Dec 8, 2023 | DFF, Statements
JAKARTA – As we come towards the end of this year’s 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence, ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights (APHR) calls on the international community to work to ensure the protection of women in Myanmar, particularly as the illegal junta’s military losses continue to mount.
“Sexual and gender-based violence has long been used as a weapon of war by Min Aung Hlaing’s junta, and we are concerned that this will escalate as the junta seeks retaliation for their recent losses,” APHR Chair and member of the Indonesian House of Representatives Mercy Barends said today. “The international community must not allow this to happen.”
As Naw Hser Hser of the Women’s League of Burma (WLB) said in her statement to the United Nations Security Council earlier this year, “using sexual violence to attack civilian populations has long been the military’s modus operandi.” In 2017, Human Rights Watch found that the military had systematically used gang rape and other forms of sexual violence against Rohingya women and girls.
Meanwhile, since the attempted coup in February 2021, the WLB has documented over 100 cases of conflict-related sexual and gender-based violence, though the actual number of cases is likely much higher. A 2022 Amnesty International report also found that women and LGBTI post-coup detainees were subjected to “sexual violence, harassment and humiliation including invasive body searches.” Amnesty recounted that one transwoman detainee, Saw Han Nway Oo, was tortured and mocked for using feminine pronouns. Another woman detainee, Ma Htoo, said that male guards would come into the women’s cells at anytime
“We urge the international community to prioritize making international accountability mechanisms available for the survivors of sexual and gender-based violence in Myanmar,” said Barends. “A lack of action only emboldens the junta to continue to commit these violations with impunity.”
As part of this, APHR calls on the UN Security Council to refer the Myanmar junta to the International Criminal Court (ICC) and use universal jurisdiction to prosecute the junta for the systematic sexual violence as well as other crimes of humanity that it has committed.
“ASEAN, particularly the chairmanship ‘troika’, must realize that even as the junta continues to suffer military defeats, the regime is inevitably going to escalate its violence against the civilian population, which will no doubt result in more cases of sexual and gender-based violence,” said Barends.
APHR, therefore calls on ASEAN to pressure the UN Security Council to adopt strong measures to ensure the junta’s compliance to Security Council Resolution 2669, including targeted economic sanctions, a comprehensive arms embargo, as well as the aforementioned referral to the ICC.
“As we approach the third Human Rights Day since the illegal coup, the international community still has not done nearly enough to defend and uphold the human rights of the people of Myanmar. We hope that this shameful pattern ends today,” said Barends.
Jul 3, 2023 | DFF, Statements
CHIANG MAI – The Myanmar pro-democracy movement must listen to the calls of women and ethnic people and their vision for federalism, ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights said today.
On 29 June, APHR held a closed-door meeting with women human rights defenders and activists from Myanmar civil society groups in Chiang Mai, Thailand as part of a series of discussions that aim to provide a platform for gendered perspectives on the crisis in the country, including topics such as federalism, patriarchy, and ethnic inclusion.
As long as there has been a civil war in Myanmar, there has been a struggle for ethnic autonomy, including the rights to their land, language, health care, education and traditions. For women, in addition to the fight for ethnic equality, has also been for gender equality. In the current context of post-coup Myanmar, new challenges have emerged and a new struggle for equality across all genders and ethnicities.
“The commitment and dedication of women to Myanmar’s struggle for democracy is evident across the movement,” said APHR Board Member and former Thai foreign minister Kasit Piromya. “Federalism cannot exist in Myanmar without democracy, and certainly not without the contributions of women.”
“The history of Burma is rooted in ongoing conflict. When we look at the creators of conflict, it is very clear it is the Myanmar junta. Women have always been involved in revolutionary acts because we believe in genuine peace,” said Moon Nay Li, Joint General Secretary of the Women’s League of Burma .
While pro-democracy bodies, including the National Unity Government, the National Unity Consultative Council and the Committee Representing Pyidaungsu Hluttaw, have called for federalism to defeat the junta, women-led organizations and activists are advocating for a future that is gender-equal as well as federal.
“Too often, women are told that their pursuits for gender equality are of lesser importance amidst the shared struggle to defeat the junta. These struggles are interconnected as the commitment to end military rule is rooted in ending patriarchal norms and institutions,” said APHR member and member of the Philippine House of Representatives Arlene Brosas. “Women’s rights defenders are critical actors in the pro-democracy movement, and their voices must be amplified to ensure their needs are met and perspectives are heard.”
