{"id":4752,"date":"2018-09-03T23:59:52","date_gmt":"2018-09-03T14:59:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hrn.or.jp\/eng\/?p=4752"},"modified":"2023-10-25T09:45:41","modified_gmt":"2023-10-25T00:45:41","slug":"hrc39-rohingya-crisis-myanmar-written-statement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hrn.or.jp\/eng\/news\/2018\/09\/03\/hrc39-rohingya-crisis-myanmar-written-statement\/","title":{"rendered":"Written Statement submitted to 39th<\/sup> Human Rights Council session<\/i> \u201cThe International Community Must Support the Protection of Displaced Rohingya and the Myanmar Government Must Ensure Accountability for Crimes against Them\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"
Human Rights Now has submitted a written statement \u201cThe International Community Must Support the Protection of Displaced Rohingya and the Myanmar Government Must Ensure Accountability for Crimes against Them\u201d to the 39th<\/sup> session of Human Rights Council, which is going to be held in Geneva from 10 September 2018.<\/div>\n
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HRN written statement on Rohingya Crisis for 39th HRC<\/a>\u00a0[PDF]<\/div>\n
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\u00a0The International Community Must Support the Protection of Displaced Rohingya and the Myanmar Government Must Ensure Accountability for Crimes against Them<\/strong><\/div>\n
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  1. Introduction<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Human Rights Now (HRN), a Tokyo-based international human rights NGO, remains deeply concerned about the situation of displaced Rohingya.<\/p>\n

    Over 700,000 Rohingya refugees fled last year\u2019s violence to camps in Cox\u2019s Bazar, Bangladesh, joining about 200,000 from past flights. They face environmental and health risks and a shortfall of services and aid. The Myanmar government has also failed to acknowledge or hold persons accountable for crimes against Rohingya, and the credibility of its responses have been seriously criticized.<\/p>\n

    HRN calls on the Myanmar government to ensure accountability for crimes against Rohingya and credible good faith responses to address the situation and prevent future violence. The international community must also increase aid to Rohingya refugee camps, and we request the Council to establish an international accountability mechanism.<\/p>\n

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    1. The Current Situation of Rohingya in Bangladesh<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      Rohingya camps in Bangladesh face serious challenges by a lack of sufficient funding and building space, dangerous weather conditions, and the vast scale of need, even as Rohingya refugees continue to arrive.<\/p>\n

      (a) Risks in Refugee Camps<\/strong><\/p>\n

      Camps face serious flooding and landslides which have damaged 1,326 shelters this summer and caused injuries and deaths, including five refugee children killed by a landslide on July 25, threating refugees\u2019 rights to life and health. The risk is driven by severe congestion, shelters built on unstable land and below minimum standards, and serious underfunding for improvements.[1]<\/a><\/sup> Bangladesh could significantly improve the situation by opening nearby suitable land for camp expansion and by the international community significantly increasing its aid to the camps.<\/p>\n

      There are concerns with Bangladesh\u2019s decision to move 100,000 Rohingya to Bhasan Char, an uninhabited island in the Bay of Bengal, to address the congestion, however. The move may involve non-voluntary removals, lack of freedom of movement, unreasonable distance from the border and other Rohingya communities, and poor infrastructure threatening Rohingya\u2019s rights to life and health.<\/p>\n

      (b) Lack of Services<\/strong><\/p>\n

      There is also a serious shortfall of services for refugees.[2]<\/a><\/sup> ISCG reports that education coverage is inadequate for adolescents (15 to 24 years old). Food assistance remains seriously underfunded at just 18% of its requirements, health at only 17%, and nutrition services at 31%. The total number of acute watery diarrhea cases in 2018, up to August, was 140,118, and the WHO reported more than 10,000 acute respiratory infection cases per week during July.<\/p>\n

