Community conversation
Results found that sexual violence at the hands of the military was “part of a deliberate, well-planned strategy to intimidate, terrorise and punish a civilian population.” The military has now been listed by the U.N. secretary-general as a party “credibly suspected of committing or being responsible for patterns of rape or other forms of sexual violence.” Additionally women protesters are already facing targeted violence by security forces. According to one estimate, women—both young and old, from garment workers to nuns—make up about 60 percent of front-line protest leaders. The first protest fatality was Mya Thwe Thwe Khaing, a 20-year-old woman shot in the head by police during a peaceful protest in Naypyidaw. And so far, more than 600 women have been arrested—and, as the U.N. has noted, they are now facing sexual harassment and violence. Women’s civil society groups have continually worked to highlight gender-based violence amid the protests to the international community, including to bodies such as the U.N. Security Council.