Myanmar

Political Change, Women’s Rights, and Public Opinion on Gender Equality in Myanmar

Citation:

Htun, Mala, and Francesca R. Jensenius. 2020. "Political Change, Women’s Rights, and Public Opinion on Gender Equality in Myanmar." The European Journal of Development Research 32: 457-81. doi: 10.1057/s41287-020-00266-z.

 

 

Authors: Mala Htun, Francesca R. Jensenius

Abstract:

Myanmar’s introduction of competitive elections after decades of military rule raised expectations for progress in economic and social development, including in the area of women’s rights. In this paper, we draw on data from two national surveys, fieldwork, and existing qualitative studies to explore public opinion on women’s rights and gender equality. Do Burmese people support gender equality? How are their views on gender related to other aspects of political culture, such as traditional values and views toward authoritarianism and democracy? Our objective is to gain better understanding of the opportunities and obstacles to egalitarian social change and democratic consolidation. Our analysis of survey data reveals that attitudes toward gender roles are conservative, traditional and anti-democratic beliefs are widespread, and these views are strongly associated. Our findings imply that tendencies in public opinion provide a resource for Burmese nationalist groups and politicians and an obstacle to activists seeking greater alignment with global norms on gender equality.

 

Keywords: Myanmar, women's rights, public opinion, political culture, gender equality, nationalism

Annotation:

 

 

Topics: Democracy / Democratization, Development, Gender, Gender Roles, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Equality/Inequality, Nationalism, Political Participation Regions: Asia, Southeast Asia Countries: Myanmar

Year: 2020

The Case for Transformative Reparations for Conflict-Related Sexual Violence in Rakhine State at the ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights

Citation:

Bradley, Samantha. 2019. "The Case for Transformative Reparations for Conflict-Related Sexual Violence in Rakhine State at the ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights." Asia-Pacific Journal on Human Rights and the Law 20 (2): 181-226.

Author: Samantha Bradley

Abstract:

This article addresses the question of whether Rohingya victims of conflict-related sexual violence (CRSV) in Rakhine State in 2017 have recourse to transformative reparations at the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Inter-Governmental Commission on Human Rights (AICHR). CRSV was widespread during the August 2017 non-international armed conflict in Rakhine State. CRSV also occurred in the context of longstanding subjugation of the Rohingya minority by the Government of Myanmar and Myanmar’s security forces perpetrating sexual violence against the Rohingya and other ethnic minorities. Transformative reparations for CRSV are reparations intended to engender structural changes to improve victims’ circumstances and guarantee non-recurrence. An evaluation of ASEAN’s human rights frameworks and the mandate, purposes and principles underpinning the AICHR, reveals unexplored potential for transformative reparations for CRSV at the AICHR for Rohingya victims of CRSV in Rakhine State in 2017. The ASEAN Coordinating Centre for Humanitarian Assistance is well placed to coordinate the delivery of transformative reparations in Myanmar.

Keywords: conflict-related sexual violence, reparations, transformative reparations, ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights, ASEAN Human Rights Declaration

Topics: Armed Conflict, Ethnicity, Humanitarian Assistance, International Organizations, Justice, Reparations, Rights, Human Rights, Sexual Violence Regions: Asia, Southeast Asia Countries: Myanmar

Year: 2019

Women, Peace and Security in Myanmar: Between Feminism and Ethnopolitics

Citation:

Kolås, Åshild. 2020. Women, Peace and Security in Myanmar: between Feminism and Ethnopolitics. Abingdon; New York: Routledge.

