Almost half of female human rights activists in Myanmar interviewed for a new study reported sexual harassment and nearly all considered the threat of extrajudicial killing a “very real part of their work”.
The Assistance Association for Political Prisoners and Burma Partnership talked to 75 activists for the study, published Friday, which revealed a continuing “climate of fear” amid surveillance, threats and harrassment.
The report, titled ‘How to Defend the Defenders’, cited the suspicious deaths of freelance reporter Ko Par Gyi, who died while in custody of the military last year, and Daw Khin Win, killed while protesting against a copper mine in December.
One land rights activist, who was not named, said: “The businesses [big corporations] are multimillion dollar investments and they only need to use one hundred thousand [kyat], perhaps five hundred thousand, to kill someone.”
About 45 per cent of women interviewed said they had experienced sexual harassment, with some reporting assault, while LGBT campaigners reported vicious attacks on social media.
Interfaith activists said that “local propaganda and slanderous statements” had turned communities against them.
The report alleges that authorities systematically monitor the movements of human rights defenders “in order to employ tactics that best prevent them from working”.
Commenting in the report, Tomas Ojea Quintana, a former Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar, said: “This report…comes out at a suitable timing, as the democratic transition should no longer postpone the essential role that civil society have to play, and the effective mechanisms to protect them.”
Read the full text here.
Photo / An activist holds a white armband at a gathering in downtown Yangon on March 13 / Coconuts Yangon
