Sexual and Gender based violence in Myanmar and the gendered impact of its ethnic conflicts

In its report to the Human Rights Council in September 2018[1] (hereinafter “the 2018 Report”), the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar (hereinafter “The Mission”) concluded that “rape and other sexual violence have been a particularly egregious and recurrent feature of the targeting of the civilian population in Rakhine, Kachin and Shan States since 2011.”[2]

The Mission verified cases of women, men and girls being subjected to abduction, rape, including gang rape, sexual torture, sexual slavery and other forms of sexual and gender-based violence in Kachin and Shan States. In Rakhine State, where sexual and gender-based violence was committed on a massive scale during the Tatmadaw’s “clearance operations” of 2016 and 2017, the Mission documented gang rapes, rapes and other forms of sexual violence. Hundreds of Rohingya women and girls were raped, with 80 per cent of the rapes corroborated by the Mission being gang rapes. The Tatmadaw was responsible for 82 per cent of these gang rapes.

Despite the gravity and brutality of the sexual violence, two years after the “clearance operations” that began on 25 August 2017, and one year since the publication of the Mission’s 2018 report, no high-ranking Tatmadaw commander has been held accountable. Myanmar’s top two military officials remain in their positions of power despite the Mission’s call for them to be investigated and, if appropriate, prosecuted for war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide.[3]

For these reasons, the Mission decided to prepare a thematic report that brings together and analyses all the information it has gathered on the topic of sexual and gender-based violence and the gendered impact of Myanmar’s ethnic conflicts. In doing so, the Mission has deepened and updated its findings in this area, including by expanding its investigations into the situation of ethnic men, boys and transgender people as well as examining further the consequences of sexual and gender-based violence on Myanmar’s ethnic communities. The Mission collected new information about alleged perpetrators, not included in the original list of six named individuals in its previous report.[4] The Mission has added these alleged perpetrators to a confidential list of perpetrators that will be shared with the Independent Investigative Mechanism on Myanmar and the High Commissioner for Human Rights.

https://www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/HRC/MyanmarFFM/Pages/sexualviolence.aspx