House of Representatives Women and Child Rights affairs committee chairwoman Dr. Khin Soe Soe Kyi said after a parliament session that those who posted personal profile and details of rape survivor “Victoria” on police force social media page “Ye Zarni” and other responsible officials should be investigated and prosecuted.
After their press conference held on December 19 at Myanmar Police Force HQ, the police force posted the true identity of the minor rape survivor, the true identities of her parents and their address on their social media page called ‘Ye Zarni’.
Khin Soe Soe Kyi called for action against the officials under the Child Rights Protection law.
Dr. Khin Soe Soe Kyi said in her opinion the police force should not be ignorant of this Child Rights Law.
Section 96(d) of Child Rights Protection Law forbids disclosing the true identity of minor accused or minor witness in any criminal case and it also forbids the taking photo of these children, publishing, distribution, covering news stories about them in newspapers, magazines, journals and any other publications by taking information on these criminal cases and advertising them.
This section also forbids broadcasting about them on radio, TV and other social media platforms.
House of Representatives Joint Bill Committee secretary Kyaw Soe Lin said, “Not only in these cases with children, even in some criminal cases, the identities of the adult accused were mentioned with their names changed but in this case, the police force exposed the identity of the minor rape victim along with her address. It will cause trauma to the minor. So it is strictly forbidden by the law. I assume that such violation should not be committed.”
The exposure of the identity of minor rape victim by the police force drew a great deal of criticism, prompting them to remove the material from their social media page.
Similarly some news and media houses removed this live press conference shared and posted on their pages after realizing the identity of rape victim been mentioned in the press conference.
