Description:
"Five years after the military’s “clearance operations” against Rohingya, we, Women's
Peace Network, recommit our support to the Rohingya community; as well as urge the
international community to pursue comprehensive and concerted measures to bring justice and
accountability for such victims and survivors of genocide.
We remain alarmed by Rohingya’s worsening conditions across South and Southeast
Asia, to where hundreds of thousands of them were forced to flee from the 2017 attacks. In its
deteriorating conditions, trauma continues to shape the community’s path to survival: Rohingya
are increasingly deprived of access to healthcare, education, and other basic needs and
livelihoods; and their women and girls, survivors of a harrowing escape, remain at heightened
risk of being subjected to sexual and domestic violence without access to any form of protection
or recourse to justice. Barbed-wire fences confine their movement to isolated camps, and any
attempt to find their long-awaited freedom is threatened by human trafficking, detention, arrest,
and forced deportation to Myanmar.
Yet the Myanmar that awaits Rohingya is now farther from the home that they envision.
The military that perpetrated their genocide overthrew an elected government last year, and is
now wielding brutal tactics – many of which were used to strategically destroy the community
for decades – across the entire country. The over 600,000 Rohingya in Myanmar are at
increasing risk of being subjected to further atrocities: The junta is now issuing past,
discriminatory and apartheid-like policies aimed at further confining what it still calls “Bengali”
in camps and prisons. Since the attempted coup, the junta has detained and arrested over 1475
Rohingya, including 617 women.
Therefore, this Rohingya Genocide Remembrance Day, we urge the international
community to expedite its efforts to bring accountability to Myanmar by fully addressing the
needs and concerns of its most vulnerable and marginalized population. Countries must now
join the International Court of Justice's The Gambia v. Myanmar, which will now proceed as a
case, against the Rohingya genocide; support universal jurisdiction to prosecute the military for
its international crimes; and impose more targeted economic sanctions and financial penalties
on the military and its related businesses, particularly the Myanma Oil and Gas Enterprise. The
United Nations Security Council should immediately uphold its mandate – as well as the
Responsibility to Protect and Women, Peace, and Security agendas – and adopt a resolution
referring the situation of Myanmar to the International Criminal Court and imposing a global
arms embargo on the country. And as was demonstrated by the United States government this
year, governments must begin to officially recognize the entirety of the mass atrocities that have
been committed against ethnic and religious minorities in Myanmar for decades, including
genocide against Rohingya; countries that do so must also pursue rigorous and robust measures
to bring justice to the many affected communities.
Holding the military accountable is fundamental to ensuring that such justice will be
served, and that its victims and survivors of genocide will be there to receive it. For the latter, we
call upon the international community to provide sustainable forms of material and financial
assistance to the over one million Rohingya seeking rehabilitation and recovery as refugees
across South and Southeast Asia. This form of assistance must be directed to the community and
members of its civil society, especially women’s groups, in a way which respects their autonomy,
agency, and dignity – and with the goal of securing their safe and dignified voluntary return
home..."
Source/publisher:
Women’s Peace Network
Date of Publication:
2022-08-25
Date of entry:
2022-08-25
Grouping:
- Individual Documents
Category:
Countries:
Myanmar
Language:
English
Local URL:
Format:
pdf
Size:
421.75 KB
Resource Type:
text
Text quality:
- Good