Parliament votes on biggest shake-up to reproductive rights in England and Wales in 60 years
Casey says in the past government has talked relentlessly about the need for better data sharing between departments.
But she says there is a need to consider making this mandatory.
I was there when the tragedy of Soham happened. We knew at that point that if we had had better data sharing there’s a possibility that we might have saved those girls’ lives. There’s certaintly an absolute clarity that intelligence would have been much faster in either avoiding it or or actually finding that dreadful human being earlier.
And we’ve known that forever onwards. And so I think there is also an issue that the Home Office can’t drag their feet on, looking at police intelligence systems, given we’ve living in the 21st century. Probably everbody in this room can connect within seconds. Yet we had Befordshire police finding a young boy that was being, in my mind trafficked to London. But the data intelligence system did not make it easy for them to find that he was in Deptford and being circled and dealt with by predators.
I feel very strongly on issues that are as searing as people’s race, when we know the prejudice and racism that people of colour experience in this country, to not get how you treat that data right is a different level of public irresponsibility.
Sorry, to put it so bluntly, I didn’t put it that bluntly yesterday, but I think it’s particularly important if you are collecting those sorts of issues to get them 100% right.
When we asked the good people of Greater Manchester Police to help us look at the data we also collected – I think it’s in the report – what was happening with child abuse more generally, and of course … if you look at the data on child sexual exploitation, suspects and offenders, it’s disproportionately Asian heritage. If you look at the data for child abuse, it is not disproportionate, and it is white men.
So again, just note to everybody, really outside here rather than in here. Let’s just keep calm here about how you interrogate data and what you draw from it.
For nearly 20 years, the women of Calama traveled into the desert each day to search for their loved ones.
Monday through Sunday, sun-up to sundown, they scoured the harsh desert earth with strainers and rakes.
Searching and hoping.
The crunch of the ground beneath their feet. The harsh wind whipping at their clothes. The hot sun on their faces.
“For us there was no wind, there was no cold, there was no heat, there was no hunger,” Violeta Berríos says.
Her partner, Mario Argüelles Toro, was a taxi driver and a local leader in the Socialist Party. It was his death sentence.
Mario Argüelles Toro was detained and tortured just weeks after the September 1973 coup d’état by Chilean General Augusto Pinochet.
On October 19, 1973, Mario was taken from prison, executed, and disappeared alongside 25 others for their support for the former democratically elected President Salvador Allende.
Executed during what they called the Chilean army’s “Caravan of Death.”
The men’s partners and mothers responded, transforming their sadness into action.
They founded the Group of Family Members of the Politically Executed and Disappeared Detainees of Calama.
They took to the desert, scratching at it each day, demanding that it reveal its secrets.
And after years, finally, it did.
In 1990, in a place called Quebrada del Buitre, or Vultures Gorge, on the edge of a hillside overlooking the expansive Atacama desert, the women found fragments of bones and pieces of teeth.
This was the location their loved ones had laid buried for 17 years. But most of their bodies were no longer there.
Just as the women were getting closer, General Augusto Pinochet had ordered their remains dug up, removed and buried someplace else. An evil scavenger hunt, in which the rules are rigged and the dice are staked.
Between 1990 and 2003, the women would find the partial remains of 21 of the victims.
Today, a memorial lives on a hillside just off highway 23, heading east out of Calama.
This was once barren desert for miles, but it now lies beneath a sea of wind turbines. The sun burns overhead. The wind threatens to knock you over.
The memorial is in the shape of a circle. Almost like a small amphitheater, with stairs leading down. In the middle is a patch of dry Atacama earth. Rocks and small marble stones are laid there in the shape of a cross. Pink and red flowers have been placed throughout. Pink concrete columns rise into the air. Each of them bears a name inscribed on a little plaque. The name of each of those who was detained, tortured, executed and disappeared here in the Atacama desert.
This is the location of the mass grave, where the women of Calama finally found the fragments of bones that proved their loved ones had been here.
Behind the memorial is a crater in the ground, where the grave was opened, and where they exhumed what they could. Rocks, in piles or in tiny circles, mark the locations where parts of their loved ones were found.
The memorial is a sentinel in the desert. A beacon of memory. Memory of lives lost. Of the horror and the pain of the past. But also the memory of the women’s determination. Their hope and struggle. Their resistance in the desert…
The women are still searching for and demanding justice.
For nearly 20 years, the women of Calama traveled into the desert each day to search for their loved ones — their husbands and partners who were ripped from them, detained, tortured, executed, and disappeared in the weeks following Chile’s US-backed 1973 coup d’état.
Monday through Sunday, sun-up to sundown, they scoured the harsh desert earth with strainers and rakes, searching and hoping.
And finally, in 1990, on the edge of a hillside overlooking the expansive Atacama desert, the women found fragments of bones and pieces of teeth. This was the location their loved ones had laid buried for 17 years.
This is the May Week of the Disappeared — a week to remember and honor those who have been forcibly disappeared and the fight for truth and justice for their families.
This is episode 38 of Stories of Resistance—a podcast co-produced by The Real News and Global Exchange. Independent investigative journalism, supported by Global Exchange’s Human Rights in Action program. Each week, we’ll bring you stories of resistance like this. Inspiration for dark times.
If you like what you hear, please subscribe, like, share, comment, or leave a review.
You can also follow Michael Fox’s reporting and support his work and this podcast at patreon.com/mfox.
NYC Women’s March Jan 21, 2017 (Image by David Andersson)
The mainstream media seems to be waiting for a clash between Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum and U.S. President Donald Trump. Both figures embody starkly different visions of the present moment. Sheinbaum, Mexico’s first woman president and a self-described humanist, enjoys an approval rating around 70% and stands in constant tension with her northern neighbor. Trump, by contrast, has taken a right-wing, macho, discriminatory posture—an attempt to impose dominance on the world through fear and bullying.
Sheinbaum’s election marks a significant step forward for women, especially in a country historically defined by machismo. Who would have imagined, even a few decades ago, that Mexico—a deeply patriarchal society—would elect a woman to its highest office?
Her presidency is not just symbolic; it is a declaration of new values. During a press conference in Mexico City on January 31, 2025, a reporter asked President Sheinbaum about the historical significance of designating 2025 as the Year of Indigenous Women.
Her response was breathtaking in its clarity and force. She calmly broke with conventional political rhetoric, beginning with, “Why not?” Then she continued:
“Indigenous women represent a vindication; they are the origin of Mexico, and we have never recognized them in the way we are recognizing them now. The question is: why does this seem strange?”