Author: Åshild Kolås

Annotation:

Summary:
This book describes women's efforts as agents for change in Myanmar and examines the potential of the peace process as an opportunity for women's empowerment. Following decades of political turbulence, the volume describes the contributions of women to contemporary Burmese politics and reflects on the significance of the Women, Peace and Security agenda in the context of Myanmar. The book examines how women have mobilized for peace, while addressing women's participation in the conflict, and investigates the perspectives and aims of women's organizations, and the challenges and aspirations of women activists in Myanmar's ethnic areas. Contributions in the volume discuss and critically assess the argument that war and peacebuilding adds momentum to the transformation of gender roles. By presenting new knowledge on women's disempowerment and empowerment in conflict, and their participation in peacebuilding, this book adds important insights into the debate on gender and political change in societies affected by conflict. This book will be of interest to students of peace and conflict studies, gender studies and security studies in general. (Summary from Routledge)
 
Table of Contents:
Introduction: Women, Peace and Security in Myanmar: The Map and the Terrain
Ashild Kolas
 
1. UNSCR 1325 in Myanmar: Women's Rights, Peace and Security in Times of Transition
Camilla Buzzi
 
2. Women in the Myanmar Peace Process: The 30-Percent Target
Debendra Prasad Adhikari
 
3. Women-to-Women Diplomacy and the Women's League of Burma
Magda Lorena Cardenas
 
4. No Peace in a Ceasefire: Women's Agency for Peace in the Kachin Conflict
Marte Nilsen
 
5. Women’s Participation in Peacebuilding: Views from Mon Rural Communities
Myint Myint Mon
 
6. Women Survivor’s Experiences of War and Perspectives on Peace in Myanmar
S. Hkawng Naw
 
7. Women in Myanmar’s Ethnic Armed Organizations: Numbers and Narratives
Åshild Kolås and Leitanthem Umakanta Meitei
 
8. Women’s ‘Marginal Voices’: Diverse Perspectives on Peace and Security in Myanmar
Elena Di Padova

Topics: Conflict, Ethnicity, Feminisms, Gender, Women, Gender Roles, Peace and Security, Peacebuilding, Political Participation, Peace Processes Regions: Asia, Southeast Asia Countries: Myanmar

Year: 2020

Challenges to Women's Inclusion in Peace Processes in Thailand and Myanmar

Citation:

Buranajaroenkij, Duanghathai. 2020. "Challenges to Women's Inclusion in Peace Processes in Thailand and Myanmar." International Feminist Journal of Politics. doi: 10.1080/14616742.2019.1698973.

Author: Duanghathai Buranajaroenkij

Abstract:

ENGLISH ABSTRACT:
This article discusses the challenges that women face in their attempts to engage with peace processes. It first reviews the existing literature and then provides an analysis based on in-depth interviews with women members of peace networks in Thailand and in Myanmar and key stakeholders with relevant knowledge. The findings highlight the challenges that women's networks face in both countries: (1) the challenge of getting a seat at the table in the peace processes where women are increasingly visible in peace-building activism yet still lack power to influence formal frameworks; (2) the challenge of getting representation and the support of various local communities; and finally, (3) the challenge of getting the message right in terms of balancing gender advocacy with peace building in a context where gender advocacy is perceived as disrupting social relations. These key findings suggest that, to be effective, women's peace networks have to find the right balance between gender advocacy and addressing these key challenges. The article ends with a set of recommendations aimed at strengthening the impact of women's peace networks.
 
