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Sexual abuse and violence worsens in Myanmar factories: activists

October 21, 2024/in News

Women in the garment sector are increasingly vulnerable to pressure and exploitation as the economy deteriorates. Myanmar garment factory worker Win Lae was shocked when she heard that colleagues at the Chinese-owned factory where she used to work were being offered money in exchange for sex with Chinese technicians and buyers. “Some workers are really […]

Open letter from Myanmar civil society organizations to ASEAN to move beyond the Five-Point Consensus and support Myanmar people’s efforts to build federal democracy

October 8, 2024/in Member statements, Press Releases and Statements

To: ASEAN Leaders H.E. Sultan Haji Hassanal Bolkiah Mu’izzaddin Waddaulah, Prime Minister of Brunei DarussalamH.E. Hun Manet, Prime Minister of the Kingdom of CambodiaH.E. Joko Widodo, President of the Republic of IndonesiaH.E. Sonexay Siphandone, Prime Minister of the Lao People’s Democratic RepublicH.E. Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, Prime Minister of MalaysiaH.E. Ferdinand Romualdez Marcos, Jr., President […]

Sexual abuse and violence worsens in Myanmar factories: activists

October 21, 2024/in News

Open letter from Myanmar civil society organizations to ASEAN to move beyond the Five-Point Consensus and support Myanmar people’s efforts to build federal democracy

October 8, 2024/in Member statements, Press Releases and Statements

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Sexual abuse and violence worsens in Myanmar factories: activists

October 21, 2024/in News

Women in the garment sector are increasingly vulnerable to pressure and exploitation as the economy deteriorates.

Myanmar garment factory worker Win Lae was shocked when she heard that colleagues at the Chinese-owned factory where she used to work were being offered money in exchange for sex with Chinese technicians and buyers.

“Some workers are really poor and the news was spreading – when they offered 300,000 kyat (US$143) for a night, it’s a huge amount for female workers. It’s still happening,” said the former worker, who asked to be identified as Win Lae, of her time at the factory owned by the Dongxin Garment Co. Ltd.

A company official denied that any such exploitation was going on at the factory in Myanmar’s main city of Yangon but labor activists say such abuse is far from rare in Myanmar’s manufacturing sector as a deteriorating economy leaves women more vulnerable to sexual exploitation, abuse and violence.

International labor group the Business and Human Rights Resource Center said in a report this month that women in Myanmar’s garment sector face “dire and repressive working conditions”.

The group documented 155 cases of abuse in Myanmar factories, linked to 87 international companies, between Dec. 1, 2023, and June 30, with 37% of them gender-based incidents including “verbal, physical and sexual abuse and harassment, often for not meeting unreasonable production targets.”

An economy in freefall since the military ousted an elected government in February 2021 has exacerbated the problem of exploitation for many in Myanmar as factory owners and supervisors know that employees are increasingly desperate for cash as inflation erodes living standards, a labor activist told Radio Free Asia.

“It’s easy to take advantage of the garment workers. They use poverty,” said the activist who declined to be identified in fear of reprisals.

The Business and Human Rights Resource Center also reported evidence of sexual harassment and assault at the Dongxin factory.

Workers in another factory complained that the manager was “matchmaking” female workers with men back in China, raising fears of human trafficking when she began taking them with her on visits to China, the labor group documented from worker reports.

Other cases the group documented included male supervisors groping women and expressing sexual or romantic interest and angry supervisors mistreating workers.

But Dongxin’s human resources manager, Tin Ni Lar Htun, denied that such behavior was taking place at the factory.

“We don’t have any problems like that,” he said. “If we did have those problems, we would fire the workers who committed them according to the labor law.”

AP21078115525006 (1).jpg — In this Sept. 29, 2015, file photo, workers in the Great Forever factory stitch clothes in the Hlaing Tharyar industrial zone outside Yangon, Myanmar. (AP)

‘No leverage’

Win Lae described various pressures put on workers that made them vulnerable to sexual exploitation and abuse, including being forced to work through the night, ostensibly to fill orders.

