Myanmar’s Regression on Capital Punishment: A Pariah in Southeast Asia

In July 2022, the Myanmar state executed four pro-democracy activists, marking the resumption of capital punishment after more than 30 years. The executions were the start of a pattern, with the military-controlled state secretly executing another six pro-democracy activists a week later, and then another four in the week after that, again in secret. International observers estimate that there more than 100 pro-democracy prisoners have now received the death penalty and await execution. This article places these cases of capital punishment in a broader domestic and regional context. Domestically, it considers the executions in light of the military junta’s struggles against pro-democracy resistance. Regionally, it contrasts the military junta’s use of the death penalty against the responses of neighbouring states in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). Using these contexts, the article identifies the Myanmar military’s resumption of capital punishment as a deviation from developing norms in ASEAN. It also offers commentary on the significance of such a deviation for the Myanmar military junta’s position in ASEAN.