Youth Rights Report

Background

The people of Burma have suffered from the world's longest running civil war. This war is fought in numerous ways in Karen State, all of which impact upon the youth.

Firstly, several different armed groups aim to control the territory and people of Karen State and particularly try to mobilize the strength of youths for their cause. This leads to competition over youth recruitment, various forms of pressures upon youths to join armed groups and intense suspicion upon youths by military authorities.

Secondly, the SPDC’s aim to establish military control over the entire area of Burma has resulted in the militarization of lives and livelihoods and extreme predation upon civilians which negatively affect youths in many ways.

Thirdly, in areas outside SPDC control, the continuing offensives against people in Karen State have resulted in a humanitarian disaster.

Understanding of the situation of youths inside Karen State remains limited and programmes intended to assist youths suffer from a dearth of information about their lives, needs and capacities. KYO aims to remedy this situation by researching and writing an informative report about the lives, abuses and agency of youths in Karen State.

KYO defines youths as those belonging to the 15 to 35 age group (inclusive). We believe that youths often experience abuse differently from children or adults, due to their different stage in the life cycle and local hierarchical power relations, and are particularly vulnerable to certain abuses because of their youth status.

Project Aim

To increase understanding of the myriad and complex ways in which multiple human rights abuses affect youths lives in Karen State and the ways in which youths work to resist abuse and claim their rights.

Project Objectives

Strategies

In this report we aim to explain how human rights abuses negatively impact upon youths in the following areas of their lives:

Each section will also explain the many strategies that youths use to resist abuse or mitigate the negative effects of abuse. This is necessary to counteract depictions of survivors of abuse as incapable victims needing outside interventions to save them. Instead it will explain how outside support can build upon the existing capacities of youths and strengthen their strategies of resistance.

The report will use mainly qualitative research methods, though some quantitative information is available (mainly about health) from other sources. KYO will utilize its extensive network of offices throughout Karen State to gather information for the report, in the form of a long questionnaire. This will be supplemented by life history mapping of individual youths to bring together the different strands of information in to a complete whole.

Information will be gathered in S’gkaw Karen and Burmese and will be translated in to three languages: S’gkaw Karen, Burmese and English. We aim to produce the final report in all three languages, providing funding is secured.