Surviving Conflict: Women and Children's Experiences in Myanmar
LMB/158
Event details
The ongoing conflict in Myanmar represents one of the most complex and multifaceted crises in Southeast Asia. Since its independence in 1948, the country has been marked by ethnic tensions, political instability, and frequent armed clashes between various armed and ethnic groups and the military. The military coup in February 2021, escalated these conflicts, triggering widespread civil unrest and resistance movements which were met with severe use of force from the military junta. Almost six years on and the violence continues, with women and children at a higher risk of many forms of harm, yet often excluded from formal peacebuilding initiatives. The latest report of the UN Secretary-General on Children and Armed Conflict records that in 2025, there were 2,203 grave violations committed against children in Myanmar, including killing and maiming, recruitment and use, detention, abduction, sexual violence and attacks on schools and hospitals.
The Centre for Applied Human Rights (CAHR), the Beyond Compliance Consortium (BCC), and the York Law School’s Rights in Crisis Research Excellence Group are jointly hosting this Human Rights Defender talk on the experiences of women and children in Myanmar’s armed conflict. In this talk, four researchers will share empirical research findings and lived experiences of the unique challenges that war in Myanmar imposes on women and children. The talk will explore the recruitment and use of children, gendered effects of the war, and women and children’s experiences of mental harm. Speakers will discuss the capacity of international law to protect women and children affected by armed conflict and observe how quantitative data can support evidence collection and the design of effective protection responses.
About the speakers
Lway Mownt Noon is a Ta’ang woman, activist, and human rights defender from Myanmar and a researcher on the BCC. A former political prisoner and survivor of childhood trafficking, displacement, refugeehood and armed conflict, she has experienced profound gendered and generational harms. Her work focuses on women’s rights, women’s leading roles in politics, protection of women and children, ethnic self-determination, peacebuilding, governance and human rights.
Samantha Holmes is a Research Associate at the York Law School and CAHR and a member of the Myanmar research team for the BCC. Her research focuses on international human rights and humanitarian law in times of conflict, the mental health impacts of war, and the experiences of children.
Hyunjung Park is a Research Fellow at CAHR and a member of the quantitative team for the BCC. Her research interests include civil wars, rebel governance, non-state armed group behaviours, and peacebuilding. She uses a range of methods, including cross-national statistical analysis and in-depth case studies, to investigate these issues. As part of the BCC, she contributed to the collection and development of the Beyond Dataset: An IHL-Informed Evidence Base on Harm in Armed Conflict, which provides micro-level data on armed actors’ conduct across violent events in Somalia (2021-2023), South Sudan (2013-2018), and Myanmar (2021-2022).
Ioana Cismas is a Professor of Law at York Law School and CAHR and the Principal Investigator of the Beyond Compliance Consortium research programme on Building Evidence for Promoting Restraint by Armed Actors. She teaches, researches and provides legal and policy advice in public international law, human rights law, international humanitarian law, law and religion, and transitional justice.
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