Social Science Perspective: Violence Against Rohingya Refugee Women

This report addresses the critical issue of gender-based violence (GBV) against Rohingya refugee women, a vulnerable group from Myanmar. It highlights the prevalence of sexual violence perpetrated by security forces, refugee communities, and outsiders, emphasizing the violation of human rights and the threat to post-conflict rehabilitation. The report draws attention to the disproportionate impact on women and girls, who are often survivors or witnesses of heinous crimes. It details the UN's fact-finding mission and UNFPA's support services, including women-friendly spaces and healthcare. Recommendations include ceasing ethnic cleansing, punishing perpetrators, ensuring humanitarian access, and providing medical and psychological support. The report also suggests sanctions on military personnel responsible for human rights abuses and calls for a comprehensive data collection on GBV to inform appropriate action by the UN Security Council.

Running head: SOCIAL SCIENCE
Social Science
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1SOCIAL SCIENCE
Contents
Introduction..........................................................................................................................3
The problem.........................................................................................................................3
Response to the problem......................................................................................................4
Recommendations................................................................................................................5
Summary of recommendations............................................................................................6
References............................................................................................................................9

2SOCIAL SCIENCE
Introduction
One of the most vulnerable groups of the refugee communities is the Rohingya. They are
a group of the Muslim minority from the northern part of the Rakhine state in Myanmar. Despite
the increased awareness of the prevalence of inmate partner violence and sexual violence in the
platform of conflict and post-conflict scenario, the violence on the refugee women still
continues. These acts of brutality fall under the concept of Gender Based Violence (GBV)
(Olivius 2016).This explains the injury or the harm perpetrated against an individual will which
is dependable over the inequalities of power that are informed by the gender roles. The gender-
based violence poses a threat to the process of rehabilitation post-conflict and raises a question
on the human security as denoted in UN Security Council Resolution 1325 (UN Women | Asia
and the Pacific 2018). The paper aims to highlight the gender-based violence or the sexual
violence on Rohingya refugee women by the security forces and by the refugee communities and
the outsiders.
The problem
The violence against girls and women is one of the most dangerous violations of human
rights in the world. Gender-based violence includes no economic, social or national boundaries.
It undermines the dignity, health, autonomy, and security of the women who are the victim of
this heinous act of violence. According to the U.N latest report, women and girls have been
subject to dangerous gender-based and sexual violence executed by both the Rakhine locals and
the Myanmar army (“All of My Body Was Pain” Sexual Violence against Rohingya Women and
Girls in Burma 2017). October 2017 report on the gender brief on Rohingya Refugee Crisis
explains the violence on the women refugees residing in the western state of Myanmar. An

3SOCIAL SCIENCE
estimate of 537, 00 Rohingya refugees, mostly women survives in a terrible crisis (Refugees
2018). The traumatized and distressed population of female survives in terrible conditions with
the lack of adequate water for drinking and sanitation, food, medical care and access to basic
livelihood assets. The problem lies in a disproportionate impact on women and girls who are the
most marginalized and vulnerable population among the Rohingya refugee community (Davies
and True 2017). The crisis situation of the violence affects the feminine gender by perpetuating,
reinforcing and aggravating persistent inequalities in gender, gender-based discrimination, and
violence. According to the reports, almost each and every girl in the refugee community is either
a survivor or a witness of multiple heinous crimes, sexual assaults, rape, murder by mutilation or
live burning of close family members. The frequency of violence of women and girls by the
security force has been increasing over the last few years. Many women and girls experience
sexual violence and assault which results in conception and abortions (Akhter and Kusakabe
2014). This problem is a horrific reminder that gender-based violence and sexual assaults are the
most dangerous weapons of war, tools, and instruments of terror or fear that are mostly utilized
against the feminine gender of the Rohingya refugee population. Reports further highlight how
the military engages in killing Rohingya women and girls by burning the entire Rohingya
villages and engages in rape and other forms of sexual violence on the Rohingya girls and
women (Sigalas 2018). Rape survivors escaping from the location often had to walk for days in
severe pain from the injuries sustained from gang rapes.
Response to the problem
The UN Human Rights Council on March 24, 2017, authorized a fact-finding mission for
targeting the situation of Rohingya community in the Rakhine state in particular (Blay-Tofey and
Lee 2015). Since August 2017, an estimated half of the population fled to Bangladesh after the

4SOCIAL SCIENCE
experience of the violence and joined thousands of refugees due to prior governmental repression
and during the earlier violence. Thousands of girls and women of the community got internally
displaced due to the lack of basic humanitarian assistance. The UN Security Council Presidential
Statement described grave concerns on the issues of violence against women, reports of human
rights violations and abuses by the security forces and the local community members. The
Security Council called upon the government of Burma to end the excessive interference of
military forces in the state of Rakhine and implement measures with the Security Council
resolution 2016, for preventing the sexual violence against the feminine gender (Sexual Assault
in the United States Military 2018). The council published statements that highlight the
importance to co-operate with the UN special representative on the conflict of sexual violence
and ensures the unrestrained access to humanitarian aid in the state of Rakhine. UNFPA has
already been providing a range of services and takes the lead for supporting the survivors and
victims of the gender-based and sexual violence (Islam et al. 2016). It has provided a wide range
of facilities with women-friendly spaces and community watch groups, healthcare camps where
assistance to medical needs and psychological counseling for the rape victims are done. The UN
agencies are scaling up the responses in Bangladesh from the Rohingya community for
supporting and providing aid to the women and the girls of the community who are in utmost
need for reproductive healthcare. The government and other partners of the civil society are thus
progressing and working hard to abolish the heinous crime and preserve the basic rights of the
women and children of the Rohingya population (Akhter and Kusakabe 2014).
Recommendations
The gender-based violence and the rape or sexual assault is one of the key concerns that
have emerged from the rising humanitarian crisis. Some of the suggested recommendations to