When the reporter asked whether there was another reason behind the designation, she replied:
“Of course—there is a historical reason, a reason of social justice. Indigenous women have been historically the most discriminated against and the least recognized. And now we are claiming justice for all women, and from the beginning, who do we have to recognize first? Indigenous women, who for years have been forgotten in our history. That is the reason. So perhaps the real question is: why does it seem strange that we celebrate 2025 as the Year of Indigenous Women? There is no other reason—this is enough.”
Sheinbaum’s answer encapsulates the essence of the ongoing revolution in women’s roles—breaking glass ceilings and honoring those whose voices have been silenced for generations. It’s not just about power; it’s about recognition, healing, and justice.
Just a hundred years ago, women around the world were largely confined to the domestic sphere, often spending decades of their lives giving birth, raising children, and, in many cases, dying shortly after menopause. In the early 1900s, life expectancy for women in the U.S. was about 48.3 years (compared to 46.3 years for men). By 1950, it had increased to around 71 years, and by 2000, to nearly 80. These numbers reflect advances in healthcare and a radical shift in the quality and autonomy of women’s lives.
The real revolution, however, took place not in statistics but in everyday life. Women began stepping out of the home and into public life—not as a coordinated movement, but through millions of individual acts of courage and determination. Day by day, they did things they hadn’t done the day before. They pushed boundaries—seeking education, financial independence, and visibility in all sectors: sports, entertainment, academia, science, and politics. They opened doors that had long been closed and refused to turn back.
This transformation manifests differently across cultures but follows similar patterns. In the economic sphere, for instance, China’s tech industry now boasts that 41% of companies have at least one female founder, surpassing the representation in many Western countries. In family structures, about 21% of mothers in the United States were single mothers in 2023, reflecting women’s increased ability to form families on their own terms. In governance, the European Union now mandates gender parity in its governing bodies, institutionalizing what began as individual women’s political aspirations.
Perhaps most telling are the migration patterns that reveal women voting with their feet. How many women, for example, have migrated alone from South America to cities like New York, fleeing machismo and seeking a better life for themselves and their children? These personal journeys represent millions of individual revolutions in consciousness—women deciding they deserve more than traditional structures offered them.
While this quiet revolution has transformed many institutions, others remain resistant to change. Religious organizations, in particular, have often been among the last bastions of male dominance. One of the major challenges awaiting the new pope is the Catholic Church’s exclusion of women from the priesthood and senior leadership roles. How can it still be justified, in 2025, that half of humanity is denied full participation in one of the world’s most influential spiritual institutions?
So, how did this transformation unfold—this unstoppable movement toward equality? Importantly, it didn’t emerge from political parties. Both the left and right lagged behind when it came to women’s rights; for a long time, even so-called progressive movements failed to treat women with the respect they deserved. And today, political and religious forces in many countries are actively working to reverse this progress, as seen in the erosion of abortion rights in parts of the United States.
What makes this revolution so extraordinary is how it differs from violent political revolutions of the past. There were no firing squads, gulags, or mass exile of opponents. Women changed society by transforming themselves and their immediate environments—step by step, generation by generation—creating new possibilities for life, work, and community. And they did so without tanks, nuclear threats, concentration camps, or revenge.
This is a revolution of consciousness—a profound shift in how half of humanity perceives itself and its possibilities. It has unfolded through presence, creativity, and persistence rather than through domination. In leaders like Sheinbaum, we see not just the fruits of this revolution but its continuation—a vision of power based not on fear but on recognition, not on domination but on justice. It is shaping a future not just for women, but for all humanity.
Exclusive: Transgender activists worry that EHRC is taking an overly literal approach to supreme court ruling
A cross-party committee of MPs has written to the UK’s equalities watchdog to seek assurances that its guidance on how organisations interpret the landmark supreme court ruling on gender issues does not ignore the needs of transgender people.
The letter from the Commons women and equalities committee to Kishwer Falkner, the chair of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, also urged her to extend the two-week timetable for people to submit views on how the EHRC’s code of practice for organisations should work, saying this should be at least six weeks.
World now in era of repressive regimes’ impunity, climate inaction and unchecked corporate power, says report
The first 100 days of Donald Trump’s presidency have “supercharged” a global rollback of human rights, pushing the world towards an authoritarian era defined by impunity and unchecked corporate power, Amnesty International warns today.
In its annual report on the state of human rights in 150 countries, the organisation said the immediate ramifications of Trump’s second term had been the undermining of decades of progress and the emboldening of authoritarian leaders.
Lured by promises of an education but allegedly trapped in servitude and self-mortification, the former members are suing the ultra-conservative organisation over their ‘exploitation and abuse’
The first item Opus Dei gave 12-year-old Andrea Martínez was a pink dress. The second was a schedule that detailed every task for every minute of her day. Then, when she was 16, she was given a cilice – a spiked metal chain to wear around her thigh – and a whip.
In the late 1980s, Opus Dei, a secretive and ultra-conservative Catholic organisation, promised Martínez an escape from a life of poverty in rural Argentina. By attending one of their schools, they said, she would receive an education and opportunities.
A political prisoner lifts the lid on the hardships and fantasies of life in Iran’s most notorious jail
The Iranian political prisoner Sepideh Gholian’s account of life on the women’s wards in Bushehr and Evin prisons is a blindsiding blend of horrifying concrete detail, dizzying surrealism and wild optimism. In every line and in every moment it attempts to recreate, it is entirely and unconditionally defiant. For the reader, discombobulation comes from (at least) two directions. At one moment, you are presented with, for example, the story of a woman attempting to abort her foetus under permanent camera and human surveillance, because the consequences for her unborn child, herself and other family members if the pregnancy continues are unimaginably violent. At another you are instructed how to make elephant ears pastries, designed for large gatherings of visitors, in the cheery tones of the encouraging expert (“It’s not at all messy and impossible to get wrong. You don’t even need an oven. The sweetness is up to you.”)
Gholian was detained and tortured in 2018 after helping to organise a strike by sugarcane workers. Released on bail at the beginning of 2019, she was quickly rearrested after Iranian state television broadcasted her “confession”, evidently obtained under duress, and returned to prison. On her release four years later, she recorded a video message in which she removed her hijab, denounced the regime and called for the downfall of supreme leader Ali Khamenei. Unsurprisingly, the video went viral, and even less surprisingly she was immediately returned to Evin prison, where she remains (the introduction by journalist Maziar Bahari tells us that, for “security reasons”, he can’t tell us exactly how her writing has been smuggled out).
Woman who worked with western governments in her home country before fleeing the Taliban told to return
An Afghan woman who risked her life to defend human rights in her home country before fleeing to the UK has been told by the Home Office it is safe for her to return after officials rejected her asylum claim.
