the operating environment for civil society. In 2025, the CIVICUS monitor scored Myanmar civic space as ‘closed’. The junta’s attempt to stage a national “election” between December 2025 and January 2026 intensified repression, as new laws and administrative measures criminalised criticism, restricted movement, and expanded state surveillance. Armed conflict has remained widespread, contributing to mass displacement, rising civilian casualties, and heightened economic distress.

During this period, the regime continued to rely on mass arrests, digital monitoring, travel blockades and targeted violence to consolidate control, while some armed groups imposed their own restrictions on movement and association in the territories they hold. New legal instruments—such as the Election Protection Law, additional migration controls, and the 2026 Passport Law—further tightened state authority over civic behaviour, expression, and mobility. At the same time, economic pressures have deepened as key development partners signalled aid withdrawals, exacerbating hardship for communities and reducing resources available to civil society actors.

Overall, these developments point to an increasingly hostile and volatile context, where civic space is severely constrained and public participation in governance is systematically suppressed. Civil society must navigate overlapping risks arising from armed conflict, authoritarian legal reforms, economic decline, and a rapidly expanding surveillance apparatus—all of which significantly undermine the safety, independence and viability of civic action in Myanmar.