Telenor : forced exit from Myanmar – in response to the NCP’s final statement

Fornebu, Norway - 11 December 2025: Telenor disagrees with several of the conclusions in the OECD Norwegian National Contact Point's (NCP) final statement regarding Telenor's forced exit from Myanmar in 2022. The NCP review follows a complaint filed by SOMO under the OECD guidelines.

In its final statement, the NCP rightly places the main responsibility for the grave human rights violations in Myanmar with the military junta. NCP further acknowledges the dilemmas faced by Telenor following the military coup. Decisions were taken under significant pressure from the military regime and international sanctions, based on the information available at the time.

Telenor disagrees that the efforts to protect the safety of its local employees in Myanmar as not in line with OECD Guidelines. While acknowledging that Human Rights due diligence must consider all rightsholders, Telenor underscores that, in line with the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs), employers have a fundamental responsibility to respect and protect the rights and safety of their own employees. Faced with the brutal force of the military, this duty came into direct conflict with other human rights considerations. In such a situation, Telenor maintains that no employer can issue instructions that would place employees' lives in immediate danger.

Furthermore, Telenor notes that several actions were taken by Telenor Myanmar throughout their operations to mitigate potential adverse impacts on local customers, including raising awareness on digital skills, introducing transparency reporting through Annual Sustainability briefings which covered authority requests updates, and engaging in multistakeholder advocacy with policy makers to ensure legal frameworks were introduced before lawful intercept (LI) technology could be activated. The company transparently communicated the scope of the authority requests (until it was forced to stop after the coup) and did not activate LI.

In terms of the scope of the risk assessments carried out by Telenor, the company notes the limitations of the examination, as NCP has failed to incorporate and address information deemed confidential due to safety concerns. As such, critical facts have unfortunately been overlooked by the NCP.

Telenor agrees to the importance for companies to carry out early planning for responsible exit before entering unstable markets, however also notes that the concept of responsible exit was not part of international human rights frameworks at the time of entry, and was not highlighted in any of the externally conducted assessments procured by Telenor up till 2022.

In terms of NCP's recommendation regarding remediation, Telenor has fulfilled key obligations under the MoU between the parties including funding an expert driven study to build awareness and enhance digital skills. In line with the MoU, the company will continue to explore how an independent Myanmar digital security relief mechanism could be established.

Telenor reaffirms its commitment to OECD Guidelines and calls for a fair and balanced representation of its actions.

Additional information

Myanmar - Telenor Group