Mina (not her real name) worked for western government-backed projects and was involved in training and mentoring women across Afghanistan, which left her in grave danger even before the Taliban took over in 2021.
In 1945, when the United Nations Charter was drafted, its authors and those who first adopted it carefully crafted language on how to deal with armed conflict in the world. Between the signing of the charter in June and its coming into force in October, the United States dropped atomic bombs on two Japanese cities: Hiroshima, on 6 August, and Nagasaki, on 9 August. It is hard to digest the fact that as the charter’s solemn preamble was being formalised, setting out to ‘save succeeding generations from the scourge of war, which twice in our lifetime has brought untold sorrow to mankind’, the United States armed forces were preparing to destroy two civilian cities in a country already on the brink of surrender.
On 14 March 2025, IDRC announced that it is funding research to uphold fundamental democratic freedoms and address rising threats to peoples’ rights. The CAD4.13 million investment supports six projects across five regions:
Demonstrators in Kampala, Uganda, march in 2018 to draw attention to the murders, kidnappings and, activists claim, a lack of action by the police in response. Frederic Noy/Panos Pictures
The freedom to associate, participate in decision-making and express views is fundamental to democracy. Yet, in many countries around the world, these hard-won political and civil rights are being questioned and eroded through physical attacks, online intimidation, smear campaigns, digital surveillance and the lack of response from authorities when attacks occur. Legal and policy restrictions limit individual rights such as same-sex unions and reproductive health services while, increasingly, obstacles like funding bans and censorship are reducing the ability of people and organizations to contest these measures.
Research is needed to inform the strategies and actions of organizations, groups and movements that advocate for the respect for human rights. Research institutions, networks, and women’s rights and LGBTI+ organizations are leading IDRC-supported research to:
understand what drives the erosion of rights in each context
analyze the strategies used to counter these trends
explore how to strengthen rights defenders, for example through alliance-building and cross-movement solidarity
generate policy recommendations to safeguard rights
Alan Lu for RFA on 5 March 2025 refers to a a new report which shows the extent of Beijing’s arbitrary detentions, with severe sentences for prisoners of conscience.
Chinese authorities have arbitrarily detained thousands of people for peacefully defending or exercising their rights over the past six years and convicted 1,545 prisoners of conscience, a rights group said on Wednesday.
Chinese Human Rights Defenders, or CHRD, a non-government organization of domestic and overseas Chinese rights activists, said the scope and scale of wrongful detention by Chinese authorities may constitute crimes against humanity.
“They were sentenced and imprisoned on charges that stem from laws that are not in conformity with the Chinese government’s domestic and international human rights obligations,” the group said in a report.
“Their cases proceeded through the full criminal justice system, with police, prosecutors, and courts arbitrarily depriving them of their liberty in violation of their human rights.”
Prisoners of conscience have faced severe penalties, with an average sentence of six years, increasing to seven for national security charges.
Three people, identified as Tashpolat Tiyip, Sattar Sawut and Yang Hengjun, were sentenced to death, while two, Rahile Dawut and Abdurazaq Sayim, received life sentences, the group said, adding that 48 were jailed for at least a decade.
Map of sentenced prisoners of conscience in mainland China, excluding Hong Kong and Macao. (CHRD)
Among the convicted, women activists and marginalized groups, including ethnic Tibetans and Uyghurs, were disproportionately represented among those wrongfully detained, the group said.
Out of all the prisoners of conscience aged 60 or older, two-thirds were women, it added.
“Human rights experts and international experts have raised that people over the age of 60 should generally not be held in custody due to the effects on their physical and mental health,” Angeli Datt, research consultant with CHRD, told journalists in a press briefing Wednesday.
“That two-thirds of them are women was really shocking to me,” she said.
“Worse still, the impunity Chinese government officials enjoy at home emboldens them to commit abuses abroad,” the group said.
China dismissed a Swiss report last month alleging that it pressures Tibetans and Uyghurs in Switzerland to spy on their communities.
‘Endangering national security’
The CHRD said that under Chinese leader Xi Jinping, the scope and scale of the use of arbitrary detention to silence critics and punish human rights personnel had grown.
The organization documented a total of 58 individuals known to have been convicted of “endangering national security.”
“The overall average prison sentence for a national security crime is 6.72 years, though this figure excludes those sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve or life imprisonment,” it said.
In Hong Kong, more people were convicted of “subversion” and “inciting subversion” — terms that the U.N. describes as “broad and imprecise, making them prone to misapplication and misuse.”
In one 2024 case, authorities convicted 45 people for participating in a primary election, an act fully protected under both domestic and international law. Subversion charges accounted for 37% of all prisoners of conscience sentenced in Hong Kong during this period.
One in four countries report backlash on women’s rights in 2024
Women’s and girls’ rights are facing unprecedented growing threats worldwide, from higher levels of discrimination to weaker legal protections, and less funding for programmes and institutions that support and protect women.
Despite important progress, only 87 countries have ever been led by a woman, and a woman or girl is killed every 10 minutes by a partner or member of her own family. Digital technology and artificial intelligence spread harmful stereotypes, while the digital gender gap limits women’s opportunities.
In the past decade, the world registered a disturbing 50 percent increase in the number of women and girls living in conflict, and women’s rights defenders confront daily harassment, personal attacks and even death. Recent global crises—like COVID-19, the climate emergency, soaring food and fuel prices—are only increasing the urgency to respond.
“UN Women is committed to ensuring that ALL Women and Girls, everywhere, can fully enjoy their rights and freedoms,” affirmed UN Women Executive Director Sima Bahous. “Complex challenges stand in the way of gender equality and women’s empowerment, but we remain steadfast, pushing forward with ambition and resolve. Women and girls are demanding change—and they deserve nothing less.”…
Today’s report also features the new Beijing+30 Action Agenda, a courageous roadmap to complete our unfinished business by focusing on:
A digital revolution for all women and girls: We must ensure equal access to technology, equip women and girls to lead in AI and digital innovation, and guarantee their online safety and privacy.
Freedom from poverty: Investments in comprehensive social protection, universal health coverage, education, and robust care services are needed for women and girls to thrive and can create millions of green and decent jobs.
Zero violence: Countries must adopt and implement legislation to end violence against women and girls, in all its forms, with well-resourced plans that include support for community-based organizations on the front lines of response and prevention.
Full and equal decision-making power: Temporary special measures like gender quotas have proven their effectiveness in rapidly increasing women’s participation.
Peace and security: Fully finance national plans on women, peace and security and gender-responsive humanitarian aid are essential. Frontline women’s organizations, so often the first responders to crisis, must receive dedicated, sustained funding to build lasting peace.