“There are no arrangements or sleeping areas for the operating workers. If they take a rest, they can only rest in the technicians’ room and they then have the opportunity,” Win Lae said, referring to more senior technical staff taking advantage of women workers.

Win Lae also said that peer pressure and pay-offs facilitated sexual exploitation.

“The supervisor gets paid to persuade another operator. She gets pocket money if another operator sleeps with the technician,” said Win Lae, who said she was also laid off after raising an issue of unfair pay with her coworkers.

There were few options in Myanmar’s factories for women to complain, said the labor activist, especially given an influx of smaller brands and a departure of well-known companies vulnerable to public pressure.

“For many Japanese and Chinese brand companies, we don’t have any leverage and we can’t reach them,” the activist said. “The only way is the legal process, and you know, the legal process here in Myanmar, it’s terrible.”

Since the 2021 military takeover, 16 major labor unions have been banned, and workers have reported both factory management and junta authorities suppressing dissent more aggressively.

The International Labor Organization’s Commission of Inquiry for Myanmar late last year found “far-reaching restrictions on the exercise of basic civil liberties and trade union rights.”

Many women victims of sexual exploitation, abuse and violence see no choice but to suffer in silence.

“They pretend nothing happened at work because they don’t want to lose their jobs, even if they’re feeling stressed or traumatized,” the labor activist said.

“The companies should take that kind of problem seriously and respond. The brands and companies have full responsibility for that.”

RFA News

Open letter from Myanmar civil society organizations to ASEAN to move beyond the Five-Point Consensus and support Myanmar people’s efforts to build federal democracy

October 8, 2024/in Member statements, Press Releases and Statements

To: ASEAN Leaders

H.E. Sultan Haji Hassanal Bolkiah Mu’izzaddin Waddaulah, Prime Minister of Brunei Darussalam
H.E. Hun Manet, Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Cambodia
H.E. Joko Widodo, President of the Republic of Indonesia
H.E. Sonexay Siphandone, Prime Minister of the Lao People’s Democratic Republic
H.E. Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, Prime Minister of Malaysia
H.E. Ferdinand Romualdez Marcos, Jr., President of the Republic of the Philippines
H.E. Lawrence Wong, Prime Minister of the Republic of Singapore
H.E. Paetongtarn Shinawatra, Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Thailand
H.E. Phạm Minh Chính, Prime Minister of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam

CC: H.E. Duwa Lashi La, Acting President of Myanmar

7 October 2024

Subject: Open letter from Myanmar civil society organizations to ASEAN to move beyond the Five-Point Consensus and support Myanmar people’s efforts to build federal democracy

Your Excellencies,

Last week, the military junta in Myanmar unleashed a barrage of lethal, indiscriminate airstrikes across Shan, Karen, and Karenni States and Sagaing Region. Of extreme concern, in Lashio, northern Shan State, the junta conducted four consecutive days of airstrikes, which killed at least six civilians. Last month, from 1 to 7 September, the junta launched airstrikes targeting civilians in Chin, Shan, and Karenni States and Magwe, Sagaing, and Mandalay Regions—killing at least 40 people, including a dozen children.

The utter silence of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in response to these ongoing atrocity crimes by the illegal military junta against the people of Myanmar, once again, highlights its continued failure to address the dire human rights and humanitarian crisis in Myanmar. It is imperative that ASEAN change course immediately.

