End Impunity to End Sexual Violence

To mark the 11th International Day for the Elimination of Sexual Violence in Conflict on 19 June, Myanmar women continued speaking truth to power, urging accountability for the Myanmar military’s decades-long use of rape and other forms of sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) as weapons of war. It’s time for the world to stand in solidarity and support their efforts with concrete action. To genuinely support Myanmar women in their fight for justice and to effectively address the increasing incidents of conflict-related sexual violence (CRSV) in Myanmar, the international community must restore and increase robust humanitarian support directly through grassroots women’s organizations and other trusted, local frontline humanitarian responders. At the same time, the world must accelerate efforts to hold the Myanmar military accountable under international law without further delay. 

In their latest report, Speaking Truth to Power: Ending Military Impunity in Burma/Myanmar, Women’s League of Burma (WLB) documented widespread CRSV cases committed by the military, including at least 963 cases of CRSV and gender-based violence since the 2021 coup attempt. In addition to finding that women and LGBTQIA+ persons are particularly vulnerable to sexual violence, WLB also found that land confiscation and increased militarization driven by large-scale development projects are major threats to the security of women and girls—a decades-long trend. 

WLB also highlighted how—amid the prevalent threat of CRSV and no access to justice—Myanmar women are relentlessly continuing their work to dismantle military tyranny and patriarchal norms, care for their communities, and build a federal democratic future. With unparalleled bravery and tenacity, women’s organizations and networks are collaborating to ensure the provision of humanitarian aid and social services to survivors in conflict zones.

In a joint solidarity statement for the 11th International Day for the Elimination of Sexual Violence in Conflict, 63 organizations highlighted Myanmar women being “at the forefront of a powerful feminist movement, reclaiming their voices, politics, lands, and resources amid a four-year-long revolution against tyranny.” The organizations underscored the military’s widespread use of sexual violence—including gang rape, sexual slavery, and femicide—as “a deliberate tool of terror and control.” They also emphasized the severe underreporting of CRSV, calling attention to the thousands of survivors who are forced into silence. In the spirit of remembrance and action, the signatories called on the international feminist community to join their #RedLipsSpeakTruthtoPower campaign, which honors “the power of women’s voices rising against fascism, war, and patriarchy.” 

Internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Myanmar—particularly women, girls, and LGBTQIA+ individuals—face heightened risks of SGBV. In marking World Refugee Day on 20 June, ten Myanmar civil society organizations, including Progressive Voice, underlined the severe vulnerabilities of displaced Myanmar women and children, including sexual violence, human trafficking, and lack of access to healthcare. In particular, having been forced to flee ongoing persecution in Myanmar and unlivable conditions in Bangladesh camps, Rohingya women and girls continue to suffer sexual violence, exploitation, abuse, and other forms of SGBV.

To truly support Myanmar women in their efforts to end CRSV and SGBV, the international community must immediately restore and increase humanitarian aid and other forms of assistance for Myanmar’s most vulnerable communities. This support must be provided directly through Myanmar’s trusted frontline humanitarian responders—namely, grassroots women’s organizations, other local civil society organizations, and community-based organizations—through cross-border channels. The international community must also support survival referral pathways at the local level by funding ethnic women-led organizations, and prioritize these organizations’ role in delivering aid. 

At the same time, states must urgently advance the Myanmar people’s and international efforts to hold the perpetrators of atrocity crimes in Myanmar accountable under international law. States must appeal to the judges of the International Criminal Court (ICC) to issue an arrest warrant for Min Aung Hlaing, initiate an Article 14 referral of the Myanmar crisis to the ICC, and support the application of universal jurisdiction.  

Ending the military’s impunity also means that all international actors, including ASEAN, must immediately cease all engagements with the junta. Junta-appointed representatives must be removed from the ASEAN Commission on the Promotion and Protection of the Rights of Women and Children—an absolutely toothless body which cannot even pay lip service to “promot[ing] and protect[ing] the human rights…of women and children in ASEAN” when tied to the Myanmar military’s notorious violence against the same. 

Of equal importance, the military’s decades-long enjoyment of impunity has entrenched a pervasive culture of impunity for perpetrators of SGBV at the community level, depriving countless victims and survivors of access to justice. The Spring Revolution—driven by younger generations, including women and the LGBTQIA+ community, fighting patriarchy and misogyny—offers a historic chance to break the silence and, thus, the cycle of impunity at all levels of society, but only if the misogynistic military junta is held accountable.

Going forward, in the words of Karen Human Rights Group, the international community and Myanmar’s local governance administrations must “confront the root causes of sexual violence – namely, its entrenchment in patriarchal power structures and the systemic devaluation of women’s bodies – by adopting more robust and transformative prevention measures grounded in international feminist and human rights frameworks on gender-based violence in local contexts.” To move towards ending CRSV, SGBV, and all forms of gender discrimination, women’s and the LGBTQIA+ community’s full, meaningful participation must be ensured in all political processes across Myanmar’s people-led administrations starting now—this critical time of federal democracy building.

In the words of WLB, “What is possible in a democratic and inclusive future Burma/Myanmar has no limits. For women, this means an end to systematic oppression that has attempted to erase their pain and suffering.”

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[1] One year following the 1988 pro-democracy uprising, the former military junta changed the country’s name from Burma to Myanmar overnight. Progressive Voice uses the term ‘Myanmar’ in acknowledgement that most people of the country use this term. However, the deception of inclusiveness and the historical process of coercion by the former State Peace and Development Council military regime into usage of ‘Myanmar’ rather than ‘Burma’ without the consent of the people is recognized and not forgotten. Thus, under certain circumstances, ‘Burma’ is used.

Progressive Voice is a participatory, rights-based policy research and advocacy organization that was born out of Burma Partnership. Burma Partnership officially ended its work on October 10, 2016 transitioning to a rights-based policy research and advocacy organization called Progressive Voice. For further information, please see our press release “Burma Partnership Celebrates Continuing Regional Solidarity for Burma and Embraces the Work Ahead for Progressive Voice.”