THAI ABSTRACT:
บทความนี้อภิปรายถึงความท้าทายที่เกิดขึ้นเมื่อผู้หญิงพยายามเข้าสู่การมีส่วนร่วมในกระบวนการสันติภาพ โดยเริ่มจากการสำรวจวรรณกรรมและนาเสนอผลการวิเคราะห์ที่ได้จากการสัมภาษณ์เชิงลึกกับผู้หญิงที่เป็นสมาชิกขบวนการสันติภาพในประเทศไทยและเมียนมา รวมทั้งสัมภาษณ์ผู้ที่เกี่ยวข้อง ซึ่งพบว่าเครือข่ายผู้หญิงทั้งสองประเทศต่างก็ต้องเผชิญกับความท้าทายในสามด้าน ได้แก่ (1) ความท้าทายที่จะได้มีส่วนร่วมในกระบวนการพูดคุย บทบาทของผู้หญิงเป็นที่ประจักษ์แต่ก็ยังไม่มีอำนาจที่จะส่งผลต่อการพูดคุยที่เป็นทางการ (2) ความท้าทายในการเป็นตัวแทนและการสนับสนุนจากชุมชนในท้องถิ่น และสุดท้าย (3) ความท้าทายที่จะสื่อสารสิ่งที่ต้องการ ให้เกิดสมดุลระหว่างการสร้างความตระหนักรู้เรื่องเพศสภาพกับการสร้างสันติภาพ ในบริบทที่การรณรงค์เรื่องเพศสภาพอาจถูกมองว่าบ่อนทำลายความสัมพันธ์ทางสังคม ผลการวิจัยชี้ให้เห็นว่าเพื่อให้เกิดประสิทธิผลยิ่งขึ้นเครือข่ายผู้หญิงจำเป็นต้องค้นหาหนทางที่จะรณรงค์เรื่องเพศสภาพอย่างสมดุล พร้อมไปกับการจัดการความท้าทายที่สาคัญเหล่านี้ สุดท้ายบทความนี้มีข้อเสนอเพื่อทำให้งานของเครือข่ายผู้หญิงทวีผลยิ่งขึ้น

Keywords: peace process, women's participation, Gender, Myanmar, Thailand, ประเทศไทย, เมียนมา, เพศสภาพ, การมีส่วนร่วมของผู้หญิง, กระบวนการสันติภาพ

Topics: Gender, Women, Peacebuilding, Peace Processes Regions: Asia, Southeast Asia Countries: Myanmar, Thailand

Year: 2020

An Exploration of Gender-Based Violence in Eastern Myanmar in the Context of Political Transition: Findings from a Qualitative Sexual and Reproductive Health Assessment

Citation:

Tanabe, Mihoko, Alison Greer, Jennifer Leigh, Payal Modi, William W. Davis, Pue Pue Mhote, Conrad M. Otterness Jr., and Parveen Parmar. 2019. "An Exploration of Gender-Based Violence in Eastern Myanmar in the Context of Political Transition: Findings from a Qualitative Sexual and Reproductive Health Assessment." Sexual and Reproductive Health Matters 27 (2): 112-25.

Authors: Mihoko Tanabe, Alison Greer, Jennifer Leigh, Payal Modi, William W. Davis, Pue Pue Mhote, Eh May Htoo, Conrad M. Otterness Jr. , Parveen Parmar

Abstract:

In March 2011, the Myanmar Government transitioned to a nominally civilian parliamentary government, resulting in dramatic increases in international investments and tenuous peace in some regions. In March 2015, Community Partners International, the Women’s Refugee Commission, and four community-based organisations (CBOs) assessed community-based sexual and reproductive health (SRH) services in eastern Myanmar amidst the changing political contexts in Myanmar and Thailand. The team conducted 12 focus group discussions among women of reproductive age (18–49 years) with children under five and interviewed 12 health workers in Kayin State, Myanmar. In Mae Sot and Chiang Mai, Thailand, the team interviewed 20 representatives of CBOs serving the border regions. Findings are presented through the socioecological lens to explore gender-based violence (GBV) specifically, to examine continued and emerging issues in the context of the political transition. Cited GBV includes ongoing sexual violence/rape by the military and in the community, trafficking, intimate partner violence, and early marriage. Despite the political transition, women continue to be at risk for military sexual violence, are caught in the burgeoning economic push–pull drivers, and experience ongoing restrictive gender norms, with limited access to SRH services. There is much fluidity, along with many connections and interactions among the contributing variables at all levels of the socioecological model; based on a multisectoral response, continued support for innovative, community-based SRH services that include medical and psychosocial care are imperative for ethnic minority women to gain more agency to freely exercise their SR rights.

