On March 15, the United Nations General Assembly voted 170–4 to create a new Human Rights Council, effectively dissolving the oft-criticized Commission on Human Rights. Candidates for the Council will need to be elected by an absolute majority of 96 votes in order to secure a position, and once elected members can serve a maximum of two consecutive terms.

An investigation performed by Refugees International earlier this year has found that Burma’s soldiers are “systematically using rape as a weapon of war”. Hundreds of women from five different ethnic minority groups have reported being victimized. Women have been raped while being used as forced labor for the military, while farming, in their homes, and while trying to escape to Thailand. Many of the rapes occur in villages close to military bases.