The Women's League of Burma is a community-based organisation working on the rights of women from Burma, with a focus on systematic sexual violence in ethnic areas, and women's involvement in political processes, especially in the peace process. It is a membership organisation comprising various ethnic minority women groups from

Burma Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John Wells explai ...

. Its headquarters are in

Chang Mai Chiang Mai (, from th, เชียงใหม่ , nod, , เจียงใหม่ ), sometimes written as Chiengmai or Chiangmai, is the largest city in northern Thailand, the capital of Chiang Mai province and the second largest city in ...

Thailand Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is bo ...

, and has offices around the region.

History

With the brutal military regime of the

State Peace and Development Council The State Peace and Development Council ( my, နိုင်ငံတော် အေးချမ်းသာယာရေး နှင့် ဖွံ့ဖြိုးရေး ကောင်စီ ; abbreviated SPDC or , ) was the offi ...

ruling Burma and employing systematic rapes as an instrument of control, many women, men and children have fled to the jungle or border areas surrounding the country, and into neighbouring countries such as Thailand and Bangladesh. Several groups came together to organise an annual forum for these women's organisations, in the spirit of the

Panglong Agreement The Panglong Agreement ( my, ပင်လုံစာချုပ် ) was reached in Panglong, Southern Shan State, between the Burmese government under Aung San and the Shan, Kachin, and Chin peoples on 12 February 1947. Aung Zan Wai, Pe ...

. In the second year, on 9 December 1999, the groups decided that a single collective voice would concentrate resources, thereby amplifying their calls for common goals, especially in the political processes.

Profile

Women's League of Burma is the only women's political organisation involved in the constitution-drafting activities of the pro-democracy movement, the Federal Constitution Drafting Coordinating Committee, supported by the Center for Constitutional Democracy in Plural Societies at the Indiana University Maurer School of Law.

Member organisations

The Women's League of Burma member organisations include: * Burmese Women's Union (BWU) * Kachin Women's Association - Thailand (KWAT) * Karen Women's Organisation (KWO) * Karenni National Women's Organisation (KNWO) * Kayan Women's Organisation (KYWO) * Kuki Women's Human Rights Organisation (KWHRO) * Lahu Women's Organisation (LWO) * Palaung Women's Organisation (PWO) * Pa-O Women's Union (PWU) * Rakhaing Women's UNion (RWU) *

Shan Women's Action Network The Shan Women's Action Network ( my, ရှမ်းအမျိုးသမီးရေးရာ ဆက်သွယ်လှုပ်ရှားဆောင်ရွက်ရေးအသင်း: abbreviated SWAN) is an organisation of Shan ...

(SWAN) * Tavoy Women's Union (TWU) * Women's Rights and Welfare Association of Burma (WRWAB)

Awards

One of their noted activists,

Khin Ohmar Khin Ohmar ( my, ခင်ဥမ္မာ, ) is a Burma, Burmese democracy activist noted for her leadership in the 8888 Uprising and her work with the Women's League of Burma and the Burma Partnership. Khin Ohmar was a senior student at Rangoon ...

, won the 2008 Anna Lindh Prize and the 2008

Vital Voices Vital Voices Global Partnership is an American international, 501(c)(3), non-profit, non-governmental organization that works with women leaders in the areas of economic empowerment, women's political participation, and human rights. The organiz ...

Global Leadership Award for Human Rights, which she shared with SWAN activist

Charm Tong Charm Tong (born in 1981, Shan State, Burma) is a Shan teacher and human rights activist. She is head of the School for Shan State Nationalities Youth in Northern Thailand. Charm Tong is also one of the founders of Shan Women's Action Network, whi ...

References

External links