Keywords: conflict, Intimate partner violence, sexual violence, sexual and reproductive health, Trafficking, early marriage, gender-based violence

Topics: Armed Conflict, Ethnic/Communal Wars, Conflict, Domestic Violence, Gender, Women, Gender-Based Violence, Health, Reproductive Health, Military Forces & Armed Groups, Militaries, Peacebuilding, Peace Processes, Sexual Violence, Rape, Trafficking Regions: Asia, Southeast Asia Countries: Myanmar, Thailand

Year: 2019

Gender, Conflict, Peace, and UNSC Resolution 1325

Citation:

Shekhawat, Seema, ed. 2018. Gender, Conflict, Peace, and UNSC Resolution 1325. Lanham: Lexington Books.

Author: Seema Shekhawat

Annotation:

Summary:
"There is an increasing amount of literature on various aspects of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325. While appreciating this scholarship, this volume highlights some of the omissions and concerns to make a quality addition to the ongoing discourse on the intersection of gender with peace and security with a focus on 1325. It aims at a reality-check of the impressive to-dos list as the seventeen years since the Resolution passed provide an occasion to pause and ponder over the gap between the aspirations and the reality, the ideal and the practice, the promises and the action, the euphoria and the despair. The volume compiles carefully selected essays woven around Resolution 1325 to tease out the intricacies within both the Resolution and its implementation. Through a cocktail of well-known and some lesser-known case studies, the volume addresses complicated realities with the intention of impacting policy-making and the academic fields of gender, peace, and security. The volume emphasizes the significance of transforming formal peace making processes, and making them gender inclusive and gender sensitive by critically examining some omissions in the challenges that the Resolution implementation confronts. The major question the volume seeks to address is this: where are women positioned in the formal peace-making seventeen years after the adoption of Resolution 1325?" (Shekhawat 2018)
 
Table of Contents:
Introduction: Gender, Peace, and UNSC Resolution 1325
Seema Shekhawat
 
1. Redefining Women’s Roles in Internationl and Regional Law: The Case of Pre- and Post-War Peacebuilding in Liberia
Veronica Fynn Bruey
 
2. The Contribution of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women to the Implementation of Security Council Resolution 1325
Antal Berkes
 
3. Faith Matters in Women, Peace, and Security Practices
Elisabeth Porter
 
4. Creating or Improving a National Action Plan Based on UN Security Council Resolution 1325
Jan Marie Fritz
 
5. Widowhood Issues for Implementation of UNSCR 1325 and Subsequent Resolutions on Women, Peace, and Security
Margaret Owen
 
6. The Commodification of Intervention: The Example of the Women, Peace, and Security Agenda
Corey Barr
 
7. Beyond Borders and Binaries: A Feminist Look at Preventing Violence and Achieving Peace in an Era of Mass Migration
Aurora E. Bewicke
 
8. The Disconnection between Theory and Practice: Achieving Item 8b of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325
Onyinyechukwu Onyido
 
9. Gender and Feminism in the Israeli Peace Movement: Beyond UNSCR 1325
Amanda Bennett
 
10. Conflict Ghosts: The Significance of UN Resolution 1325 for the Syrian Women in Years of Conflict
Emanuela C. Del Re
 
11. The UNSC Resolution 1325 and Cypriot Women’s Activism: Achievements and Challenges
Maria Hadjipavlou and Olga Demetriou
 
12. Victims, Nationalists, and Supporters: UNSCR 1325 and the Roles of Ethnic Women’s Organizations in Peacebuilding in Burma/Myanmar
Mollie Pepper
 
13. Gender and the Building Up of Many “Peaces”: A Decolonial Perspective from Colombia
Priscyll Anctil Avoine, Yuly Andrea Mejia Jerez, and Rachel Tillman
 
14. “It’s All About Patriarchy”: UNSCR 1325, Cultural Constrains, and Women in Kashmir
Seema Shekhawat

