Unheard Voices: Conflict Related Sexual Violence in Myanmar

May Sabe Phyu, Director, Gender Equality Network

Myanmar/Burma has obligations under international humanitarian law, human rights treaties, international criminal law and as a UN member to take effective measures to prevent and respond to CRSV. However, since the coup on February 1st, 2021, military and other security forces have carried out extensive human rights abuses, including sexual violence. I will provide a more nuanced understanding of patterns of conflict-related sexual violence (CRSV) and survivor experiences in selected areas of Myanmar/Burma and to help understanding the evidence-based policymaking to address and combat CRSV, qualitative research that GEN was conducted in late 2021. I will focus on sharing the findings pointed to pervasive sexual violence experienced throughout the country, especially at the hands of state security forces, as well as a lack of support services and deep and long-lasting psychological, social, economic and physical impacts from the violence.

May Sabe Phyu is a woman human rights defender from Myanmar/Burma. She is the Director of the Gender Equality Network (GEN), a coalition of more than 100 organizations collaborating to advocate for women’s rights to end discrimination against women and ethnic and religious minorities in Myanmar. She works actively in the areas of the prevention of violence against women, law reform and women's engagement to bring peace. She graduated from the Asian Institute of Technology (AIT) Thailand in 2011 with her first master’s degree in Gender and Development Studies, and obtained her second master’s degree in Public Administration from Harvard Kennedy School of Government in 2018. Less than 48 hours after the coup, she organized many women’s groups to form a Women’s Human Rights Defenders network to collectively counter the country’s urgent state of affairs. That network has transformed itself into a coalition and now stands as one of the independent voices for the plight of women and girls in Myanmar, advocating to power-holders and policy makers so that humanitarian efforts will be gendered and include the most affected communities, and addressing the gendered needs arising from this failed coup. As the recognition of her work, she was honored by many international awards including “International Women of Courage” Award by the United States in 2015, and “Frenco-German Human Rights and Rule of Law Prize” by the German and France in 2021. She relocated to the United States after the military’s failed coup in 2021 as a Dorothea S. Clarke fellow with Cornell Law School and visiting fellow at Cornell’s South East Asia Program (SEAP).

Wednesday, November 29, 2023
12:00 Noon
Room 203, Luce Hall
34 Hillhouse Avenue

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