Access to Whose Justice? Survivor-Centered Justice for Sexual and Gender-Based Violence in Northern Shan State

Abstract

In 2019, the United Nations (UN) Security Council adopted Resolution 2467. The resolution was to encourage the international system to promote a survivor-centered response to conflict-related sexual violence. The role of local women-led civil society organizations has been identified as the crucial “first-response” mechanism to institute survivor-centered justice. In a situation of ongoing conflict, what agency do civil society organizations have to safely operate “first-response” survivor-centered justice? In this article, we examine the local practices of responding to conflict-related sexual violence in northern Shan State in Myanmar. This article finds that women-led local civil society organizations are indeed crucial first responders and a vital resource for promoting survivor-centered justice-seeking practices. The article also identifies the compromises and risks these civil society organizations experience that limit their agency to deliver survivor-centered justice. Local civil society organizations are constantly navigating local gendered norms, a patriarchal, unrepresentative formal legal system, and a hostile conflict environment. The positionality of local civil society organizations to local armed ethnic organizations and the state itself requires strategic consideration by the international community when recommending local civil society to deliver survivor-centered justice.