Providing Technical Assistance on Conflict-Related Sexual Violence in Myanmar

The phenomena of Conflict-Related Sexual Violence (CRSV) is a long-standing multifaceted human rights violation characteristic of civil conflict and violence in Myanmar. It has an array of dimensions, including health, legal, justice, psychosocial, gender, sexuality, livelihoods and more. While the contexts of each state and conflict vary, CRSV is a common thread over successive decades. Following the events of the February 1, 2021 military takeover in Myanmar, reports and risk of further CRSV, in conflict-affected regions and in sites of detention have increased. The Myanmar Armed Forces (Tatmadaw) has remained listed in annual reports of the SRSG CRSV from 2017, in addition to being listed in SRSG Children and Armed Conflict (CAAC) report for new violations starting in 2017, including rape and sexual violence. The highly detailed August 2018 report of the Fact Finding Mission (FFM) on Myanmar provided finegrained evidence of widespread perpetration of CRSV in Myanmar with a focus on violations during the 2017 so-called “clearance operations” in Rakhine State and information related to Kachin and Shan States. The seminal 2018 report was followed by a set of thematic reports including one dedicated to GBV on 22 August 2019. This dedicated report provides further analysis of CRSV patterns and trends including the targeting of Rohingya civilians including men and boys and transgender populations, evidence of perpetration against Rakhine civilians, and more elaboration on the nature of violence against civilian populations in Kachin and Shan States.

Following the SRSG’s mission to Myanmar in February 2019 and a follow-up mission by her team in August 2019, UNFPA has been coordinating efforts to establish the MARA. We have worked to operationalise the concept of meaningful participation advanced over successive Security Council resolutions since 2000 and specifically identified by the UN Secretary General in 2018 in his annual report as the cornerstone of the Women Peace and Security agenda. In Myanmar and related to this complex sensitive issue this has meant working to lower the barriers for women’s organisations to engage on this issue through convening dedicated CSO and NGO meetings to elevate understanding of the UN architecture on CRSV, linkages to international law, and opportunities for action. This has also included translation of a range of materials into Burmese to enable more CSOs and NGOs to learn more about central concepts such as survivor centred care, international standards for good practice on data collection, gender-sensitive humanitarian response, media engagement on ethical GBV/CRSV reporting and more. In Myanmar, it is the CSOs and NGOs that typically provide frontline support services for CRSV and GBV survivors. This outreach is predicated on the fact that more targeted engagement with CSOs is vital to support and enhance their capacities in providing survivor-centred, safe and timely services to survivors in need of multi-sectoral support. This CSO engagement and support is critical because poorly funded women’s organisations and CSOs are at the forefront of responding to CRSV and could be an essential source of data for reporting and accountability.

Purpose The purpose of this assignment has ensured the provision of strategic and appropriate technical assistance from national and international experts to UNFPA to deliver a range of activities and technical assistance to advance to implementation of the Joint Communique.