Climate justice: We must prioritize women’s and girls’ rights in climate adaptation, center their leadership and knowledge, and ensure they benefit from new green jobs.
Across these six Actions, putting young women and girls at the heart of our efforts is the best way to guarantee success, both today and tomorrow. These six plus one actions have the potential to unleash progress on women’s rights and put us back on track for 2030.
The Beijing+30 commemoration and the forthcoming UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW69) are clear opportunities to enshrine this Action Agenda into national policies, regional strategies, and global agreements.
In a pivotal year for women and girls, that is also a year of pushback and crises like no other, let us push women’s rights forward to create a world where all women and girls enjoy equal rights and equal opportunities. We can be the first generation that can live in an equal world.
Ahead of International Women’s Day, Amnesty International’s Secretary General, Agnès Callamard, said:
“The significance of International Women’s Day 2025 cannot be overstated. It is no longer a case of addressing unfinished business on the gender justice front, but one of bracing ourselves to resist active regression and a mounting assault on our rights.
“Thirty years ago, 189 governments came together at the Fourth World Conference on Women to adopt the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, a groundbreaking blueprint for strengthening women’s rights endorsed by thousands of activists. Despite significant progress since then, the world has failed to fully deliver on all the promises. From rape and femicide to coercion, control and assaults on our reproductive rights, violence against women and girls still threatens their safety, happiness and very existence in a multitude of ways.
“And crucially, we are now going backwards. The aggressive patriarchal crusade led by President Trump and other powerful leaders against the rights and bodily autonomy of women and gender-diverse people has already had devasting consequences not just in the United States but all over the world. By dismantling domestic efforts to tackle gender-based, racial and other forms of discrimination, erasing recognition of transgender identity, and ending international funding for abortion counselling or referrals, the US administration is shamefully erasing years of hard-fought gains.
“Let us be clear, this trend has deeper roots than President Trump’s recent election. For several years now, brazen anti-rights movements have conspired to turn back the clock to an age when patriarchal oppression was the norm. We cannot afford to be complacent in the face of this gathering storm, for women, girls and LGBTQI+ people are under attack the world over.
“Amnesty International calls on states and non-state actors who believe in universal values and a rule-based international order to resist this accelerated and well-resourced attack against women’s rights. We call on them to strengthen protections of women, girls, LGBTQI+ people and other marginalized groups against gender-based violence. We urge them to recognize and support the vital work of all women human rights defenders and all those on the frontlines of the fight for sexual and reproductive rights, and to implement concrete measures to protect and empower them.
“We appeal to all to respect sexual and reproductive rights and prevent rollbacks, including by revoking any laws that criminalize or punish people for exercising these rights, as well as fully decriminalizing, providing and funding universal access to abortion.
“Finally, this International Women’s Day, Amnesty International reiterates its call on states to recognize gender apartheid under international law as a crime against humanity. Doing so would fill a major gap in the global legal framework and help to combat institutionalized and systematic domination and oppression on the basis of gender, no matter where it occurs.
“Despite suffering setbacks and facing countless attempts to block, divide and undermine us throughout history, feminist, LGBTI+ and grassroots movements keep marching forward. We may be walking a rocky path, but we will never stop fighting for a world where women, girls and gender-diverse people are free to enjoy the full range of human rights without discrimination or fear of reprisal.”
On 7 March 2025 SaferWorld carried a post “Still standing: The resilience of women peacebuilders in a time of crisis”
As we mark International Women’s Day 2025, women’s rights organisations (WROs) and frontline activists in crisis and conflict settings are standing strong despite immense challenges. ..Yet, while their work is more critical than ever, the harsh reality is that many are being forced to operate with dwindling resources, due to global funding cuts and shifting donor priorities towards militarisation, over a genuine investment in long-term peace, security and gender justice.
At a time when conflict, displacement and violence against women are escalating, and misogyny is a core pillar of the far-right agenda, these cuts will only deepen existing inequalities and undermine efforts to build sustainable peace and security globally. The reduction in funding for gender equality and Women, Peace and Security (WPS) initiatives threatens to reverse decades of progress and compounds the global rollback on women’s equality, safety and security. For example, cuts to the UK official development assistance (ODA) budget in 2021 led to a 30 per cent reduction in funding to programming with a focus on gender equality and to a 66% reduction in funding to WROs compared to 2017. WROs and women-led organisations – many of which are small community groups – often struggle to access direct, flexible and long-term funding, despite being the first responders in humanitarian crises and leading conflict prevention and peace efforts. When funding disappears, so do vital services, safe spaces for survivors of gender-based violence and conflict-related sexual violence, safe spaces for women peacebuilders to re-mobilise, legal aid for women and girls who have been displaced, and advocacy that ensures women’s voices are central in peace processes. But despite these constraints, WROs and women peacebuilders are still standing. Their resilience is evident in their ability to adapt, mobilise local resources and continue working in the most difficult circumstances. But resilience alone is not enough – they need meaningful and sustained support.
As the world commemorates International Women’s Day and gathers at the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) to discuss gender equality and sustainable development, we reaffirm our commitment to ensuring that women and girls play a central role in peacebuilding and conflict prevention efforts around the world.
The international community, donors, funders and philanthropists will need to act urgently to ensure that WROs are not just surviving but thriving. This means:
Increasing direct, flexible and long-term funding and shifting power to local women-led organisations, women activists and women’s groups – we have seen the value in our work of providing sustained core funding to WROs, moving beyond short-term, project-based grants to ensure continuity of their critical efforts in conflict prevention, peacebuilding and humanitarian response. To make this shift meaningful, international organisations and donors should prioritise direct and flexible funding to frontline WROs rather than channelling resources through large intermediaries. This will ensure that funding reaches those who are best placed to drive lasting change within their communities.
Ensuring women’s leadership in conflict prevention, peace and humanitarian processes – women from all backgrounds and marginalised communities must have a seat at decision-making tables, not just as implementers but as equal partners in shaping policies and solutions that affect their lives.
Standing up for gender equality and women’s rights – urgently pushing back against reversals in women’s rights and gender equality, especially in fragile and conflict-affected contexts, where regressive policies and shrinking civic space are eroding hard-won gains. Women peacebuilders, human rights defenders and frontline activists are already standing up to these challenges, demanding that women’s voices remain central. Their leadership must be protected, amplified and meaningfully supported to sustain progress and counteract the global rollback on gender equality.
Protecting and supporting women human rights defenders and peacebuilding organisations – governments and international actors must recognise and safeguard the work of women human rights defenders and peacebuilding organisations in conflict zones, ensuring they can operate without fear of reprisals.
