National Committee on Prevention and Response to Sexual Violence in Conflict meets

The Ministry of Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement held the first National-Level Committee on the Prevention and Response to Sexual Violence in Conflict (1/2021) yesterday afternoon in Nay Pyi Taw.
The meeting was attended by Union Minister Dr Thet Thet Khine, in her capacity as the Chairperson of the committee; the Vice-Chairman of the Committee, the Deputy Minister for Defence; the members of the national committee, the Deputy Minister for Health and Sports and the Deputy Minister for Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement; the Deputy ‌ Attorney General and Permanent Secretaries from relevant departments, members of the National Level Committee, Directors General Deputy Directors-General and officials.
The National committee was amended by Notification No.80/2021 by the State Administration Council on 31 March 2021 to ensure that the current activities under the auspices of the State Administration Council are carried out.
The meeting aimed to revise the terminology in the action plan and discuss the next steps to reorganize the working committee further and implement the approved national action plan.
At the meeting, Union Minister Dr Thet Thet Khine said the Myanmar Permanent Representative signed the joint communique to the UN and UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Violence Against Women in Conflicts Ms. Pramila Patten at the UN headquarters in New York.
A total of seven National-Level Committee Meetings and one Working Committee Meeting were held in 2019 and 2020 for the emergence of a National Plan to draw up a work plan and implement the action plan concerning the contents of the Joint Declaration. The UN agencies and the Office of the Special Envoy of the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflicts (OSESG) were invited twice to the third and the fifth meetings.
She added that the committee was renamed the National Committee on the Prevention and Response to Sexual Violence in Conflict. It shall address all forms of sexual violence in conflicts, not just women. She called for the discussion on the reorganization of the working committee and implementation of the project plan by the relevant sectors.
The Deputy Minister for Defence, Vice-Chairman of the National Committee on the Prevention and Response to Sexual Violence in Conflict, addressed the meeting.
The Secretary of the national committee Director-General of the Social Welfare Department explained the national committee’s reorganization and the implementation of the approved work plans, and the attendees gave suggestions.
The National Committee on the Prevention and Response to Sexual Violence in Conflict will hold the second meeting (2/2021) in the last week of May 2021. — MNA