We, the undersigned 240 Myanmar civil society organizations, call on ASEAN to show its political leadership, commitment, and genuine will to support the well-being of the Myanmar people by implementing the following recommendations at the 44th and 45th ASEAN Summits in Vientiane under Laos’ chairship. These recommendations were put forth during the ASEAN Civil Society Conference/ASEAN People’s Forum (ACSC/APF) by the Myanmar National Organizing Committee for ACSC/APF, comprising 15 civil society organizations, and partner organizations. We further call on the international community, particularly the United Nations and ASEAN’s dialogue partners, to assist ASEAN with effectively implementing these recommendations:

End all engagement with the Myanmar military junta, including all business ties with the junta and any support for the military junta’s sham election plan.
Exclude all representatives of the military junta, both political and non-political, from ASEAN’s platforms at all levels.
Formally engage with and provide political support to the Myanmar people’s legitimate representatives and governance bodies, including the National Unity Government, the National Unity Consultative Council, and ethnic resistance organizations.
Collaborate with locally led civil society and community-based organizations, including networks of Civil Disobedience Movement professionals, and people-led governance structures.
End the involvement of the ASEAN Coordinating Centre for Humanitarian Assistance on disaster management (AHA Centre), as well as the use of any channels involving the military junta or its proxies, in the provision of humanitarian aid, and instead cooperate with revolutionary groups to facilitate humanitarian aid through border channels.
Support the Myanmar people’s efforts for transitional justice and coordinate with existing international justice mechanisms to hold the Myanmar military accountable for genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity. In particular, the ASEAN Commission on the Promotion and Protection of the Rights of Women and Children must take immediate action to hold the military junta accountable for sexual and gender-based crimes.

Since the Myanmar military’s illegal coup attempt in February 2021, Myanmar has stood at a pivotal juncture in its history. Over the past three and a half years, the military junta has perpetrated a multitude of grave human rights violations and mass atrocity crimes across the nation, including massacres, torching and pillaging of entire towns, and lethal airstrikes against civilian communities and places where they take refuge. There have been over 2,400 airstrikes by the military since February 2021. According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the military’s violence has displaced more than 3 million people—likely a gross underestimation of the true magnitude of displacement.

Despite the military junta’s extreme violence, the people’s revolution has persistently worked towards establishing a federal democracy. Over three and a half years, the people’s revolution has advanced and is now winning on the ground. Today, the Myanmar military junta does not have effective control of the country. Townships covering 86% of the country’s territory and including 67% of the national population are not under stable junta control.

Your Excellencies,

Myanmar is moving forward. Now is the time for ASEAN to seize this most critical opportunity and take immediate and decisive action to support the Myanmar people’s revolution for federal democracy and durable peace in Myanmar, as well as for peace and stability in the region.

As clearly recognized in the ASEAN Foreign Ministers’ Statement on the Escalation of Conflicts in Myanmar on 18 April 2024, the political, human rights, and humanitarian crisis in Myanmar is not merely an internal affair, but one that requires a resolution for “peace, security, and stability in the region,” which ASEAN has vowed to protect. Without swift action, Myanmar’s neighboring countries and ASEAN Member States will continue to face an influx of refugees, loss of commercial interests, and irreparable reputational damage. We believe that ASEAN has a clear obligation to act to prevent the junta from continuing its campaign of violence and from destabilizing the entire region.

We reiterate our calls and remain at your disposal to provide further information, as well as to assist and collaborate with you for effective implementation of the stated recommendations.

For more information, please contact:

Sampson Hlaing, Executive Director, Equality Myanmar; ed.eqmm@protonmail.com
Yasmin Ullah, Executive Director, Rohingya Maìyafuìnor Collaborative Network; u.m.yasmin8@gmail.com
Khin Ohmar, Chairperson, Progressive Voice; info@progressive-voice.org

Signed by 240 organizations including 45 organizations who have chosen to not disclose their name:

