One 12 months in the past, on December 3, 2024, South Korea was thrust right into a political disaster after then-President Yoon Suk Yeol declared martial law, citing rising unrest and an alleged risk to nationwide safety.
Troops have been deployed, Yoon ordered the detention of opposition lawmakers, and key state establishments, together with the Nationwide Meeting, have been positioned below army command. Press freedoms have been additionally curtailed, although journalists continued reporting in defiance of the restrictions, and residents mobilised to demand an finish to the decree.
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The transfer sparked widespread demonstrations and, inside simply six hours, the parliament was surrounded by protesters and police as lawmakers voted towards the decree, forcing Yoon to withdraw it.
Inside days, the Supreme Courtroom declared the transient martial regulation unconstitutional. Weeks later, the president was impeached and faraway from workplace, ending a rare second in South Korea’s democratic historical past.
Yoon later issued a public apology for the “anxiousness and inconvenience” he brought on.
However elsewhere, the story typically unfolds very in a different way.
A number of international locations stay below martial regulation or efficient army rule, with wide-ranging implications for civil liberties, political opposition and each day life.
So, the place does martial regulation exist at the moment and what does it imply for the folks dwelling below it?
What’s martial regulation?
Martial regulation is an emergency system of governance during which the army assumes authority over some or all civilian features.
Relying on the nation, this could contain the suspension of constitutional rights, curfews and motion restrictions, army trials for civilians, expanded arrest and detention powers, restrictions on media and meeting, and extra.
Typically, it additionally consists of the short-term substitute of civilian establishments with army directors.
Governments normally justify martial regulation on grounds of warfare, mass unrest, armed revolt or a risk to nationwide stability. Rights teams, nonetheless, warn that it’s typically used to suppress dissent, consolidate energy, or sideline democratic processes.
Which international locations are below some form of army rule at the moment?
Ukraine
Ukraine has been below nationwide, self-described martial regulation since February 24, 2022 – the day Russia launched its full-scale invasion of the nation. However not like how martial regulation is historically understood, Ukraine is ruled by a civilian administration.
Ukraine’s state of affairs is nearer to what Vina Nadjibulla, vice chairman for analysis and technique on the Asia Pacific Basis of Canada, described as a “state of emergency, the place governments activate particular powers – akin to curfews, bans on gatherings, or expanded policing – however inside a constitutional framework that retains civilian establishments, together with parliament and the judiciary, formally in cost.”
Nonetheless, below the marshall regulation decree, the Ukrainian has granted prolonged powers to the armed forces, banned males of combating age – sometimes these age 18 to 60 – from leaving the nation, and restricted political exercise deemed dangerous to the warfare effort.
Public gatherings additionally require approval, and media shops should adjust to guidelines meant to guard nationwide safety. These embrace prohibiting the publishing of stories on air defence programs, and banning footage of missile launches.
The restrictions are broadly accepted by a lot of the inhabitants, however they’ve raised questions on political accountability and transparency within the nation, particularly as President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s authorities faces rising accusations of corruption.
Ukraine’s martial regulation has additionally sparked criticism for successfully eliminating political challenges to Zelenskyy, with some critics, together with US President Donald Trump, arguing that the nation wants new elections.
Petro Poroshenko, a former president and chief of the most important opposition get together, stated earlier this 12 months that whereas martial regulation was wanted, Zelenskyy, in keeping with him, was utilizing the restrictions to strengthen his energy.
“I wish to stress that we should always recognise the apparent – the federal government has began to abuse martial regulation, utilizing it not solely to defend the nation, however to construct an authoritarian regime,” Poroshenko stated throughout parliamentary debates in April.
Myanmar
Myanmar’s military seized energy in a February 2021 coup, overthrowing the elected authorities of Nobel Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi. The army authorities has since declared martial regulation in dozens of townships, particularly in main cities like Yangon, Mandalay and conflict-hit ethnic areas, granting commanders sweeping powers to detain, try to execute civilians in army courts.
The army’s marketing campaign towards anti-coup resistance has plunged elements of the nation into full-scale civil warfare. Web blackouts and mass arrests have been documented throughout martial-law zones.
“Navy commanders have taken over native administration, civilian courts have been sidelined, and open criticism of the regime or its proposed elections can result in harsh punishment,” Nadjibulla stated, describing Myanmar because the “clearest instance [of marshall law] within the Asia-Pacific”.
Rights teams, together with Amnesty Worldwide, say that more than 6,000 people have been killed and tens of hundreds detained because the coup. For a lot of communities, each day life includes checkpoints, curfews and the fixed risk of raids or air strikes.
The military has bombed faculties, hospitals, and non secular buildings with whole impunity, Amnesty stated, in “widespread and systematic assaults towards the civilian inhabitants nationwide”.
In late July, the army introduced that it was lifting the state of emergency from some elements of the nation, forward of nationwide elections which can be scheduled to start out on December 28.
However some 22,689 political detainees, together with Aung San Suu Kyi, stay in detention as of December 2, in keeping with the Help Affiliation for Political Prisoners, an impartial organisation that retains detailed tallies of arrests.
