Any Progress for the Lives of Women in Burma Since Bejing?

Ten years have passed since the Beijing Conference. Some sisters around the world have acknowledged that there has been some
progress related to commitment towards the BPFA on the part of governments. But for women from Burma, nothing has changed.
SPDC and the Beijing Process: Burma's ruling military regime, now called the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) has been participating at women's forums at the UN since the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing in 1995. SPDC sent a delegation led by a male military officer to the Beijing Conference. In 1996, it established the Myanmar National Committee for Women's Affairs (MNCWA), whose patrons were all men. Working committees were formed at different levels: state, division, district, township and ward/village. Almost all were led by wives of SPDC personnel. Other government organized women's organizations [GONGOs] were formed, namely: the Myanmar Maternal and Child Welfare Association (MMCWA); the Myanmar Women Sports Federation (MWSF), and the Myanmar Women Entrepreneur Association (MWEA). In December 2004, the MNCWA was renamed the Myanmar Women's Affairs Federation (MWDF).

In 1997, the SPDC signed the CEDAW, and submitted their first report to the CEDAW committee in 2000. Their delegation to the committee was led by a man. As for implementation of the BPFA, the SPDC identified six areas as the first phase for a national plan for action. They were: Education and Training, Health, Economy, Violence against Women, the Girl Child, and "Culture," an area not outlined in the BPFA. SPDC sent a delegation, again led by a man, to the Beijing Plus + 5 Conference in June 2000, and submitted a report. In September 2004, they submitted a similar report to the UNESCAP High-level Intergovernmental Meeting to review the regional implementation of 2 the Beijing Platform for Action. They added two more areas: Environment and Media. The SPDC claimed that the areas they had identified were more relevant for the "Myanmar" context. The SPDC's reports on the implementation of the BPFA completely ignored the extreme poverty in Burma resulting from their ongoing military expansion, excessive army expenditure and gross mismanagement of the economy, which has had a grave impact on women and children. Moreover, there was no mention of the half-acentury long civil war between the military regime and the ethnic groups. Instead they state: "The area of Women in Armed conflict is not relevant to present day-Myanmar, since the country has been in peace for decades." Regarding Critical Area of Concern D - Violence Against Women, they responded that "very few cases exist regarding violence against women" in Burma, and "it is not a major issue".