A/HRC/39/CRP.2 me as I ate. After breakfast, they packed up and moved on. One soldier said, “Let’s also get this rebel to carry our things”. Later, we stopped and rested by a narrow stream and one of the soldiers made me drink muddy water. He said “You are a rebel, not a human, you should do what the animals do.”318 • Another victim provided a detailed account of the ill-treatment he suffered while taken for forced labour by the Tatmadaw in late May 2014 in Manton Township, Kachin State: We were all required to carry very heavy burdens. We walked for three hours and then reached a village on a hill. Those who didn’t do this well were beaten by the soldiers. We were kicked and slapped on the head. They hit me from behind with a rifle butt, and pushed me to walk faster. We spent the night in that village and we were chained up by our legs. We were not given any food. We could just use our hands to drink from streams on the route, but that night we were not given water.319 4. Sexual and gender-based violence 188. The Mission found that the Tatmadaw has targeted civilians, especially women and girls but also men. Women have been subjected to abduction, rape, including gang rape, and other sexual violence. There are also credible reports of forced marriage and sexual slavery. In many cases, sexual violence was accompanied by degrading behaviour, including insults and spitting. When women did escape, Tatmadaw soldiers would frequently search for them, threaten and physically abuse their family, and destroy or steal their property. Sexual violence against men has been inflicted as a means of torture, including to obtain information or confessions from detainees.320 189. The findings in this section are based on 38 interviews with survivors, families of survivors, eyewitnesses, and expert witnesses. The prevailing context of insecurity in northern Myanmar, combined with culturally based stigmatisation and ostracism of sexual violence survivors, and the continuing presence of the military and armed groups, suggest significant underreporting.321 (a) Legal framework 190. Sexual violence is conduct of a sexual nature that is perpetrated without a person’s consent, often by force or coercion. Under international human rights law, such conduct may violate the right to security of the person, the right to be protected from torture and other illtreatment, and other rights enshrined in international treaties. Rape, which consists of sexual penetration without consent, is one form of sexual violence. Acts falling within the category of other sexual violence include: attempted rape; forced prostitution and trafficking for the purpose of sexual exploitation; sexual slavery; forced marriage or cohabitation; forced pregnancy; forced abortion or sterilization; violent acts against the sexual integrity of a person and other acts of a sexual nature that cause offence or humiliation (for example, forced public nudity, demanding sex in return for favours, sexual harassment).322 191. Rape and other forms of sexual violence are also prohibited under international humanitarian law.323 Depending on the circumstances, such acts may constitute war crimes, crimes against humanity or genocide.324 192. Violence against women and girls, including sexual and gender-based violence, is also a form of discrimination prohibited by the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of 318 319 320 321 322 323 324 50 QI-096. QI-098. See this chapter, section A.3: Torture and other ill-treatment. See also A/HRC/31/71, para. 48. See e.g. ICC Elements of Crimes, art. 7(1)(g). See Common art. 3 of the Geneva Conventions (prohibiting “violence to life and person” including cruel treatment and torture and “outrages upon personal dignity”), and ICRC/Customary IHL, rule 93. See ICC Statute, arts. 7(1)(g), 8(b)(xxii), 8(c)(ii), 8(e)(vi); ICC Elements of Crimes, art. (6)(b) para. 1.