Topics: Armed Conflict, Conflict Prevention, Displacement & Migration, Feminisms, Gender, Peace and Security, Peacebuilding, Peacekeeping, Peace Processes, Religion, UN Security Council Resolutions on WPS, UNSCR 1325 Regions: Africa, MENA, West Africa, Americas, South America, Asia, Middle East, South Asia, Southeast Asia, Europe, Southern Europe Countries: Colombia, Cyprus, India, Israel, Liberia, Myanmar, Pakistan, Syria

Year: 2018

The Praxis of Access: Gender in Myanmar’s National Land Use Policy

Citation:

Faxon, Hilary Oliva. 2015. “The Praxis of Access: Gender in Myanmar’s National Land Use Policy.” Paper presented at the Conference on Land Grabbing, Conflict and Agrarian‐Environmental Transformations: Perspectives from East and Southeast Asia, Chaing Mai University, June 5-6. 

Author: Hilary Olivia Faxon

Abstract:

In Myanmar, heated struggles around land grabs, acquisition, and formalization fail to acknowledge the complexity and heterogeneity of existing land relations. Gender dynamics are key to shaping these systems, and have been neglected in current research and policy. This paper examines women’s access to land and the emergence of gender discourse in land policy debates through a participant ethnography of the National Land Use Policy consultation process. I explore both ways in which land access is lived by rural women, and feminist contributions to land-based social movements. Attention to the differentiated yet interlinked spheres of the household, customary law, and land formalization enhances understanding of land politics, and women’s presence, gender concerns, and the nascent common identity of the pan-Myanmar women can catalyze effective advocacy for just land reform in Myanmar.

Topics: Development, Feminisms, Gender, Gendered Discourses, Households, Land Grabbing, Rights, Land Rights, Property Rights, Women's Rights Regions: Asia, Southeast Asia Countries: Myanmar

Year: 2015

Gender and Resilience: From Theory to Practice

Citation:

Le Masson, Virginie. 2016. “Gender and Resilience: From Theory to Practice.” Working Paper, BRACED Knowledge Manager, London.

Author: Virginie Le Masson

Annotation:

Summary: 
This paper presents a synthesis of four case studies documenting strategies towards building gender equality through resilience projects. It draws on the experience of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) involved in the implementation of the Building Resilience and Adaptation to Climate Extremes and Disasters (BRACED) projects: Mercy Corps (Uganda), ActionAid (Myanmar), Concern (Sudan/Chad) and Christian Aid and King’s College London (Burkina Faso). The analysis also reflects on discussions held during a writeshop that brought together NGO practitioners, donor representatives and researchers, to examine different approaches to integrate gender and social equality as part of efforts to build communities’ resilience to climate change and disasters. 
 
The papers seeks to document how gender inequalities manifest themselves in all four contexts affected by climate change; how gender is conceptualised in project theories of change (ToCs); the operationalisation of objectives to tackle gender inequalities; internal and external obstacles to the implementation of gender-sensitive activities; and drivers that help NGOs transform gender relations and build resilience. 
 
The four case studies describe how disasters and climate change affect gender groups in different ways and also underscore the patriarchal social norms that disproportionately restrict women and girls’ equal access to rights and resources. The resulting inequalities are likely to undermine women and girls’ resilience, and ultimately that of their households and communities – an assumption that underpins projects’ ToCs. Hence, projects that aim to enhance people’s resilience capacities have to recognise social diversities, inequalities and their inter-sectionality. If they fail to do so, they risk further marginalising and undermining the capacities of those who lack access to decision-making or experience discrimination. 
 
Based on lessons from NGOs’ experience, and challenges they face in the particular contexts where they operate, this papers aims to inform practitioners on how to draw on promising practices to make resilience projects inclusive and equitable. It also provides a set of recommendations to point out areas where further research is required to increase understanding of resilience to climate extremes and longer-term changes, and to suggest how donors and funding can best support efforts to build communities’ resilience. 