The United Nations has warned that the “military-controlled” elections on the finish of the 12 months are unlikely to result in any democratic transition, and may solely “ingrain insecurity, worry and polarisation all through the nation”. Main political events are barred from contesting within the vote.
Thailand
Thailand shouldn’t be below nationwide martial regulation, however particular areas alongside the nation’s southern provinces, together with Pattani, Yala and Narathiwat, stay below longstanding emergency and safety legal guidelines that grant the army expanded powers, just like martial regulation.
These measures permit sudden searches, broad arrest powers and heavy army presence as the federal government continues to fight a long-running armed revolt.
Thailand has not too long ago additionally declared martial regulation within the border districts of Chanthaburi, Trat, and Sa Kaeo provinces following clashes with Cambodia.
The declaration was made to safeguard “nationwide sovereignty, territorial integrity and the lives and property of Thai residents”, an announcement by Apichart Sapprasert, commander of the Border Defence Command, stated in July.
Burkina Faso
Burkina Faso has been below army rule because the twin coups that the nation witnessed in 2022, first in January, then once more in September.
Since then, whereas the federal government has not declared nationwide martial regulation, the nation’s army leaders train full government and legislative management, with restrictions on political events, and curfews are incessantly imposed throughout safety operations.
The army claims its takeover was needed to revive stability amid escalating assaults by numerous armed teams. However censorship, arrests of critics and limits on public meeting have tightened over the previous 12 months, in keeping with rights teams.
The European Union and United Nations, amongst different our bodies, have accused Burkina Faso of significant human rights violations in its combat towards armed teams, together with the indiscriminate killings and compelled disappearances of dozens of civilians, amongst them journalists and human rights defenders.
Guinea
Guinea’s army seized energy in September 2021, suspending the structure and dissolving parliament. Though martial regulation shouldn’t be formally in place, the army authorities guidelines by decree.
Demonstrations have been repeatedly banned, and safety forces have been accused of utilizing deadly drive towards protesters demanding a return to civilian authorities.
Opposition figures face journey bans and arrest threats, and the transition timeline has been repeatedly pushed again.
In September, voters in Guinea overwhelmingly backed a brand new structure that might permit coup chief Mamady Doumbouya to run for president if he chooses to.
Critics known as the outcomes an influence seize, however the army authorities stated the referendum paves the way in which for a return to civilian authorities. The presidential election is presently anticipated to happen later this month.
A constitution adopted after the coup barred members of the transitional authorities from in search of workplace.
The nation’s two foremost opposition leaders, Cellou Dalein Diallo and deposed former President Alpha Conde, are amongst those that known as for a boycott of the referendum.
Their political events are presently suspended, and Human Rights Watch has accused the federal government of disappearing political opponents and arbitrarily suspending media shops.
Guinea-Bissau
Guinea-Bissau slipped below army management in late November 2025, after troopers seized the election fee simply as presidential outcomes have been due. In accordance with the fee, poll papers, tally sheets and even the information servers have been destroyed, making it impossible to finalise the depend.
The military then put in Main-Basic Horta Inta-A as a transitional chief below a brand new “Excessive Navy Command”, dissolving civilian authority, and imposing curfews and bans on protests and strikes.
Guinea-Bissau’s new army authorities are dealing with rising stress from the Financial Neighborhood of West African States (ECOWAS) to revive constitutional rule and permit the election course of to renew.
Madagascar
Madagascar has lived below some type of military-backed governance since 2009, when Andry Rajoelina, then a former mayor supported by key military factions, seized energy in a coup that set the tone for years of political instability within the nation.
Though a number of elections have since been held, the army stays a central political actor, typically intervening during times of rigidity or protest.
That sample resurfaced in October 2025, when weeks of youth-led demonstrations over corruption and financial frustration prompted the elite CAPSAT army unit to defect and take management of the capital.
As the federal government collapsed, the military pressured out President Rajoelina and put in CAPSAT commander Michael Randrianirina as interim chief.
The army management suspended most nationwide political establishments and the structure, forming a Council of the Presidency for the Refoundation of the Republic of Madagascar.
Randrianirina’s army takeover has been condemned by the United Nations and by the African Union, which suspended Madagascar’s membership.
Are there international locations veering in the direction of marshall regulation?
Although each are dominated by civilian administrations, the interim governments that got here to energy in Bangladesh (2024) and Nepal (2025) after their leaders have been overthrown rely closely on the army, Nadjibulla identified.
In Bangladesh, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was ousted in August 2024 after a mass rebellion towards her rule that intensified following a bloody crackdown on protesters. “As a result of the police and civilian safety providers have been badly discredited in the course of the unrest, the military has remained extremely seen throughout the nation since mid-2024,” Nadjibulla stated. “The interim authorities are ruling primarily by means of government decrees whereas making ready elections, with the army performing as a key guarantor of order and of the transition itself.” Bangladesh is poised for recent elections in February.
In Nepal, Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli needed to depart workplace in September 2025 amid youth-led protests.
An interim administration “took workplace by means of procedures that stretched the structure,” Nadjibulla stated. “Human rights teams have reported in depth use of drive by police and, in some cases, by military items. This isn’t martial regulation on paper, but it surely exhibits how shortly safety establishments can turn out to be the decisive political gamers in durations of disaster.”