5/ of Zaya State Strike
A-Yar-Taw People Strike
Action Against Myanmar Military Coup (Sydney)
Action Committee for Democracy Development (ACDD)
Action Committee of Basic Education Students (ACBES)
Ah Nah Podcast – Conversations with Myanmar
All Aung Myay Thar San Schools Strike Force
All Burma Federation of Student Unions (Monywa District)
Alliance Against CRSV-Myanmar
Alliance Coalition Strike Mya Taung Strike
Alliance of Students’ Union – Yangon (ASU-Yangon)
Anti-coup Forces Coordination Committee (ACFCC -Mandalay)
Anti-Junta Alliance Yangon-AJAY
Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP)
Association of Human Rights Defenders and Promoters (HRDP)
Athan – Freedom of Expression Activist Organization
Ayeyarwaddy West Development Organisation (AWDO), Magway
Ayeyarwaddy West Development Organisation (AWDO), Nagphe
Back Pack Health Worker Team (BPHWT)
Basic Education General Strike Committee (BEGSC)
Basic Education Worker Unions – Steering Committee (BEWU-SC)
Blood Money Campaign (BMC)
Burma Focus
Burma Medical Association (BMA)
Burmese Muslim Association (BMA)
Burmese Women’s Union (BWU)
CDM Medical Network (CDMMN)
Chanmyatharzi Township People’s Strike
Chaung Oo Township Youth Strike Committee
Chindwin (West) Villages Women Strike
Civil Information Network (CIN)
Civil Society Organizations Coordination Committee (Monywa)
Co-operative University Mandalay Students’ Strike
Coalition Strike Committee – Dawei
Creative Home (CH)
CRPH & NUG Supporters Ireland
CRPH Funding Ireland
Daung Sitthe Strike
Dawei (Ashaetaw) Women Strike
Dawei Youths Revolutionary Movement Strike Committee
Defend Myanmar Democracy
Democracy, Peace and Women’s Organization
Depayin Township Revolution Steering Committee
Depayin Women Strike
Equality Myanmar (EQMM)
Ethnic Youth General Strike Committee (Mandalay)
Federal Corner
Former Political Prisoners and New Generation Group – Monywa
Future Light Center (FLC)
Gangaw Women Strike
General Strike Collaboration Committee (GSCC)
General Strike Committee of Basic and Higher Education (GSCBHE)
General Strike Coordination Body (GSCB)
Generation Wave (GW)
Generations’ Solidarity Coalition of Nationalities (GSCN)
Global Myanmar Spring Revolution (GMSR)
Global Myanmar Spring Revolution (South Korea)
Green Network (Myeik)
HTY Scout Channel
Human Rights Defenders and Promoters
Human Rights Educators Network (HREN)
India for Myanmar
Industries Strike
Information & Scout News (Hlaing)
Justice & Equality Focus (JEF)
Justice For Myanmar
Kachin Legal Aid Group (KLAG)
Kachin Student Union
Kachin Women’s Association Thailand (KWAT)
Kalay Township Strike Force
Kalay Women Strike
Kamayut Scout Channel
KantBaLu Strike Committee
Karen Human Rights Group (KHRG)
Karen Peace Support Network (KPSN)
Kayan Women’s Organization
Keng Tung Youth
Kyae Lak Myay
Kyain Seikgyi Spring Revolution Leading Committee
Kyauktada Strike Committee (KSC)
Latpadaung Region Strike Committee
Legal Aid For Human Rights
Let’s Help Each Other (LHEO)
LGBT Alliance
LGBT Alliance Myanmar (Kalay Region)
LGBT Alliance Myanmar (Kyaukse Region)
LGBT Community Yangon
LGBT Union – Mandalay
MAGGA Initiative (MI)
Magway People’s Revolution Committee
Magway Region Human Rights Network
Maharaungmyay Township People’s Strike
Mandalar University Students’ Strike
Mandalay Alliance Coalition Strike
Mandalay Medical Family (MFM)
Mandalay Strike Force (MSF)
Mandalay Students’ Strike
Mandalay Women Strike
Mandalay Youth Strike
Mandalay-based People’s Strike
Mandalay-Based University Students’ Unions (MDY_SUs)
MATA Sagaing
Mayangone News
MayMyo Strike Force
Metta Campaign
