Burma
Partners: Women's League of Burma (www.womenofburma.org) and the Burma Lawyers Council (www.blc-burma.org)
Background
Burma has been under continuous military rule since 1962, and has the world's longest unresolved internal armed conflict. The use of war crimes in Burma is systemic, including murder and torture of civilians, use of child soldiers, use of villagers as forced labor and human shields, and use of rape as a weapon of war. Political dissidents, including monks, students, and elected members of parliament in 1990, have been imprisoned, in some cases for decades. Because of Burma's isolation at the hands of a mature military regime, the people of Burma remain outside the reach of international legal advances such as the establishment of the International Criminal Court, new legal standards regarding genocide, rape as a war crime, rights of victims, gender equality in the peace and security context, and UN monitoring for treaty oversight.
Burma's New "Civilian Government" in 2011
Burma's latest bid for global legitimacy was implementing a new constitution in January 2011 which established a sovereign "civilian" state without sovereign powers. However, under this constitution the military is a legally autonomous entity outside of and uncontrolled by the sovereign state, which is defined as the executive, legislative and judicial branches. The constitution guarantees the military complete legal autonomy over all civilian and criminal military affairs. This renders the state of Burma without the legal capacity to enforce any international or domestic laws against the military, including U.N. Security Council Resolutions, the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, and the Genocide and Geneva Conventions. In addition, Burma's new constitution guarantees the military impunity from prosecution by providing general amnesties for all crimes, which encourages the military's continuing crimes against humanity, genocide, and war crimes.
Burma Objectives
GJC seeks to affect vast and varied improvements in Burma, including dismantling the military regime in Burma, securing the release of political prisoners, advocating for a new constitution and elections held under UN trusteeship, establishing transitional justice mechanisms to ensure accountability for crimes such as genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity, and convincing the UN to set up a victims trust funded by Burma for reparations to all regime victims, including political prisoners.
Burma Activities
GJC is the only international human rights group calling on states and the UN to comply with their "ergaomnes" - or mandatory - duties under international law. GJC challenges the legitimacy of Burma's Constitution, which provides a bifurcated sovereign state, as an internationally wrongful act of the highest gravity and all states are under absolute duties not to recognize its validity. States are required to call for the Security Council to mandate that Burma's new constitution is invalid as a breach of the UN Charter.
GJC raise international awareness of the constitution's threat to regional and global peace and security as the constitution shields the military from any legal oversight, including in the nuclear arena, threatening global peace and security. States are under positive obligations to take affirmative measures, individually and collectively, to end Burma's fundamental breaches of International Humanitarian Law (IHL), including by referral to the ICC.
The Global Justice Center partners with the Women League of Burma to come up with new strategic uses of international law to bring justice for women of Burma. As a country in conflict, UN Security Council Resolution 1325, 1820, 1888, 1889 and 1960, which affirm the urgent need to end impunity and protect civilians in conflict and post conflict situations,applies to the situation in Burma. GJC advocate the UN Security Council to act on the mandate of UNSCR 1820, 1888 and 1960 and halt the systemic use of rape and other sexual violence crimes against the ethnic women of Burma who have been brutalized for decades with no redress.