A/HRC/42/CRP.5 525. Consistent with its previous findings that some victims of forced labour were made to walk at the front of Tatmadaw soldiers to act as “human mine sweepers”, 1224 the Mission corroborated a similar case during the reporting period. In this incident, Tatmadaw soldiers forced five men in their custody to walk in front of the first soldier while moving between locations in a forest area likely to have been contaminated with landmines. 1225 The Mission also received credible information that in another case a Shan civilian man was killed and another was injured by the detonation of a landmine while being forced to act as a messengers for the Tatmadaw in an area that the soldiers knew to be contaminated. 1226 526. The Mission also received information that in another case Tatmadaw soldiers forced a Kachin civilian man to go to a nearby village to verify the potential presence of EAO fighters under the threat that one of his relatives would be killed if he did not return.1227 Conclusions and legal findings1228 527. The Mission concludes on reasonable grounds that these cases of forced labour and physical abuse add to a widely documented Tatmadaw practice that contravenes international human rights law and international humanitarian law. 1229 In addition to violating the prohibition against forced labour, the practice violated the prohibitions against arbitrary detention and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. In cases involving children, it also violated the Convention on the Rights of the Child. The cases of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment also rise to the level of the war crimes of cruel treatment or outrages upon personal dignity, given their connection to the armed conflict.1230 While international law permits some exemptions to the general prohibition of forced labour,1231 the cases that the Mission investigated do not fall within those exemptions. The manner in which the Tatmadaw exposed forced labourers to the dangers of the armed conflict, including exposing them to landmines, contravened the right to life under international human rights law and was a violation of international humanitarian law under the prohibition of exposing civilians under its control to the effects of attack. Under both international human rights law and international humanitarian law, the Government of Myanmar has an obligation to conduct effective investigations into these violations, including criminal investigations especially when they amount to war crimes of cruel treatment or outrages upon personal dignity.1232 Sexual and gender-based violence1233 4. 528. In its 2018 report and more recently in its 2019 thematic report on sexual and gender-based violence,1234 the Mission found credible and consistent accounts of a pattern of sexual violence against men, women and girls in Kachin and Shan States perpetrated by security forces.1235 Despite the ceasefire, heavy militarization and the continuing hostilities have exposed women and girls to conflict-related sexual violence in both Kachin and Shan 1224 1225 1226 1227 1228 1229 1230 1231 1232 1233 1234 1235 A/HRC/39/CRP.2. para. 266. 1058, 1059. 1414, GI-058. 1337. See also chapter IV, section E: The situation of the Rohingya; forced and compulsory labour. See also chapter IV, section E: The situation of the Rohingya; forced and compulsory labour. ICTY, Kunarac Appeals Chamber Opinion para. 58, See, also, ICTY, Limaj et al. (IT-03-66), para. 91. A/HRC/39/CRP.2. para. 256. Basic Principles and Guidelines on the Right to a Remedy and Reparation for Victims of Gross Violations of International Human Rights Law and Serious Violations of International Humanitarian Law, Basic Guideline and Principle 4. The Mission produced a comprehensive conference room paper on sexual and gender-based violence and the gendered impact of its ethnic conflicts encompassing trends and patterns in northern Myanmar since 2011. All cases referred to in this reporting period are detailed in that report. A/HRC/42/CRP.4. Ibid. A/HRC/39/CRP.2, para. 164 et s., and 188-219. 143