Prime Minister Anthony Albanese makes first official visit to Timor-Leste
(BANGKOK, January 28, 2026)—The Governments of Australia and Timor-Leste should jointly refer Myanmar to the International Criminal Court (ICC), Fortify Rights said today. Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is set to meet Timor-Leste’s leaders and make an address to the nation’s parliament today, as part of a two day official visit to Dili—the capital of Timor-Leste.
“As we approach the fifth anniversary of the attempted coup in Myanmar, Australia and Timor-Leste should show global leadership for the values of democracy and human rights and the principle of accountability, and translate rhetoric into action by referring Myanmar to the International Criminal Court,” said Benedict Rogers, Senior Director at Fortify Rights. “As two vibrant rights-respecting democracies, Timor-Leste and Australia must use every opportunity to maximize pressure on the Myanmar junta, including by using their positions at the ICC to pursue accountability and end the spiral of violence and impunity that has gripped Myanmar for far too long.”
As ICC state parties, Timor-Leste and Australia are empowered, under Article 14 of the Rome Statute, to refer any situation they believe comes under the ICC’s jurisdiction to the court’s Chief Prosecutor. The ICC has an ongoing investigation into the crime against humanity of deportation and other crimes in the case of the Rohingya, and the Chief Prosecutor has sought an arrest warrant for junta leader Senior General Min Aung Hlaing. An Article 14 referral would, however, allow the ICC to open a wider investigation into international crimes committed against all of Myanmar’s communities since the brutal military takeover in 2021. It also has the distinct advantage of avoiding a veto at the U.N. Security Council, which has failed to address the situation in Myanmar.
On February 1, 2021, Myanmar’s military seized power in a coup, overturning the elected parliament and detaining the country’s democratically elected leadership, including State Counsellor and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, along with thousands of others. Since the attempted coup, the junta has arrested more than 30,000 people and currently holds over 22,000 political prisoners in jail. Over the past five years the military has perpetrated widespread torture, killings, and persecution of civilians, amounting to crimes against humanity. The military coup also triggered a nationwide armed resistance and reignited long-running conflicts with ethnic armed organizations. More recently, the junta has used airstrikes to attack civilians and civilian infrastructure, bombing homes, schools, clinics and places of worship, and flattening villages and killing scores of people. Earlier this week, Fortify Rights exposed how the Myanmar junta is increasingly using paramotors and gyrocopters – low-cost, commercially available aircraft–to attack civilians and civilian infrastructure.
Since the Myanmar military’s actions in February 2021, the Australian government has enacted two rounds of sanctions targeting military-owned enterprises, individuals responsible for the 2021 military takeover, and subsequent human rights violations. Australian sanctions have also sought to limit the junta’s access to funds and military equipment.
In September 2023, Timor-Leste President and Nobel Laureate José Ramos-Horta met ICC Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan, where he reportedly expressed grave concern over the ongoing violence and human rights abuses in Myanmar and urged the ICC to lead accountability efforts for Myanmar. Earlier that year, seemingly in response to Timor-Leste’s support for democracy and human rights in Myanmar, the junta expelled the top-ranking Timorese diplomat from the country. Recently, the Myanmar junta also reportedly attempted to block Timor-Leste’s accession to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), claiming unwanted interference in its domestic affairs, although the attempt was unsuccessful. Timor-Leste became the newest member of ASEAN at the regional bloc’s summit on October 26, 2025.
In October, 2025, just ahead of Timor-Leste’s ASEAN accession, 36 organizations including Fortify Rights wrote to President Ramos-Horta calling on him to refer Myanmar to the ICC.
“Australia and Timor-Leste both provide leadership, including moral leadership, within ASEAN and the wider Asia-Pacific region in the struggle to defend and promote democracy and human rights,” said Benedict Rogers. “Referring Myanmar to the ICC would be a natural continuation of this leadership and would show that the world will not forget the crimes taking place in Myanmar.”