Justice for the Women of Burma?

Brave women from Burma testified in New York City last Tuesday about years of abuse by the Burmese military regime. The Nobel Women's Initiative and the Women's League of Burma convened a “people’s tribunal” to break the silence surrounding the military junta’s reign of fear and oppression. It is an indictment of the judicial system in Burma that they had to seek justice in New York -- over 8,000 miles from Rangoon.

Certainly no court will hear them out in Burma, let alone hold the perpetrators to account. Instead, a distinguished panel of judges, including Nobel Peace Laureates Shirin Ebadi and Jody Williams, Dr. Heisoo Shin from the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), and UN Special Rapporteur Vitit Muntarbhorn, heard the women’s horrific accounts.

Among the most outrageous were the testimonials of widespread sexual violence by the Burmese military. Unfortunately, this is nothing new. The regime has repeatedly shrugged off offers from the UN Special Rapporteur on Burma to carry out an independent assessment of allegations of sexual violence.

The people’s tribunal, however, lacked the capacity to investigate the full scale of the violence, even though the survivors represent thousands of untold stories across Burma. The tribunal concluded the proceedings by calling on the international community to stop ignoring the human emergency in Burma. The UN should take note of the tribunal and convene its own independent Commission of Inquiry into the possible crimes in that country.

Photo credit: worak