On the sixth-month anniversary of the latest cycle of military violence in Burma (Myanmar), Nobel Peace Laureates Shirin Ebadi (Iran), Tawakkol Karman (Yemen), and Mairead Maguire (Northern Ireland), are traveling to Bangladesh to assess first-hand the situation of the Rohingya refugees and the violence against the Rohingya women—including high levels of sexual violence.
The delegation will visit refugee camps near the Bangladesh-Burma border, and also meet with Bangladeshi Prime Minster Sheikh Hasina Wazed. Working in partnership with Bangladeshi women’s organization Naripokkho, the Laureates will also learn from the experiences of Bangladeshi women’s organizations working to end the horrific violence against Rohingya women, and advance women’s rights and build peace in the country and across the region.
FAST FACTS:
The Rohingya are a Muslim ethnic minority group often described as the world’s most persecuted people. They are from Burma’s Rakhine state and have suffered decades of systematic discrimination and displacement. There are now nearly 700,000 living in refugee camps on the Bangladesh-Burma border.
Burmese security forces have committed widespread rape against women and girls as part of a campaign of ethnic cleansing against Rohingya Muslims in Burma’s Rakhine State. To learn more about the use of systematic sexual violence against Rohingya women, here are two recent reports:
A Kaladan Press report released in February 2018:
Rape by Command: Sexual Violence as a Weapon Against Rohingya
A Human Rights Watch report released in November 2017:
All of My Body Was Pain:Sexual Violence against Rohingya Women and Girls in Burma
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Learn more about the situation of Rohingya women HERE.