Strengthening accountability mechanisms – governments and multilateral bodies must hold themselves accountable to their commitments to the WPS agenda and support localisation of the UN Security Council Resolution 1325 on WPS.
Women’s rights organisations are the backbone of peace and resilience in crisis and conflict settings. This International Women’s Day, we celebrate their unwavering commitment – but celebration is not enough. The global community must act with urgency to fund, support and protect these organisations so they can continue to drive meaningful change.
A new report takes mobility hubs (traditionally, transit stations) and asks: How can planners design these spaces around the needs of women and caregivers?
Imagine a centralized place in your neighborhood where you can chat with your friends over coffee, buy a few carrots for dinner, fill a prescription or watch your kids play on a playground – all while accessing the train, bus, bikeshare or rideshare.
“Part of the feedback that we’ve gotten from practitioners is that it seems a bit utopian,” says Natalia Perez-Bobadilla, Research Communications Specialist at the Shared-Use Mobility Center (SUMC) and one of the authors.
The global celebration of International Women’s Day is a call to action to support and amplify the efforts of the extraordinary girls and women around the world who are tirelessly working within their communities to defend their rights and to empower future generations.
Last month, we saw the Argentinian federal court issue arrest warrants against 25 Myanmar officials, including the seniormost military leaders, for genocide and crimes against humanity committed against the Rohingya community between 2012 and 2018. Our thoughts immediately went to the brave Rohingya women who helped make this significant legal action possible.
For years, the Shanti Mohila (Peace Women), a group of over 400 Rohingya women living in the refugee camps in southeastern Bangladesh, have defied societal expectations and conservative gender norms.
They are leaders in their community fighting for recognition and justice for the harms endured at the hands of the Myanmar military. They play a vital role as leaders, educators, and advocates for justice.
The 2017 “clearance operations” by the Myanmar military against the historically persecuted Rohingya Muslim minority living in the Rakhine state were a series of widespread and systematic attacks involving mass killings, torture, and destruction of houses that led to the largest forced displacement of the Rohingya community from Myanmar into neighboring Bangladesh.
Sexual violence was a hallmark of these “clearance operations,” with young women and girls disproportionately affected by brutal and inhuman acts of sexual and gender-based violence. Yet, despite efforts to destroy them through long-term serious physical and mental harm, Rohingya women fought back.
Shanti Mohila members participate in a series of art facilitation sessions conducted by Legal Action Worldwide in collaboration with Artolution Inc. in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, in 2024.(Ayesha Nawshin/Legal Action Worldwide)
Shanti Mohila members have mobilized to raise awareness of the large-scale sexual and gender-based violence endured by Rohingya women between 2016 and 2017. They have spoken about their experiences before international justice proceedings and catalyzed change by breaking down the stigma associated with victimhood and inspiring next generations of Rohingya women through action.
In 2023, their remarkable achievements were recognized as they were honored as Raphael Lemkin Champions of Prevention by the U.N. Office of the Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide.
Contributing evidence to justice mechanisms
The testimonies Shanti Mohila members have provided and encouraged other survivors to step forward to provide over the past years have given the opportunity to investigative mechanisms, NGOs, and lawyers to present evidence before all ongoing international justice proceedings.
Specifically, Shanti Mohila members are among the survivors who provided key witness statements in The Gambia v. Myanmar case before the International Court of Justice (ICJ).
In 2019, two representatives were in The Hague as part of The Gambia delegation to observe provisional measures hearings at the ICJ.
In 2023, they were among the group of seven witnesses in Buenos Aires to testify in the investigative hearings under the universal jurisdiction principle before the federal criminal court – leading to the recent court order of the first-ever arrest warrants for crimes of genocide against key state officials and members of the Myanmar military.
“I could not believe I could tell an international court about my sufferings. I could not believe it until I stepped into the courtroom,” said “Salma” (not her real name), a Rohingya female witness who requested anonymity for privacy and safety concerns.
“It was difficult for me to speak about the death of my family and their names, but I did it for justice, for my grandchildren, for a future where we can return home with dignity,” she said. “They [perpetrators] targeted women first to break our community, our morale.”
“Who would have thought that we, the Rohingya women, would one day be taking the Myanmar military to the court?”
It is worth highlighting here why exactly the evidence from survivors of sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) is so critical to successfully prosecute and hold the Myanmar military accountable, particularly for genocide.
The “intent to destroy a group in whole or in part” is a necessary element to prove the crime of genocide, which can be notoriously difficult to evidence.
In the Rohingya context, the scale and brutality of SGBV during the 2017 “clearance operations” was identified by the U.N. Independent Fact-Finding Mission as one of the key factors that “inferred” the Myanmar military’s genocidal intent to destroy the Rohingya people.
Rohingya refugee women hold placards as they take part in a protest at the Kutupalong refugee camp to mark the first year of their exodus in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, Aug. 25, 2018.(Mohammad Ponir Hossain/Reuters)
Sexual violence against Rohingya women and young mothers in front of their families, and the accompanying sexual mutilations and forced pregnancies, are some of the most significant reflections of the perpetrators’ desire to inflict severe social and reproductive harm on the community.
The SGBV was not only a part of the campaign of mass killings, torture and destruction of property in 2017 but also committed in the context of decades-long propagated narrative that uncontrolled Rohingya birth rate is a threat to the survival of the nation, and state policies that placed significant legal restraint on Rohingya reproductive rights.
In a 2023 study on long-term impact of sexual and gender-based violence against the Rohingya men, women, and hijra conducted by the Legal Action Worldwide (LAW), clinical analysis by psychologists and medical doctors revealed that the SGBV against Rohingya had resulted in: permanent damage to survivors’ genitalia impacting their ability to procreate; severe psychological injuries that have left them in a state of extreme emotional distress; damaged the survivors’ family relations including with their spouse and children; severe ostracization of the women and children born of rape; and forced reorganization of the Rohingya households.
The evidence of SGBV is critical in that its commission and its enduring and foreseeable impact on survivors clearly shows that the Myanmar military inflicted serious mental and bodily harm and imposed measures intending to prevent births within the community. It also reflects a deliberate incremental step in causing the biological or physical destruction of the group while inflicting acute suffering on its members in the process.
Leaders within the Shanti Mohila network have been instrumental in supporting the conceptualization and implementation of studies such as the 2023 report – making them truly the grassroots advocates for the community.
Towards holistic justice and healing
Alongside these important contributions, the Shanti Mohila members continuously work within the camps in Cox’s Bazar to ensure awareness of the ongoing justice processes and provide peer support to one another and the wider community.
