"In August 2008 the Irish Centre for Human Rights received funding from Irish Aid to launch a project on the human rights situation of the Rohingyas/Muslims of Rakhine State in Western Burma/Myanmar. As part of the project a research unit was established at the Irish Centre for Human Rights to carry an open source research and take part in a fact-finding mission and the drafting of a report under the supervision of Prof. William Schabas. In 2009, Nancie Prudhomme (project manager and researcher) and Joseph Powderly (project researcher) undertook a 4-week fact-finding mission to gather more detailed, first-hand and new information about the situation of the Rohingyas in Western Burma. As part of their mission Nancie and Joseph visited Burma and Thailand. In Thailand, they had meetings on the situation of the Rohingya "boat people" pushed back to sea at the beginning of 2009 and on the status of the Rohingya issue within Asia generally and more specifically at the ASEAN level. As part of the fact-finding mission the researchers also spent two weeks in Bangladesh visiting refugee camps and interviewing Rohingya refugees and human rights and humanitarian workers. The researchers were joined in Bangladesh by Mr. John Ralston, Executive Director of the International Institution for Criminal Investigation and former Chief of Investigations at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and for the UN Independent Commission of Inquiry for Darfur. The team interviewed Rohingya victims in and around refugee camps in Bangladesh. The mission in Bangladesh provided detailed information on the causes for flight to Bangladesh and the current situation in Western Burma. The report of the Rohingya project was officially launched on June 16 th, 2010 by Micheál Martin, the Irish Minister for Foreign Affairs, at Iveagh House"..... EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: "The plight of the Rohingyas has become better known since the start of 2009, in particular because of world-wide media coverage of the case of the so-called ?boat people”, consisting of hundreds of Rohingyas who attempted to reach Thailand by boat and were subsequently mistreated there. Despite this new interest in the Rohingya community, very little work has been done to examine the root causes behind their continuous suffering. The Rohingyas are a Muslim minority group residing in North Arakan State in Western Burma. It is estimated that there are approximately 800,000 Rohingyas in Arakan State, and many hundreds of thousands of Rohingya refugees in other countries. There are disputes over the historical records, and whether the Rohingyas are an indigenous group or whether in fact they began entering Burma in the late 19th century. Even the very name ‘Rohingya? has been disputed. Whatever position is taken on these questions, it is undeniable that the Rohingyas exist, and have done so for decades, as a significant minority group in North Arakan State. For many years, the Rohingyas have been enduring human rights abuses. These violations are on-going and in urgent need of attention and redress. Irish Aid provided funding for independent research to be conducted by the Irish Centre for Human Rights on the situation of the Rohingyas. The content and views expressed in the resulting Report by the Irish Centre for Human Rights are entirely those of the authors. This Report is based on a fact-finding mission to the region, including Burma, as well as on extensive open-source research, and confidential meetings with organisations working in the region. Much of the most important information came from the many interviews conducted with Rohingya individuals in and around refugee camps in Bangladesh, where they were able to speak more freely than they can in Burma itself about the violations they had endured and which had caused them to flee their homes. The Report examines the situation of the Rohingyas through the lens of crimes against humanity. The Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court and international criminal law jurisprudence, especially that of the ad hoc International Criminal Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda, are used to provide detailed and clear legal foundations for the examination. As becomes evident in the individual chapters, there is a strong prima facie case for determining that crimes against humanity are being committed against the Rohingyas of North Arakan State in Burma..."