Reports and Publications
သတင်းသမားများအတွက် လမ်းညွှန် – LGBTQ တို့နှင့်သက်ဆိုင်သည့် အကြောင်းအရာများကို သတင်းရေးသားခြင်း
March 2024
ယခုလမ်းညွှန်ချက်များတွင် LGBTQ များနှင့် ပတ်သက်သည့် သတင်းများကို ရေးသားဖော်ပြခြင်းနှင့် LGBTQ အရေးလှုပ်ရှားသူများအကြောင်း ချဉ်းကပ်ပြောဆိုပုံနှင့် ပတ်သက်၍ “ဆောင်ရန်”၊ “ရှောင်ရန်” များကို ရှင်းလင်းသော အကြံပြုချက်များ ဖော်ပြပါရှိပါသည်။ ဤလမ်းညွှန်ချက်သည် LGBTQ အကြောင်းအရာများကို ရေးသားလေ့မရှိသော သတင်းသမားများအတွက် ရည်ရွယ်ထားသော်လည်း မည်သည့် မီဒီယာတွင် သတင်းရေးသားသည်ဖြစ်စေ၊ အတွေ့အကြုံရှိသည်ဖြစ်စေ သတင်းရေးသားသူတိုင်း အသုံးပြုနိုင်ပြီး မီဒီယာအဖွဲ့အစည်းအသီးသီးမှ လေ့လာစရာ အရင်းအမြစ်များနှင့် အသုံးဝင်သော ဥပမာများလည်း ပါဝင်သည်။
ယခုလမ်းညွှန်ချက်များသည် သတင်းသမားများအနေဖြင့် LGBTQ ကိစ္စရပ်များနှင့်ပတ်သက်သည့် သတင်းတင်ဆက်ရာတွင် အသုံးဝင်နိုင်မည်ဟု မျှော်လင့်ပါသည်။
Perspectives And Attitudes Towards LGBT People in Myanmar 2020
July 2020
In Myanmar, people of diverse sexualities and gender identities face human rights abuses and violence on multiple fronts for the fact that they do not conform to culturally-entrenched understandings of gender norms and behaviours. LGBTIQ individuals frequently suffer physical, sexual and emotional abuse at the hands of family and household members, and other community members such as law enforcement officers, neighbours, teachers and classmates.
LGBT+ Equality in the Workplace – A Bilingual Resource Guide for Employers in Myanmar
May 2020
This guide, produced by Myanmar Center for Responsible Business and Colors Rainbow seeks to help employers in Myanmar avoid discrimination and navigate complex issues of sexual orientation, gender identity and expression (SOGIE) – and their Myanmar vocabulary – to build an inclusive workplace.
Baseline Assessment Report: LGBT Community at Workplace in Yangon
January 2019
This assessment report covers the general situation of LGBT community at workplaces, as well as trends and perspectives of employers and co-workers towards LGBT employees in Yangon. Key findings of the assessment highlight that there are many LGBTs who do not disclose their sexual orientation or gender identity at work for fear of repercussions or unfair treatment. Other findings emphasize that many employers and supervisors who work with LGBT colleagues still show distrust towards them.
Universal Periodic Review Second Cycle (2015 – 2020) Mid-Term Report (Burma/Myanmar UPR Forum February – May 2018)
2018
This fact sheet is part of the UPR Mid-Term Report on SOGIE submitted to the Human Rights Council for the second cycle in May 2018. It assesses the situation and reports on human rights violations between the years 2015 and 2018 and highlights the recommendations made by civil society organizations in Myanmar to protect the human rights of LGBTQ+ individuals.
Baseline Assessment Report: LGBT community at Workplace in Mandalay
November 2018
LGBT people in Mandalay workplaces continue to face discrimination due to stereotypes and prejudice. Key finding of this study suggests that transgender men and women are mostly discriminated by colleagues based on the way they dress. Furthermore, most LGBT individuals are not aware of their own human and legal rights which lead to unfairness at workplaces or even unemployment.
In the Shadows – Systemic injustice based on sexual orientation and gender identity/expression in Myanmar
November 2019
This report, produced by ICJ Myanmar in collaboration with Colors Rainbow and other LGBT groups, presents emblematic cases and recurring human rights violations against LGBTQ people in Myanmar. It highlights how outdated laws continue to affect the lives of LGBTQ individuals and result in ongoing stigmatization, human rights violations and overall injustice. The report concludes with a set of recommendations that seek to make existing laws and policies more protective of LGBTQ individuals’ rights.
Attitudes Toward LGBT: A Case of School Community in Mandalay and Dawei
October 2019
The Government school curriculum regarding sexuality is insufficient and the ‘life skill’ class is not fully utilized. The taboo against teaching/talking on sex and cultural barriers make teachers and students hesitant for open discussion. This study is envisaged to fill the gap as a learning product, focusing on LGBT specific issues, in order to create a safer and better learning and working environment at schools for LGBT teachers and other staff with respect and dignity.
