GLOBAL CENTRE FOR THE RESPONSIBILITY TO PROTECT
16 Feb 2017
Joint NGO letter to UN Secretary-General António Guterres
about the situation in Myanmar's Rakhine State
Re: Joint NGO Letter to UN Secretary-General António
Guterres about the situation in Myanmar's Rakhine State
Your Excellency,
The Rohingya, a Muslim ethnic minority group in Myanmar,
have been systematically disenfranchised and increasingly marginalized,
including through denial of citizenship and restriction of movement. Over the
years successive UN Special Rapporteurs on the situation of human rights in
Myanmar have reported serious continuing human rights violations against this
community. Following a 12-day visit to Myanmar in January, Special Rapporteur
Yanghee Lee noted allegations of ongoing human rights abuses in Rakhine State.
She also raised concerns regarding widespread fear amongst civilians of
potential reprisals as punishment for speaking out. In her upcoming report to
the 34th session of the Human Rights Council, Special Rapporteur Lee will call
for the establishment of a Commission of Inquiry into the Rohingya situation.
As you know, on 3 February the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights
(OHCHR) released a report based on interviews with Rohingya who had fled from
Myanmar, which detailed "widespread and systematic" attacks against
the Rohingya and reiterated "the very likely commission of crimes against
humanity" – as had already been concluded by the High Commissioner in June
2016.1 The High Commissioner, likewise, has called for a Commission of Inquiry.
Following a series of attacks on border guard posts on 9
October 2016 and subsequent joint army-police counterinsurgency operation,
there have been consistent reports of extrajudicial executions, rape and other
crimes of sexual violence, torture and ill-treatment, enforced disappearances,
mass arrests, and the widespread destruction of Rohingya buildings and mosques.
During your tenure as the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, you
witnessed first-hand the discriminatory treatment of the Rohingya, including
the proposal by then-President Thein Sein to settle all Rohingya in
displacement camps or send them to third countries. The situation has only
deteriorated since.
According to the UN Office for the Coordination of
Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), more than 69,000 people have fled from Rakhine
State for Bangladesh since October, while 24,000 people remain internally
displaced in Myanmar. Despite the announcement on 16 February of the
termination of the four-month counterinsurgency operation, the government
continued to deny allegations of human rights abuses in Rakhine State.
We note that the Myanmar authorities have established
several national commissions to investigate allegations of human rights violations;
however none of these commissions are independent or credible. Two
investigations are being conducted by the police and military respectively,
raising concerns about their ability to investigate allegations of abuses
within their ranks. The third Commission, established in December, claims to
have found insufficient evidence of human rights violations, despite mounting
reports to the contrary. Another commission - the Advisory Commission on
Rakhine State, led by former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, does not have a
human rights mandate and will not be conducting investigations into the
allegations of abuses. On 6 February the UN Special Adviser on the Prevention
of Genocide, Adama Dieng, stated that the failure to address these violations
puts populations at "the risk of very serious international crimes."
We welcome your commitment to human rights, peace and
conflict prevention, as well as your stated readiness to advance these causes
through your good offices and personal engagement as UN SecretaryGeneral. Given
the intensive promotion of anti-Muslim sentiment in Myanmar and the lack of
political will to restore rights to the Rohingya, the situation requires more
than a series of flawed national investigation commissions to push policymakers
to change course.
We urge you to proactively engage with the Government of
Myanmar and other national actors, including through a possible visit to the
country, and convey your concern about the gravity of the situation in Rakhine
State. Your office should engage directly with the Myanmar leadership,
including State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi and Commander-in-Chief Senior
General Min Aung Hlaing, and strongly encourage them to allow an international
independent investigation into allegations of human rights abuses in northern
Rakhine State and to effectively address the institutionalized discrimination
of the Rohingya. We believe that your leadership on this matter would send a
powerful message to the government and the military and could prevent further
violations. We respectfully ask you to urge the government of Myanmar to uphold
its responsibility to protect all populations, regardless of religion,
ethnicity or other status, and to specifically ask the government to take the
following key steps:
- Allow immediate and unhindered access for national and
international humanitarian workers, independent media and human rights
observers to Rakhine State;
- Support the establishment of an independent
international investigation into the situation in Rakhine State;
- Hold all perpetrators of human rights abuses
accountable, including army and police officers;
- Repeal or amend all laws and regulations which
discriminate against Rohingya and other minorities in Myanmar, including but not
limited to the four "Protection of Race and Religion" laws and the
1982 Citizenship Law;
- Remove all arbitrary and discriminatory restrictions on
the Rohingya community and other Muslims in Rakhine State, in particular on
their freedom of movement and access to health services, education and equal
livelihood opportunities; and
- Guarantee the safe, voluntary and dignified return of
displaced communities to their homes.
The impact of the current crisis is felt beyond the
borders of Myanmar, and there are hundreds of thousands of Rohingya asylum
seekers throughout the region. Many neighboring states refuse to recognize them
as refugees or allow them access to humanitarian assistance, food and health
services, much less their rights to work and to receive an education.
The United Nations must send a clear and powerful signal
regarding pluralism and the rule of law. Failure to act now may result in
further human rights violations, possibly amounting to crimes against humanity.
Sincerely,
Amnesty International
Burma Task Force
FIDH - International Federation for Human Rights
Fortify Rights
Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect
Physicians for Human Rights
Refugees International
U.S. Campaign for Burma