During the meeting, the women human rights defenders and activists were very clear that more reflection needed to be done on how the ‘pro-democracy’ movement is currently progressing. For many, this includes inner work, primarily from the Bamar majority, on how to ‘unlearn’ certain attitudes and beliefs which stem from Burmanization, Buddhism and the patriarchy. Calls were also made to the international community to engage with pro-democracy stakeholders, and not the terrorist regime.
“The international community, including ASEAN, must support women human rights defenders and their calls for a more inclusive vision of federalism in Myanmar. Defeating the junta is imperative, but without the participation of women and ethnic people, a democratic Myanmar cannot be sustainable,” said APHR Chair and member of Indonesian House of Representatives Mercy Barends.
Feb 15, 2022 | FoRB, Opinion Articles
By Eva Sundari
After almost 100 years in operation, last month Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), Indonesia’s most prominent Islamic organization, made history, electing its first women leaders.
Under the leadership of reform-minded scholar Yahya Cholil Staquf, 11 women were named on NU’s board for the first time, among them former first lady Sinta Nuriyah Wahid, her daughter and prominent activist Alissa Wahid, and Khofifah Indar Parawansa, the governor of East Java.
Although a long way from gender parity, the move was a breakthrough for the organization, and is at least a step toward addressing some of the challenges faced by women in Indonesia today, which includes, among other things, the use of genital mutilation in some parts of the country, restrictive laws on women’s rights, as well as the continued practice of polygamy and child marriage. The women elected to NU’s board all have established records of meaningful contributions to society in their own right, and their inclusion on the board must be the opportunity for them to have substantial influence within the organization when it comes to addressing issues such as these.
As well as being an important political vehicle, since at least the Reform years of the 1990s, NU has played a vital role in advocating for social inclusion and standing up for ethnic and religious minorities, including Papuans and Chinese-Indonesians. As just one example, Abdurrahman “Gus Dur” Wahid, the former Indonesian president and NU leader, has been dubbed the “father of Chinese-Indonesians” because of his role in revoking an instruction leftover from the Soeharto era that prohibited the development of Chinese culture and religion.
NU and its membership have also played a role in advancing women’s rights. In 2017, female NU members initiated the Indonesian Women’s Ulema Congress (KUPI), which gathered together more than 1,000 female global clerics to discuss issues such as the history of female religious authority, sexual and domestic health, and declared several fatwas that support women’s empowerment.
Indonesia’s more hard-line Islamist groups, with their conservative interpretation of the religion, may have attracted the bulk of the media attention in recent years, but it should not be forgotten that women in Indonesia have long pushed back against this vision of Islam. NU and its members have played an important role in that resistance, and the appointment of women to its board is the latest in a series of progressive ideas the organization has initiated.
It has strongly criticized polygamy, and advanced women’s reproductive health access, awareness, and education. Female NU members have also played important roles in advancing women’s issues around the archipelago. Some entered politics, pushing for pro-women legislation such as the Anti Sexual Violence Bill (TPKS) and the Protection of Household Workers Bill (PPRT), as well as the Health Bill passed in 2009, which permits abortions in cases of rape or related health concerns.
Currently, freedom of religion or belief (FoRB) in Indonesia is experiencing many challenges, and that extends to women’s rights. In its most recent annual report on civil and political rights in the country, Freedom House ranked Indonesia as “partially fair”. One of its lowest rankings came in the area of freedom of belief (scoring 1 out of 4), with issues ranging from official discrimination against religious minorities, such as restricted access to documentation, to “violence and intimidation” against Ahmadi and Shia communities.
The research group SETARA Institute recorded 180 incidents of FoRB violations in 2020, 12 of which were against women and children, while the National Commission on Violence Against Women has documented hundreds of discriminatory local regulations that specifically limit the fundamental rights of women in the name of religion.
As a prominent Islamic organization claiming about 90 million members, NU has a crucial role to play in addressing issues such as these. The election of women to its board should be celebrated as the important step that it is, but it also must result in meaningful representation, whereby these elected women in leadership roles can deliver substantive impact on the issues of FoRB and women’s rights.
Challenges remain for NU in addressing the more conservative mindsets within its internal bodies, but the election of women to its board is a welcome move in the right direction, toward ensuring a range of perspectives are heard, including those of women, and the organization promoting a moderate and progressive version of Islam to be followed by adherents in Indonesia, and further afield.
Eva Sundari is a board member of ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights (APHR), a former Indonesian Member of Parliament (MP)
This article first appeared in The Jakarta Post.
