Agenda Item 12: Violence Against Women

Mr. Chairperson,

I speak on behalf of the Asia Pacific Forum on Women, Law and Development.

We would like to draw your attention once again to the ongoing state violence against women in Burma, ruled by a military regime which always boasts that discrimination against women does not exist in the country.

Mr. Chairperson,

It has been almost three years since "Licence to Rape", a report detailing 173 cases involving rape of 625 women and girls, triggered an international outcry, since when sexual violence has been an issue at all UN forums relating to Burma. The UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Burma has raised the issue in each of his special reports to the UNGA since 2002, and the UNGA Resolutions since 2002 on the situation of human rights in Burma have raised the issues of rape and other abuse of civilians carried out by members of the armed forces in Shan and other ethnic States.

But has there been any improvement on the ground? The answer is "NO".

The war is continuing, and political repression is worsening. The regime has persistently denied the prevalence of military rape.

Yet, despite its efforts to block flows of information, reports of sexual violence have continued to reach us from Burma. In Shan State alone, a further 188 women and girls were raped by SPDC soldiers from 43 battalions, mostly in the central and southern areas where armed conflict is continuing. Of these women,

? 65% were gang-raped
? 58% were raped by ranking officers
? 26% were detained as sex slaves
? 18% were killed after rape, some brutally tortured
? at least 30% were under 18; the youngest was 8 years old

In no cases were the perpetrators prosecuted.
Mr. Chairperson,
Rapes and other forms of sexual violence are not committed by rogue elements within the military but are central to the modus operandi of SPDC. Structuralized and systematic human rights violations, including sexual violence, are an inevitable result of the regime’s policies of military expansion and consolidation of control by all possible means over a disenfranchised civilian population.
Moreover, those raising the issue of state violence against women inside Burma and in host countries have been threatened and harassed by the authorities.
It is clear that no woman or girl is safe under this military rule.
Mr. Chairperson,
Therefore, through this commission, we would like to appeal to members of ASEAN, countries in the region, and particularly Burma’s neighbours, not to overlook human rights issues in their dealings with Burma, but to review their policies of constructive engagement, which are encouraging the SPDC to continue its policies of militarization and accompanying sexual violence.
Mr. Chairperson,
In your capacity as Chair of this session of the Commission on Human Rights, and as the representative of Indonesia, a member of ASEAN, we request you to use your good offices to call on the SPDC:
• to immediately stop using rape against ethnic women as a strategy of war to control the local population and to fully implement the resolutions adopted by the UNCHR since 1992
• To immediately implement a nationwide ceasefire, and withdraw all Burma Army troops stationed in the ethnic states; and to immediately begin tripartite dialogue with the National League for Democracy and genuine representatives of the ethnic nationalities, in order to begin a meaningful process of political reform

Thank you, Mr. Chairperson.