Last year, LAW and Shanti Mohila engaged with Rohingya activists around the globe through LAW’s Rohingya Diaspora Dialogue initiative to foster wider recognition and advocacy for the significant work being done by the Rohingya women in Cox’s Bazar on gender equality and to hold the perpetrators of serious crimes responsible.
These actions embody Shanti Mohila’s commitment and openness to learning.
They are dedicated to remaining bold and effective advocates for their community and being against the illegitimate military regime that continues to commit atrocities against civilians across Myanmar.
Shanti Mohila members stand in an embrace in a gesture of support and solidarity, in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, in 2022.(Ayesha Nawshin/Legal Action Worldwide)
The challenges remain plenty since the renewed conflict between Arakan Army and Myanmar military in late 2023 has led to upward of 60,000 Rohingya arriving in Cox’s Bazar in a new wave of forced displacement, joining over 1 million Rohingya refugees already living in the camps.
The evolving conflict dynamics in the Rakhine state and its impact on the Rohingya there add to the tensions in the camps. The risk of another surge in the forced recruitment of the Rohingya in the camps by organized groups pressuring youths to join the civil war in Myanmar persists.
Amid this, the work and growth of Shanti Mohila can prove to be a stabilizing force, beyond their contributions to women empowerment and the justice process. They can provide an avenue to offset the negative impacts of the deteriorating regional security situation through promoting efforts toward reconciliation and encouraging people to keep the rule of law and justice at the center of their struggle.
On this International Women’s Day, we celebrate the groundbreaking work of Shanti Mohila and the power and legacy they are creating for generations of Rohingya women, their community as a whole, and women across fragile and conflict-affected contexts worldwide.
Ishita Kumar, based in Cox’s Bazar, is the legal and program adviser on the Rohingya crisis for Legal Action Worldwide (LAW), an independent, non-profit organization of human rights lawyers and jurists working in fragile and conflict-affected areas. LAW has been supporting Shanti Mohila leaders and representing over 300 Rohingya in the ongoing international justice processes about their treatment in Myanmar, including at the International Court of Justice, International Criminal Court and supporting universal jurisdiction cases in foreign domestic courts such as in Argentina. The views expressed here are hers, not those of Radio Free Asia.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by guest commentator Ishita Kumar.
Women from Aotearoa, Philippines, Palestine and South Africa today called for justice and peace for the people of Gaza and the West Bank, currently under a genocidal siege and attacks being waged by Israel for the past 16 months.
Marking International Women’s Day, the rally highlighted the theme: “For all women and girls – Rights, equality and empowerment.”
Speakers outlined how women are the “backbone of families and communities” and how they have borne the brunt of the crimes against humanity in occupied Palestine with the “Israeli war machine” having killed more than 50,000 people, mostly women and children, since 7 October 2023.
The speakers included Del Abcede and Lorri Mackness of the International Women’s League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF), Gabriela’s Eugene Velasco, and retired law professor Jane Kelsey.
IWD 1: A West Papua flag on display at the International Women’s Day rally for peace and justice in Palestine. Image: David Robie/APR
IWD 2: “Women unite to eliminate violence and war.” Image: David Robie/APR
IWD 3: Peace and justice for Gaza in Auckland’s “Palestine Square”.
IWD 4: WILPF’s Del Abcede speaking at the Palestine rally. Image: David Robie/APR
IWD 5: Gabriela’s Eugene Velasco speaking at the Palestine rally. Image: David Robie/APR
IWD 6: WILPF’s Lorri Mackness and Del Abcede, speakers at the Palestine rally. Image: David Robie/APR
IWD 7: The International Women’s Alliance (of the Philippines) at the Palestine rally. Image: David Robie/APR
IWD 8: Retired law professor Jane Kelsey speaking at the Palestine rally. Image: David Robie/APR
IWD 9: The Gabriela group from the Philippines in solidarity with Palestinians. Image: David Robie/APR
IWD 10: Duet singers for Palestine. Image: David Robie/APR
IWD 11: “Israel’s war against Palestine didn’t start on 7 October 2023” – it began with the Nakba (“catastrophe”) in 1948, and even earlier. Image: David Robie/APR
IWD 12: International Women’s Day protesters for solidarity with Palestine and a cruise ship backdrop. Image: David Robie/APR
This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by APR editor.
A Lao woman who traveled to China for an arranged marriage warned others to demand legal documents and to have in-person meetings with potential husbands before leaving the country.
Any woman who enters into what she called a “sham marriage” runs the risk of being trafficked to another man after they arrive in China, she told Radio Free Asia.
“To those who may want to come to China, they should think and do research carefully,” she said, requesting anonymity for security reasons. “They shouldn’t decide without knowing what they could be facing. I experienced that myself.”
A newlywed man shows marriage books for him and his wife in Luliang, northern China’s Shanxi province on Feb. 11, 2025.(Adek Berry/AFP)
The woman said she jumped at the chance to move to China two years ago for an arranged marriage. But eventually she realized that a promised 60 million kip (US$2,750) payment was never going to come.
“I heard many people say marrying a Chinese man would help to solve financial problems and make life more comfortable,” she said in an interview on Feb. 4. “I had too much excitement from a lack of experience at that time.”
Arranged marriages between Chinese men and young Lao women have become more common in recent years as the women and their families seek financial security amid Laos’ bleak economy.
A Lao anti-human trafficking activist who goes by the name Ms. Dee told RFA last month that a middleman is usually involved in forming an agreement. The young women and their families are paid at most 30,000 yuan (US$4,150) while the middlemen keep the remainder of the fee, which can be around 200,000 Chinese yuan (US$27,500), she said.
“After being sent to China, the Lao girls of course expect to receive some money that they can send home to support their families. But in fact, their Chinese husbands refuse,” Ms. Dee said.
‘Just go with him’
Another Lao woman told RFA in a separate interview that a middleman sold her to a man three days after she arrived in China.
“I was told not to be too particular,” she said on Feb. 10. “Just go with him. I have no choice at all.”
The middleman added that she would get paid for the marriage after about six months, and could then “run away with a new man and get paid again,” she said.
But the money never came, and she said she worries that a typical 16-year-old Lao girl could also be easily tricked by middlemen who promise monthly payments of 2,000 yuan (US$275) to send to family back in Laos.
“The middlemen always gave them nice images of being married to Chinese men. ‘He’ll buy you a smart phone, nice clothes, new shoes,‘” she said. “All those materialistic things plus thinking of being out of poverty.”
The woman who spoke to RFA on Feb. 4 said Lao women could end up with a Chinese man who has a criminal record and isn’t able to provide legal marriage documents.