Factsheet – Endline assessment on the promotion of human rights and the rule of law
2019
During two years, Colors Rainbow has conducted activities to protect the human rights of LGBT persons, build knowledge on Myanmar’s legal system and facilitate the access to justice and fair treatment to the LGBT community. This factsheet summarizes the main acheivements and the impact made by the programme and puts forward recommendations to improve the respect of human rights and promote the rule of law in Myanmar.
End Line Assessment Report on Promotion of Human Rights and Rule of law for LGBT Community in Yangon
2019
The most significant change seen in this assessment is changing attitudes of the LGBT toward themselves in relation to the society. Compared to the time when baseline assessment was conducted, LGBT interviewees seem more relaxed and comfortable to talk about their life and situation. Within the year, many LGBT related activities were covered in news and social media. Colors Rainbow and other LGBT rights advocate groups in Myanmar tirelessly continue to find ways to promote visibility of LGBT rights.
Impact Assessment of Colors Rainbow’s Paralegals
2019
With the aim to protect the rights of LGBT community under Myanmar’s legal system with the financial support from USAID, Colors Rainbow (CRB) has been implementing Access to Justice Program for LGBT people in six townships in Yangon. One key activity of the program includes providing training to paralegals to be able to assist LGBT people who seek legal aid, mediation or other support as needed. As a result, six trained paralegals have gained confidence to provide legal advice to LGBT community in thirteen townships in Yangon.
Human Rights Violations against the LGBT Community Trend Analysis (2015-2018)
2019
This report is a 3-year (2015-2018) case analysis of Colors Rainbow legal aid assistance in Bago and Yangon. Further providing an overview of the trends of abuses and discrmination on LGBT community members; their access to justice and their understanding on LGBT rights. Total 815 cases were assisted over 3 years and 52% of them were targeted towards transwomen. It has been found that transwomen are the most vulnerable under shadow law. The perpetrators of 3 out of 14 rape cases in 2016 were the police officers.
Baseline Assessment on the LGBT community in the workplace in Yangon – Key Findings
2018
The study conducted in 2017 and 2018 in Yangon assesses the situation of LGBT employees and analyses the attitudes and perception of employers, human resource persons and co-workers towards their LGBT colleagues. The findings and recommendations presented here can be used to measure achievements of any intervention to support LGBT inclusion at the workplace.
Discrimination and Human Rights Abuses Against LGBT People in Myanmar
2018
The LGBT community in Myanmar face discrimination and mistreatment in many different forms. Traditional beliefs, conservative culture, little to no legal protection and lack of knowledge about sexual orientation or gender identity/expression (SOGIE) result in verbal, physical and sexual abuse against LGBT people in families, schools, workplaces, media and public spaces. Colors Rainbow strives to promote/protect LGBT rights by providing access to justice, SOGIE training, and legal reforms.
Baseline Assessment Report on Promotion of Human Rights and Rule of Law for LGBT Community in Yangon
2018
Progressively, media coverage and advocacy efforts of Colors Rainbow and some LGBT NGOs in the country have helped in securing social acceptance towards the LGBT community. However, cultural conservatism, associated homophobia and misconceptions of the LGBT community portrayed by the media remain the major challenges in Myanmar. This report provides comprehensive information for understanding the current human rights and rule of law situation regarding LGBT in six townships around Yangon.
Stand Up Against Workplace Discrimination Based on SOGIE
2017
LGBT people experience discrimination and unequal employment opportunities in the workplace. For these reasons, they often end up doing other types of work that may be dangerous or unsustainable, putting them at risk or increasing their vulnerability. This booklet speaks about workplace discrimination against LGBT people and calls for legal protection. It is focusing government, entrepreneurs, workers’ representatives, labor organizations, and finally LGBT people.
Strategies and Guidelines to promote the rights of LGBTs in Myanmar
2017
Myanmar is a country known for its serious human rights violations where its people have very limited access to protection of law and suitable legal channels as a recourse for their grievances. The law, especially Section 377 of the Penal Code, creates a discriminatory legal environment that leaves members of the LGBT community mainly unprotected. The main purpose of this legal guideline is to promote human rights and rule of law not only for the LGBTs, but for the women and children as well, and to serve as a handbook in training courses and legal awareness raising programs, paralegal services, and psycho-social support.
From Victims to Agents of Change: Lives and Voices of LGBT Individuals
2016
Section 377 of the penal code and the so-called “shadow and disguise” acts are used to intimidate, harass and punish LGBT individuals. However, the provision of human rights and legal rights training implemented by Colors Rainbow to LGBT individuals have had a powerful impact upon victims’ feelings of self-worth and encouraged positive behavior changes amongst participants.
Facing 377 | Discrimination and Human Rights Abuses Against Transgender, Gay and Bisexual Men in Myanmar
2013
In an effort to understand the lack of social acceptance towards the LGBT community, specifically towards transgender and gay males, it is crucial to explore how Myanmar Buddhists conceptualize the correlation between karma; cycle of birth, death and rebirth. This study discusses the variety of harassment and abuse that the respondents (transgenders, gay, bisexual men) have experienced in the public sphere and from members of the Myanmar Police Force, and the respondents’ understanding of and feelings about the arbitrary application of laws towards them.