and girls are also concerned about the impact on their
futures. As a woman explained,
Women and girls do not speak out about their
experiences as they are concerned that Rohingya men
will refuse to marry them in the future.
4.4. Impunity and a Lack of Recourse to Legal
Remedies
Multiple factors combine to establish systems of
impunity and prevent women from accessing support
after their experiences of trauma and sexual violence.
Rohingyas in Rakhine state, with their diminished legal
and social status, have, for decades, received extremely
weak legal protections from state authorities. This has
led to an ongoing system of impunity including with
regard to offences committed by the security forces and/
or government employees.49 Corruption, discrimination
and arbitrariness are prevalent throughout Myanmar’s
judicial and administrative system.50 Prosecutions of
perpetrators and protections for victims of trafficking
and sexual violence have further been interrupted
in Rohingya areas by the conflicts and competition
between the parallel state structures of SAC and ULAAA since the coup. One worker in a community support
organisation stated,
“There are no good mechanisms to address the
problems of sexual and gender-based violence in
Rakhine for Rohingya women and girls. Police do
not pay attention - even in rape cases people have
to pay hefty bribes to get the investigation started.
After the coup, nobody wanted to go to the police and
government institution as ULA-AA influence over the
justice system was growing in Rakhine. Before we
could access some limited support from international
non-governmental organisations (INGOs) but now
most GBV services have been stopped due to SAC
restrictions on agencies”
Further, for offenses including sexual and gender-based
violence that occur within the community or home,
communities across Rakhine and Myanmar have long
turned to their own local-level judicial, arbitration
and mediation systems. With social support structures
weak in some areas, particularly rural areas, Rohingya
women also encounter many barriers at the local level
to accessing counselling and support, as well as exiting
abusive situations. As one woman explained,
In Buthidaung, we do not have a Rohingya organisation
or group who are helping those GBV cases, but in Rakhine
community, they have their own support systems and
legal assistance to those who suffer domestic violence
and sexual abuses.
5. CONCLUSION
The pressure and impact for Rohingyas and displaced
Muslims of living under parallel state structures in
Rakhine, both of which effectively treat them as noncitizens, has increased immobilities, insecurities and
financial hardships. Intersectional forms of discrimination
mean that Rohingya women and girls are particularly
impacted in Rakhine State. Increased vulnerabilities for
Rohingya women and girls compel them to leave their
homes in Rakhine State to seek security and stability
elsewhere in countries such as Malaysia, Thailand and
elsewhere. Compounded by the precariousness of their
situations at home, experiences of forced migration
can quickly turn to violence, exploitation and extortion
during the journey or at the destination stage.
It is vital that safe routes out of the country are available
to genocide survivors. Whilst routes out of the country
are a vital lifeline for some, for others they have become
fraught with violence, abuse and risk to life. The
deprivation of citizenship and movement restrictions
drives a system in which brokers and parallel states
gain revenue from facilitating the movement of people.
Further, there is a strong link between the deprivation
of Rohingyas citizenship in Myanmar and the denial
of the right of return. Since the 1990s, those that leave
the country are struck from the household registers,
effectively erasing their permanent residence. Thus, a
move out of the country, in most cases, is permanent. As
one Rohingya interviewee explained:
They do not want Rohingya in Rakhine and they cannot
drive us out. So, many people feel that is why they (state
and pseudo state officials) are helping those human
smugglers if the Rohingya want to go outside.
Many are concerned that the facilitation of travel out
of the country assists broader strategies to remove
Rohingya from Rakhine State, and at the same time
generates revenue for state-like structures.
The experiences of Rohingya women and girls captured
in this report shows that almost five years on from the
atrocities of 2017, and over a year since the coup of
2021, the cost of living in Rakhine state is only matched
by the price of trying to flee. In both contexts, women
and girls are impacted in particular, disproportionate
and gendered ways.
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