      Services are particularly needed to address protection risks. Gender based violence services are severely limited for approximately 85% of sites, 115 additional GBV contact points are required, and 10,957 children have been identified as at risk and needing child protection.[3]<\/a><\/sup> Culturally-sensitive services are also needed especially for victims of sexual violence and rape.[4]<\/a><\/sup> All of these risks raise concerns about refugees\u2019 rights to food, water, life and health, and children\u2019s and women\u2019s rights.<\/p>\n

      (c) Rohingya Returning to or Remaining in Myanmar<\/strong><\/p>\n

      Refugees have consistently reported wanting to return to Myanmar, including in our own interviews.[5]<\/a><\/sup> However, they also consistently demand, as a precondition, assurances of citizenship, legal rights, access to services, justice, restitution of their homes and property, public recognition of their Rohingya identity, and respect for their rights, peace, and security. Myanmar has reported returnees, but the evidence suggests Rohingya have not been returning in any substantial numbers.[6]<\/a><\/sup> The Myanmar-Bangladesh agreement to arrange repatriation, which is secret but has been leaked to reporters, has been criticized for not guaranteeing citizenship or freedom of movement.[7]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n

      Rohingya currently living in Rakhine state are isolated, vulnerable, and struggling to live, having lost their communities.[8]<\/a><\/sup> This threat to their economic and social rights is compounded by continuing restrictions on humanitarian aid into Rakhine state. There have also been reports of mass arbitrary detentions of Rohingya in Rakhine State,[9]<\/sup><\/a> and returning refugees have faced detention in Myanmar.[10]<\/a><\/sup> While these suggest serious violations of Rohingya\u2019s freedom from arbitrary detention, Myanmar has not publicly released the numbers of detained Rohingya nor their specific charges.<\/p>\n

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      1. Crackdown on journalists <\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

        Myanmar has also been increasingly cracking down on journalists, violating their freedom of expression, particularly those reporting on Rohingya.[11]<\/a><\/sup> On 9 July 2018, after seven months of detention, a Myanmar court charged two Reuters journalists, Wa Lone and Kyaw Doe Oo, with obtaining state secrets following their investigative reporting of the execution of 10 Rohingya (mentioned above), beginning the trial stage.[12]<\/a><\/sup> The journalists claim that police planted the documents on them.<\/p>\n

        Journalists and activists have also faced threats of defamation charges, which carries a two-year sentence. According to one Myanmar journalist, “The most dangerous thing is (that) local people in Rakhine understand (from) some military and police officials that they are allowed to kill someone if they come with a camera.”[13]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n

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        1. The Myanmar Government\u2019s Continuing Failure to Take Responsibility for the Rohingya Crisis <\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

          The response of the Myanmar authorities to the Rohingya crisis has been grossly insufficient given the scale and seriousness of the violations involved. Myanmar authorities have regularly denied allegations of crimes against Rohingya, for example, claiming that Rohingya burned their own houses[14]<\/sup><\/a> and that the military did not extra-judicially execute Rohingya except in one case of 10 executions where irrefutable evidence was reported (the reporters of which have since been detained).[15]<\/sup><\/a> The government has also rejected the ICC\u2019s request for jurisdiction, calling it \u201cmeritless and should be dismissed\u201d.[16]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

          An Advisory Panel established by the Myanmar government to implement recommendations on the crisis has seen two resignations by Bill Riachardson, who accused the panel of whitewashing crimes, and Kobsk Chutikul, who protested the panel\u2019s lack of progress.[17]<\/a><\/sup> The government\u2019s Commission of Inquiry has also had its impartiality questioned. For example, one member, Aung Tun Thet, denied charges of ethnic cleansing in a past interview.[18]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n

          To date, aside from the reported execution mentioned above, there have not been prosecutions or an accountability mechanism established for crimes committed against Rohingya domestically or internationally.<\/p>\n

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          1. Recommendations <\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

            HRN is deeply concerned about the situation of Rohingya refugees and recommends the following.<\/p>\n

            To Myanmar <\/strong>authorities <\/strong><\/p>\n