“If the Chinese man cannot come to Laos and provide you with any legal documents, be aware and never believe that,” she said. “Don’t believe it if a middleman told you they will provide all needed documents when you have arrived in China.”
She added: “You cannot trust the middleman. They will not pay you after you are sent to China.”
A Lao official at the Anti-Trafficking Department told RFA that the middlemen often target young women from hill tribes who lack awareness and whose families have financial hardship.
Translated by Khamsao Civilize. Edited by Matt Reed.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by RFA Lao.
You can earn a dollar a day driving a minivan taxi owned by a rich woman in North Korea — a huge sum that has young men lining up in droves, hoping to be chosen for the job, sources in the country told Radio Free Asia.
Though the taxis are officially part of a government-owned company, in actuality they are privately owned, and competition to be a driver is so fierce that drivers are hired only one day at a time, residents said.
It’s yet another example of the side-hustles that are characteristic in North Korea’s nascent market economy — people cannot support themselves with the salaries at their government-assigned jobs, so most families have to find a way to go into business for themselves.
The private taxis are mostly Chinese minivans purchased by women, who then need to hire men to drive them, because women can’t get licenses in North Korea.
“These days, in Anju, if you drive a minivan taxi for a day, the owner of the taxi will pay you 20,000 won (US$1),” a resident of South Pyongan province, north of the capital Pyongyang, told RFA Korean on condition of anonymity due to safety concerns.
Taxis are parked outside a department store in central Pyongyang, North Korea May 4, 2016.(Damir Sagolj/Reuters)
The resident said drivers used to get only 10,000 won (US$0.50) each day, but prices doubled last month because of fluctuations in the exchange rate between the North Korean won and foreign currencies like the U.S. dollar and the Chinese yuan — currencies that people prefer because they are more stable.
De facto privatization
Most companies in North Korea are owned and operated directly by the government, and, at least on paper, the taxi companies are too.
But taxi companies do not own fleets of taxis. Instead these are individually owned vehicles that the owners must register with the company to operate legally. This way, the owner is on the hook for the cost of the vehicle and its maintenance.
The company gets 30% of the profits and the owner gets 70%, a second resident from the same province said.
Finding drivers is never a problem, the first resident said.
“Every morning, these wealthy women hire taxi drivers at the vacant lot near the Anju railway station — there are always lots of young men standing in line there,” he said. “If they can drive the taxi for two or three days, they can make more money than a factory worker [earns in a whole month].”
The second resident said that some drivers can earn even more — 50,000-100,000 won (US$2.50-5) — by driving a long-distance taxi that takes customers to locations more than 100 kilometers (62 miles) away.
Women excluded
Although it isn’t legal for women to obtain drivers’ licenses, it isn’t exactly easy for men to get them either. Only men who are in the military or work in a factory and are approved by the government are eligible to undergo driver training, which can take three to six months to complete.
After training, successful applicants are awarded a class-4 license. With more training, they can level-up to class-3, which allows them to drive trucks and buses, class-2 for any type of vehicle, and class-1, which is a car designer or manufacturer’s license.
Most would-be taxi drivers aim for at least class-3.
A taxi driver waits for customers in Pyongyang, North Korea, July 26, 2018.(Dita Alangkara/AP)
Despite not being legally allowed to drive the taxis themselves, taxi ownership is a way for women to escape the drudgery of having to run a family business — buying and selling goods and services in the marketplaces — while their husbands are off at their government-assigned jobs earning a pittance, the second resident said.
“These women can save up the money they earned at the market and buy a taxi,” he said. “They register it with the local government … and then they go hire a male driver.”
With the increase in wages for drivers, it’s become an employer’s market because of all the interested applicants, he said.
“In the past, taxi drivers were hired after being introduced through relatives or connections, but not anymore,” the second resident said. “This is because if you hire someone you know, it is difficult to cut off their daily wages in case of poor driving skills or an accident.”
Translated by Claire S. Lee. Edited by Eugene Whong.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Son Hyemin for RFA Korean.
A Rohingya woman told BenarNews she was sexually assaulted by Arakan Army insurgents in Myanmar’s Rakhine state who killed three relatives, forcing her to flee to a refugee camp in Bangladesh.
The woman, who asked to remain anonymous over safety concerns and is not pictured in this report, said she had grown used to the sounds of bombs falling and gunshots, but did not expect to be a victim of violence.
“One morning in August, I woke up to constant pounding at the door. The moment I opened it, a group from the Arakan Army kicked me to the ground, groped and physically assaulted me in front my family members before slaughtering my father-in-law and two brothers-in-law and dragging them out of our home,” she told BenarNews, an RFA-affiliated online news service.
She added that her husband was able to flee from the attackers.
“Though sometimes my village is caught between the Arakan Army and Myanmar military clashes, I never thought this conflict one day would knock on my door.”
The woman was among at least 60,000 Rohingya who have crossed the border into southeastern Bangladesh since late 2023 to seek refuge from fighting between the Arakan Army (AA) rebels and Burmese junta-affiliated military forces.
Incidents of sexual violence and other abuses against Rohingya came to light in a report published this week by the Burma Task Force, a coalition of 38 U.S. and Canadian Muslim Organizations led by Justice for All.
The report alleged that both military troops and AA insurgents had targeted Rohingya, with the rebels in some cases killing Rohingya while sparing non-Rohingya in the same village. In addition, the AA used Rohingya as human shields in battles with the military.
“The Arakan Army specifically targets girls for sexual abuse. Some women knew of rape victims; most have heard of such incidents,” the report said of interviews in the Bangladesh camps.
Rohingya woman Samira, who lost her family members in clashes between Myanmar’s military and the Arakan Army in Maungdaw, Rakhine state, has settled in a southeastern Bangladesh refugee camp, Feb. 5, 2025.(Abdur Rahman/BenarNews)
The Rohingya woman spoke to a BenarNews reporter at the Jadimora camp in Teknaf, a sub-district of Cox’s Bazar, about the ordeal that brought her to Bangladesh.
“I lost consciousness during the assault. When I regained it, I saw the village completely razed and fires smoldering everywhere,” she said on Wednesday. “The villagers who were alive and injured set out on an uncertain journey toward the Bangladesh border. They took me with them.
“I trudged along with the caravan for three days through the rugged hills, muddy plains and forest and along the way saw hundreds of bodies scattered in the forest or floating in the water.”
On a positive note, the woman reunited with her husband at the camp on the Bangladeshi side of the border.
Arakan Army
Another Rohingya woman who requested anonymity said she and her family were forced out of their homes in Myanmar and moved into a school building.
