TEHRAN- Bangladesh government and the United Nations have agreed to jointly address conflict-related sexual violence committed against Rohingya refugees forcibly evicted from Myanmar to Bangladesh.

On Friday, the two parties signed a 'Framework of Cooperation' in this regard. The Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict, Pramila Patten, after signing the document, said, “I believe that through this Framework of Cooperation the Rohingya survivors of sexual violence will benefit from enhanced service-delivery, accountability and protection.”

During her two official visits to Bangladesh, in November 2017 and May 2018, she spent several days at the camps in Cox's Bazar speaking with women and girls who had survived brutal acts of sexual violence in Myanmar and bear the profound physical and psychological scars of war.

The Framework of Cooperation focuses on five priority areas. These are improving access of Rohingya survivors of sexual violence to medical and psychosocial support services; capacity building of the justice and security sector on the prevention of trafficking in persons, the return and reintegration of trafficked women and children, and the referral of victims to service providers.

An action plan based on these five key areas will be developed as a tool to measure progress and mobilize technical and financial resources for specific interventions.