Report Launch Introduction for KHRG Thematic report: “Hidden Strengths, Hidden Struggles: Women’s testimonies from southeast Myanmar”

By Karen Human Rights Group • July 20, 2016

KHRG has been preparing a new thematic report focusing on women’s issues entitled: Hidden Strengths, Hidden Struggles: Women’s testimonies from southeast Myanmar. We will be launching our report in Yangon in the first week of August 2016.

The aim of the report is to project the voices of women from southeast Myanmar which were collected by KHRG field researchers and analysed by KHRG office staff. The time period covered in Hidden Strengths, Hidden Struggles is January 2012 until March 2016. The report presents the perspectives of local women on issues identified by them, including gender-based violence, militarisation, land confiscations, access to healthcare and education, and how continued human rights abuses in southeast Myanmar affect women and men differently, an aspect often overlooked. In addition, it highlights the agency strategies that women employ for self-protection, and the challenges women in southeast Myanmar face when attempting to access justice for abuses.

The release of KHRG’s women’s thematic report will take place a few weeks after the Committee for the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW Committee) reviewed Myanmar’s state report on July 7^th, 2016. KHRG made use of this momentum by making a written submission to the CEDAW Committee as early as June 10^th, 2016. KHRG was also present before and during Myanmar’s state report review at the United Nations’ Palais des Nations in Geneva from 4-8 July 2016 and collaborated with women’s groups (WLB, GEN, CAM, WON) from Myanmar in a joint effort to lobby the CEDAW Committee members to highlight the most important issues to the Myanmar government delegation.

The launch of KHRG’s report will be around the same time as the CEDAW Committee will publish its Concluding Observations on Myanmar’s state report and therefore we hope that this report will bring additional attention to women’s rights and discrimination against women. We also hope that it will assist relevant actors in Myanmar and on the international level to gain a more in-depth understanding about the continuing struggles women are facing, while also recognising their strengths, in this time of ceasefire and democratic transition.

KHRG looks forward to share the full report with you at the report launch in August (official invitations will be send out early next week). We are available to answer any questions you may have prior to and after the launch. In the mean time, please have a look at our short video teaser which we published on our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SI2VrEm2fG8

Tags: Human Rights, Karen Human Rights Group, Karen State, Women

This post is in: Press Release

Report Launch Introduction for KHRG Thematic report: “Hidden Strengths, Hidden Struggles: Women’s testimonies from southeast Myanmar”

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