Min Hla Farmers Group
Minbu Farmers Group
Minority Affairs Institute (MAI)
Mon State Development Center
Monywa LGBT Strike
Monywa People’s Strike Steering Committee
Monywa Women Strike
Monywa-Amyint Road Strike Leading Committee
Monywa-Amyint Road Women Strike
Multi-Religions Strike
Mya Taung Strike
Myanmar Global Support Foundation (MGSF)
Myanmar Institute of Information Technology Students’ Strike
Myanmar Labor Alliance (MLA)
Myanmar People Alliance (Shan State)
Myaung Youth Network
MyaYar Knowledge Tree
Myingyan Civilian Movement Committee
Network for Human Rights Documentation – Burma (ND-Burma)
Network of University Student Unions – Monywa
New Myanmar Foundation
New Power Generation
New Rehmonnya Federated Force (NRFF)
No.12 Basic Education Branch High School (Maharaungmyay) Students’ Union
NOK Information & Scout Echo
North Dagon & East Dagon News
Nyan Lynn Thit Analytica
OCTOPUS (Youth Organization)
Olive Organization
Pale Township People’s Strike Steering Committee
Political Prisoners Network – Myanmar (PPN–M)
Progressive Voice (PV)
Purple Window Counselling
Pwintphyu Development Organisation
Pyi Gyi Tagon Strike Force
Queers of Burma Alternative (QBA)
Representative Committee of University Teacher Associations (RC of UTAs)
Resilient Action for Kachin State (RAKS)
Rohingya Maìyafuìnor Collaborative Network (RMCN)
Samgha Sammaga-Mandalay
Seinpann Strike
Shan MATA
Shwe Pan Kone People’s Strike Steering Committee
Sisters2Sisters
Sitt Nyein Pann Foundation
Spring Traveller
South Dagon Scouting Infos (SDG)
Southern Youth Development Organization
Students’ Union Co-operative University
Synergy – Social Harmony Organization
Ta’ang Women’s Organization
Tamar Institute of Development
Tamwe Nway Oo Channel
Taze Strike Committee
Taze Women Strike
Tha Byay Nyo Shwe Bo
Thaketa & Dawbon Scout Channel
Thakhin Kodaw Mhine Peace Network (Monywa)
Thayat Chaung Women Strike
The 88 Generation Peace and Open Society (Monywa)
The Human Rights Foundation of Monland (HURFOM)
The Ladies
The Students’ Union of Yadanabon University (YDNBUSU)
Twitter Team for Revolution (TTFR)
University Mandalay Students’ Strike
University Students’ Unions Alumni Force
Volunteers in Myanmar
Wetlet Revolution Leading Committee
Wetlet Township Women Strike
White Coat Society Yangon (WCSY)
Women Activists Myanmar (WAM)
Women Advocacy Coalition – Myanmar (WAC-M)
Women Alliance Burma (WAB)
Women Lead Resource Center
Women Organization of Political Prisoners (WOPP)
Women’s League of Burma (WLB)
Yangon Medical Network (YMN)
Yangon Women Strike
Yasakyo Township People’s Strike Steering Committee
Yinmarpin and Salingyi All Villages Strike Committee
Youth Empowerment
Youth Heart Beams
Youth Scout For Democracy (YSD)
ဒီမိုကရက်တစ်လူငယ်ကောင်စီ
နည်းပညာဆိုင်ရာဆရာများအဖွဲ့ချုပ် -TTF
မုန်တိုင်းကြားကသက်တံများ
သမိုင်းသယ်ဆောင်သူများ
အညာလွင်ပြင်ရပ်ဝန်း
ဒို့မြေကွန်ရက် (LIOH)
ပွင့်ဖြူလယ်ယာမြေကွန်ရက်

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Spring Revolution

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ND Burma

ND-Burma formed in 2004 in order to provide a way for Burma human rights organizations to collaborate on the human rights documentation process. The 13 ND-Burma member organizations seek to collectively use the truth of what communities in Burma have endured to advocate for justice for victims. ND-Burma trains local organizations in human rights documentation; coordinates members’ input into a common database using Martus, a secure open-source software; and engages in joint-advocacy campaigns.

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