Tell President Obama to Urgently Search for and Rescue Stranded Rohingya

The Chair of the Conservative Party Human Rights Commission, Fiona Bruce MP, today urged the British Government to use its influence with governments in South-East Asia to address the crisis facing thousands of Rohingyas stranded on boats in the Andaman Sea, with no food or drinking water […]

UN Secretary-General: Burma: ‘High Level of Impunity’ for Sexual Violence by ‘State Actors’

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has stated that there is: ‘a high level of impunity for conflict-related sexual violence perpetrated by State actors’ in a recently released report to the UN Security Council. The UN Secretary-General urged the government of Burma “…to ensure that security personnel accused of such crimes are prosecuted.” The report also stated that there is a ‘a lack of transparency in military courts.’ […]

Now is the Time to Act, Sexual Violence Must End in Burma

On 10 June 2014, the Burma government prepared to sign the ‘Declaration of Commitment to End Sexual Violence in Conflict’ at the end of a three-day global summit, which aimed to “shatter the culture of impunity for sexual violence in conflict.” On the same day, a woman was brutally beaten by a Burma Army soldier during an attempted rape in Rezua, Chin State. The eyewitnesses who spoke to the Chin Human Rights Organization said that the women was held down by the soldier, while he repeatedly beat her. She was rushed to the hospital and is fortunately now in recovery.

However, this brutal event has lead to a series of demonstrations in Rezua and Matupi, Chin State this week, calling for an end to sexual violence. According to The Irrawaddy, protesters held placards that stated: “Stop raping; We are humans, not animals. We are humans, not property.” Though the organizers requested to hold the rally, the local police denied their applications and they have been arrested for staging a peaceful demonstration without permission, ironically under the Peaceful Assembly and Peaceful Procession Law.

This recent case of attempted rape is not a one-off incident of a rogue Burma Army soldier. A report produced by Women’s League of Burma (WLB) ‘Same Patterns, Same Impunity’ demonstrates how the sexual violence inflicted by the Burma Army soldiers are systematic in nature and a part of a wider structural system of politicizing women’s bodies and abusing them as instruments of war and oppression. The data collected by WLB and its members found that since the 2010 elections, over 100 cases of rape has been documented, of which 47 were brutal gang rapes and victims were as young as eight years old. Most of the documented cases were linked to Kachin and Northern Shan State where military offensives have been taking place since 2011, indicating that rape and sexual violence is in fact, used as a weapon in an attempt to demoralize the ethnic communities and to assert dominance over them […]

WLB Welcomes UN Recognition of Burmese Government Failure to Address Ongoing Sexual Violence

The Women’s League of Burma welcomes a new report by United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki- moon that calls for Burma’s government to investigate crimes of sexual violence, and highlights the need for constitutional reform to bring the military in Burma under civilian oversight […]

Conflict-related Sexual Violence: Report of the Secretary-General

The present report, which covers the period from January to December 2013, is submitted pursuant to paragraph 22 of Security Council resolution 2106 (2013) , in which the Council requested me to submit annual reports on the implementation of resolutions 1820 (2008) , 1888 (2009) , 1960 (2010) and 2106 (2013) with regard to conflict […]

Letter to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon

On 26 September, the President of the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO) Lanyaw Zawng Hra wrote a letter to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon regarding national reconciliation Burma […]

Growing Crisis In Burma – Ban Ki-moon Must Take The Lead

Burma Campaign UK today renewed its call for UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to take the lead in international efforts to free political prisoners in Burma, and persuade the dictatorship to enter into genuine high level dialogue.

Letters and postcards from 2,500 supporters of Burma Campaign UK will be sent to the UN Secretary General today […]

Burma Regime’s Threats to Suu Kyi a Sign of Ban’s Failure

Burma Campaign UK today condemned threats made by Burma’s dictatorship against Aung San Suu Kyi and her party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), and called on UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to abandon his ‘wait and see’ policy on Burma […]

Burma: UN Envoy Should ‘Not Pay Courtesy Call’

Visit Should Highlight Political Prisoners and Military Abuses

United Nations special envoy on Burma Vijay Nambiar should speak out against the absence of meaningful human rights reform in Burma since the November elections, Human Rights Watch said today […]

Ramifications of Recent UN Actions for Burma

The United Nations Security Council has recently intervened in internal conflicts in Libya and Côte d’Ivoire (Ivory Coast), stressing the urgent need to protect civilians at risk. In only a matter of weeks, the UN Security Council has invoked the responsibility to protect twice, requiring the international community to intervene when a country fails to protect its own citizens. Does this suggest that the pattern of Security Council intervention in internal conflict is changing? Could this thinking translate into protection for civilian populations in other countries such as Burma? […]