Crimes in Burma

This report evaluates Burma’s breaches in light of the Rome Statute, which provides one of the available sets of international criminal standards. Part I of the report provides a brief history of Burma. Part II summarizes the applicable international criminal law under the Rome Statute. Part III traces the discussion in UN documents of grave human rights and humanitarian violations identified as occurring in eastern Burma since 2002. In this geographic sampling, the report details forced displacement, sexual violence, extrajudicial killings, and torture, especially against ethnic nationalities though the UN documents chronicle many other severe violations as well. The recent temporal focus was chosen because it is most relevant to the Rome Statute. Part IV identifies precedents for further UN action from its response to other humanitarian crises in the former Yugoslavia, Rwanda, and Darfur. Part V presents the report’s conclusions.