Unseen abuse in the regime's prisons
Arbitrary arrests, humiliating body searches, and denied pre- or post-natal care are the focus of a briefing paper by the International Commission of Jurists, a Geneva-based NGO, with testimonies and complaints from members of a group "targeted" by the military three years since the coup. More than 1,500 women are languishing in Myanmar prisons for political reasons.
Bangkok (AsiaNews) – The International Commission of Jurists (ICJ), a Geneva-based, non-governmental organisation active since 1952, released a briefing paper that sheds light on a hitherto little-known aspect of the repression by Myanmar’s military since it seized power on 1 February 2021.
Based on accounts by women deprived of liberty by the regime and research by lawyers and activists who try to protect the women’s rights and dignity, the paper, titled Unseen and Unheard: Violations of the Human Rights of Women Deprived of Liberty in Myanmar, is an indictment of the physical and psychological punishments inflicted on many women of various ethnic backgrounds in Myanmar.
Between the military coup on 1 February 2021 and 20 June 2024, almost 4,000 women were detained for political reasons, including 1,528 women convicted on spurious charges, this according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners Burma (AAPPB).
The briefing paper can be used by those who are called upon to examine the accusation of genocide already made against Myanmar’s regime.
“After arbitrarily arresting and detaining women and girls for their legitimate political activism, the Myanmar military forces have subjected them to abject acts of gender-based violence amounting to grave human rights violations and to crimes under international law,” said Melissa Upreti, ICJ Regional Director, Asia and the Pacific.
“These crimes include acts of torture and other ill-treatment inflicted on women deprived of liberty intentionally, to cause them severe pain and suffering, and as a tool for crushing dissent,” she added.
The list of abuses include beatings, sexual violence and humiliating body searches, punitive disciplinary methods and excessive use of force, prolonged solitary confinement, denial of sanitary facilities and proper health care, as well as failure to provide pre- and post-natal care and menstrual products.
Access to justice for women wrongly held and abused in Myanmar prisons is practically non-existent and efforts by advocates trying to take legal action in cases of torture and other illegal procedures during questioning and detention have fallen on deaf ears.
For this reason, the ICJ calls on the military junta to immediately stop violating the rights of women deprived of their liberty because they oppose its control, and urges relevant UN agencies, UN member states, and independent human rights experts to boost documentation and accountability efforts in favour of this hitherto invisible part of Myanmar’s resistance movement
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07/02/2019 17:28
11/03/2021 14:00