5SOCIAL SCIENCE
address the problem of violence against women include ceasing of the ethnic cleansing campaign
by the security forces that result in sexual violence. Besides this, investigation and appropriate
punishment for the members of security forces who are responsible for the sexual violence
should be done. Ensuring of the unimpeded access of the humanitarian aid organization for
assisting the survivors of the sexual violence and co-operating with the international
investigations should be done for identifying and addressing the crimes in the Rakhine state.
Some of the other recommendations for the government of Bangladesh include the continual of
accurate biometric registration of Rohingya women and children for equal protection access and
opening up of the border for the asylum seekers of Rohingya to recognize and respect the
principles of nonrefoulment (“All of My Body Was Pain” Sexual Violence against Rohingya
Women and Girls in Burma 2017). Introduction of protocols for providing medical certificate to
the women and the girls reporting rape to the health clinics, ensuring the full participation of the
Rohingya women and the girls for their active participation with the community members to
construct refugee camps, aid distribution, measures for the sexual and gender-based violence are
some of the basic recommendations that need to be followed (Tazreiter, Pickering and Powell
2017). Besides this, regular updates from the UN Commissioner for the Human Rights for the
consideration of appropriate action for sexual violence against women and children needs to be
checked and followed up to address the denial of humanitarian access for the women of the
Rohingya community.
Summary of recommendations

6SOCIAL SCIENCE
Summary
• Provide care for post-rape and post-sexual violence which includes psychological
services, health care facilities and monitoring of these services for a longer term.
• Imposing sanctions on the military force individuals who are responsible for the
human right abuse that includes gender-based, sexual violence and the failure to abolish the
sexual violence. These sanctions should include asset freezes, restrictions for accessing financial
institutions and travel bans.
• The fact-finding mission should gather data and identify the area and command
responsibility regard to the gender-based violence. They should also include recommendations
on the mechanism of appropriate accountability in the final report and submit the final data
report regarding the degree and rate of violence against the refugee women and children to the
UN Security Council.

7SOCIAL SCIENCE
References
“All of My Body Was Pain” Sexual Violence against Rohingya Women and Girls in Burma.
2017. Human Rights Watch, [online] (ISBN: 978-1-6231-35485), pp.9-46. Available at:
http://2160431_1167702736_AllofmyBodywasPain-SexualViole%20.pdf [Accessed 22 Apr.
2018].
Akhter, S. and Kusakabe, K. 2014. Gender-based Violence among Documented Rohingya
Refugees in Bangladesh. Indian Journal of Gender Studies, [online] 21(2), pp.225-246.
Available at: http://2160432_689200402_Gender-basedViolenceamongDocum%20.pdf.
Akhter, S. and Kusakabe, K., 2014. Gender-based violence among documented Rohingya
refugees in Bangladesh. Indian Journal of Gender Studies, 21(2), pp.225-246.
Blay-Tofey, M. and Lee, B. 2015. Preventing gender-based violence engendered by conflict: The
case of Côte d'Ivoire. Social Science & Medicine, [online] 146, pp.341-347. Available at:
http://2160430_742780604_Preventinggender-basedviolence%20.pdf.
Davies, S.E. and True, J., 2017. The politics of counting and reporting conflict-related sexual and
gender-based violence: the case of Myanmar. International Feminist Journal of Politics, 19(1),
pp.4-21.
Islam, F., Khan, M.H., Ueda, M., Chowdhury, N.R.A., Chowdhury, S.M., Delem, M.D. and
Rahman, A., 2016. 724 Situation of sexual and gender based violence among The Rohingya
migrants residing in Bangladesh.

8SOCIAL SCIENCE
Olivius, E., 2016. Constructing Humanitarian Selves and Refugee Others: Gender Equality and
the Global Governance of Refugees. International feminist journal of politics, 18(2), pp.270-290.
Refugees, U. 2018. SAFE space and fresh start for refugee survivors of sexual and gender-based
violence. [online] UNHCR. Available at:
http://www.unhcr.org/news/latest/2018/2/5a7428474/safe-space-and-fresh-start-for-refugee-
survivors-of-sexual-and-gender-based.html [Accessed 22 Apr. 2018].
Sexual Assault in the United States Military. 2018. [ebook] University of New South Wales.
Available at: http://2160605_503681158_SRAP5106strongpolicybrief-Sexu%20.pdf [Accessed
22 Apr. 2018].
Sigalas, M., 2018. Gendered Violence: An Analysis of State Legal Accountability for Sexual and
Gender-Based Violence Amongst Refugee Women.
Tazreiter, C., Pickering, S. and Powell, R., 2017. Rohingya women in Malaysia: decision-
making and information sharing in the course of irregular migration.
UN Women | Asia and the Pacific. 2018. Gender Brief on Rohingya Refugee Crisis Response in
Bangladesh. [online] Available at:
http://asiapacific.unwomen.org/en/digital-library/publications/2017/10/gender-brief-on-rohingya-
refugee-crisis [Accessed 22 Apr. 2018].