“One day in August the Arakan Army showed up at the school compound, separated the young girls and took them away, leaving their families in the dark about their whereabouts,” the woman (also not pictured) told BenarNews.
“My family fled the school as my husband feared something worse could happen to me,” she said, adding they arrived at Camp 26 in Cox’s Bazar three months ago.
A BenarNews reporter talked to a dozen women who had arrived as part of the recent influx triggered by the fighting between AA and junta troops. The Burmese military has led Myanmar since launching a coup against the government headed by Aung San Suu Kyi in February 2021.
Rohingya line up for drinking water at a Cox’s Bazar refugee camp in Bangladesh, Nov. 22, 2024.(Mohammad Ponir Hossain/Reuters)
The AA, an insurgent group that has been fighting with the military, is supported by Rakhine state’s Buddhist majority and has been accused of committing rights abuses against Rohingya people.
Aflatun Khatun, a Rohingya woman in her 60s who took shelter recently at the Balupara camp in Ukhia, recalled how she lost her livestock.
“Thirteen of my buffalos were killed in a drone attack in September,” she told Benar News, adding, “Many villagers died in that attack. They used the drones to target Muslim villages.”
Md Yunus, 40, who lived in Maungdaw in Myanmar’s Rakhine state before crossing the border into Bangladesh in November 2024, said AA members arrived at the beginning of that month, threatened the villagers and told them to never return.
“A few days later, they again came back, set fire to the village and fatally shot those who dared to stay back,” he told BenarNews.
“That was the moment I felt a desperate need to leave my home with my wife and children. I moved to the woods, stayed there for three days before we managed to cross the border to take shelter here.”
No food
The Justice for All report said the Rohingya woes did not end after crossing into Bangladesh, as many of the new arrivals had no food or shelter.
Nearly 1 million Rohingya live in refugee camps in and around Cox’s Bazar, including 740,000 who fled a military offensive in Rakhine state, starting in August 2017.
Aflatun Khatun fled with her paralyzed husband and family members to escape an attack by the Arakan Army in Myanmar and took refuge in a Rohingya camp in Teknaf, Bangladesh, Feb. 5, 2025.(Abdur Rahman/BenarNews)
Mohammed Mizanur Rahman, commissioner of Office of Refugee, Relief and Repatriation, said the Bangladesh government was working to determine the number of new refugees in the camps and has sought assistance for them.
“We provided headcount data to the World Food Program, which started providing food support to the newly arrived Rohingya,” he told BenarNews.
BenarNews is an RFA-affiliated news service.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Abdur Rahman and Mostafa Yousuf for BenarNews.
Read RFA coverage of this story in Burmese here and here.
Myanmar’s ruling military junta has begun initial steps to draft women for active military service, residents said, showing the military’s desperation to replenish its ranks amid a series of battlefield defeats and desertions in the country’s four-year civil war.
Last year, the junta enforced a 2010 military conscription law saying men aged 18-35 and single women 18-27 would be eligible for military service.
So far, it has conscripted only men — sometimes by force — but since mid-January, authorities have begun compiling lists of eligible women in the Yangon region, residents in several townships said, suggesting official conscription would begin in the future.
“The list of women has already been compiled, and many students are included in it,” said a woman living in Taketa township who she was worried because her 20-year-old daughter, a student at East Yangon University, was on the list for recruitment.
Woman make their way along street in Hlaingthaya township, Yangon, Myanmar, May 16, 2020.(AFP)
The woman asked her ward administrator for a postponement for her daughter because she is a student, but her request was denied, she said.
Married women are exempt from military service under the law, but married women without children who live in Kayan township were still included on the list, said a resident there who had to register.
“The law states that married women are exempt, [but] when I asked why my name was included, they said if I was not pregnant or did not have children, I would have to serve in the military without exception,” she added.
Getting ready
The military council denied that women had been called up for military service, and a representative from the Chairman’s Office of the Central Body for Summoning People’s Military Servants said authorities were simply taking a headcount of those eligible to serve.
“It is similar to a census — essentially a basic manpower registry,” the representative said. “There has been no separate call for women for military service at this time.”
Myanmar military officer Capt. Zin Yaw, a member of the Civil Disobedience Movement that opposed the military’s seizure of power in 2021, said that the listings of women were part of a plan to recruit them for training, but not necessarily send them into combat.
“In the past, junta leader [Sen. Gen.] Min Aung Hlaing has shown interest in involving female officers,” Zin Yaw said. “There have also been cases where female military personnel … were called in and assigned roles.”
The junta’s council announced that women meeting the age requirements for military service under the country’s military service law will be recruited starting from their fifth week of military training.
Women from all 10 townships in Mon state in Myanmar’s south and from Kayin state and Tanintharyi region also have been recruited for military service since mid-2024, according to a survey by the Human Rights Foundation of Monland, which monitors human rights in Mon state.
Militia forcing recruitment
The Pa-O National Army, a state-sponsored militia that fights alongside junta soldiers against Pa-O rebels, is forcing women and underage girls to join the military service, they said.
New female military recruits prepare to take their oaths before the lower house of parliament in Naypyitaw, Myanmar, May 17, 2018.(Aung Shine Oo/AP)
Female recruits mostly have been sent to the front lines of armed combat between the junta and Karenni rebels at the Shan-Kayah state border since late last year, a Pa-O Youth Organization official said.
A directive requiring women to undergo military training in areas controlled by the Pa-O National Army could result in girls being deployed in front-line combat, residents and Pa-O organizations said.
Though it is difficult to verify the ages of the women sent to combat areas, it is known that they include women under the age of 18, the official from the Pa-O Youth Organization said.
“We began noticing women being sent to the front lines around the end of 2024, particularly in the fighting along the [Kayah state] and Shan border,” said the official. “Their presence in these areas is very evident. At times, a significant number of soldiers are deployed, and women are among them.”
A military training graduation ceremony takes place in Kyauktalongyi subtownship in Special Region 6 of southern Shan state’s Pa-O Self-Administered Zone, Oct. 3, 2024.(PNO/PNA News and Information)
Khun Aung Mann, general secretary of the Pa-O National Liberation Army, an ethnic armed organization that opposes the military regime, told RFA that he has received reports that the Pa-O militia has been training women for military service.
“The current situation is that both the [Pa-O] militia and the military council are in need of manpower,” he said. “Therefore, we believe that they will use women if necessary, as we are already witnessing the use of underage children on the battlefield.”
There were 15-year-old child soldiers among captured prisoners of war, he said.
Translated by Kalyar Lwinfor RFA Burmese. edited by Roseanne Gerin and Malcolm Foster.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by RFA Burmese and Nang Hseng Phoo.