Topics: Environment, Climate Change, Environmental Disasters, Gender, Gendered Power Relations, Patriarchy, Gender Equality/Inequality, Intersectionality, Households, NGOs Regions: Africa, Central Africa, East Africa, West Africa, Asia, Southeast Asia Countries: Burkina Faso, Chad, Myanmar, Sudan, Uganda

Year: 2016

The Politics of Counting and Reporting Conflict-Related Sexual and Gender-Based Violence: the Case of Myanmar

Citation:

Davies, Sara E., and Jacqui True. 2017. “The Politics of Counting and Reporting Conflict-Related Sexual and Gender-Based Violence: the Case of Myanmar.” International Feminist Journal of Politics 19 (1): 4-21.

Authors: Sara E. Davies, Jacqui True

Abstract:

Scholars, states and international organizations have begun to systematically count, document and compare sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) in conflict-affected countries. Qualitative and quantitative studies point to a “tip of the iceberg” phenomenon, where there is a high prevalence but low level of actual reporting of SGBV. We investigate the conditions in which SGBV is reported or, more significantly, is not reported to discover the trends of reporting in politically oppressive environments where SGBV is thought to be occurring. We ask how the power to report in local conflict-affected areas is affected by national political tensions and pervasive gender discrimination. Reporting of SGBV in Myanmar, a country that has experienced multiple, protracted conflicts since independence, is examined. Analysis of open-access reports over a fifteen-year period reveals a pattern of silence that we argue is rooted in pervasive discriminatory civil and physical practices against women. Engaging with the deeply politicized and gender discriminatory context of conflict-affected societies enables us to see the anomalies of SGBV data and to highlight significant gaps in our knowledge about SGBV.

Keywords: ethnic conflict, human rights reporting, feminist methodology, Myanmar, Conflict-related sexual and gender-based violence

Topics: Ethnicity, Gender, Women, Gender-Based Violence, Conflict, Post-Conflict, Rights, Human Rights, Property Rights, Sexual Violence Regions: Asia, Southeast Asia Countries: Myanmar

Year: 2017

Suicide Ideation and Victimization Among Refugee Women Along the Thai–Burma Borde

Citation:

Falb, Kathryn L., Marie C. McCormick, David Hemenway, Katherine Anfinson, and Jay G. Silverman. 2013. “Suicide Ideation and Victimization Among Refugee Women Along the Thai–Burma Border.” Journal of Traumatic Stress 26 (5): 631–35. doi:10.1002/jts.21846.

Authors: Katherine Anfinson, Kathryn L. Falb, David Hemenway, Marie C. McCormick, Jay G. Silverman

Abstract:

Refugee women may experience multiple forms of victimization. The hypotheses underlying the present analyses were that experiences of victimization during conflict and intimate partner violence (IPV) would be associated with heightened odds of suicide ideation among refugee women living in 3 camps along the Thai–Burma border. Descriptive statistics were generated to describe the prevalence of conflict victimization, past-year IPV victimization, past-month suicide ideation, and covariates among partnered women with complete data (N = 848) from a cross-sectional survey conducted in early 2008. Logistic generalized estimating equations were used to assess the crude and adjusted relationships between variables. The mean age of women was 32.12 years, 91.0% were married, and 78.8% were of Karen ethnicity. Overall, 7.4% of women reported past-month suicide ideation. Of those women who did not experience any victimization or conflict victimization only, 5.1% and 5.2% reported suicide ideation, respectively. By contrast 26.7% of women who experienced only IPV victimization reported suicide ideation, and 50.0% of women who experienced both forms of victimization reported suicide ideation. Understanding each form of violence victimization and their relationships to suicide ideation may be important for targeting psychosocial services and violence prevention programs within protracted refugee settings.

Topics: Armed Conflict, Displacement & Migration, Refugees, Gender, Women, Gender Analysis, Health, Mental Health, Trauma, Households Regions: Asia, Southeast Asia Countries: Myanmar, Thailand

Year: 2013

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