Stand Up Against

Genocide of Rohingya People

Image courtesy of Foreign and Commonwealth Office is unmodified and licensed under OGL v1.0.

“The most persecuted people on earth.” – that’s the UN description of the Rohingya, a small Muslim minority group in Myanmar who have been denied citizenship and are victims of torture, displacement, discrimination, and genocide.

With a military junta ruling Myanmar, the Rohingya remain in grave danger.

Actions

1. Donate

Time: 10 minutes

Organizations responding to the Rohingya genocide need financial support to continue providing aid and serving victim-survivors.

1. Read this article on aid agencies which provide support to the Rohingya. Identify an organization you want to donate to.
2. Go to the organization’s website and make a contribution.

2. Post on social media

Time: 10 minutes

Genocide perpetrators count on “genocide fatigue” to avoid accountability for their crimes. Raise awareness through posting on social media.

1. Look up the latest news on Rohingya people and the genocide.
2. Share news stories on your preferred social media platforms.
3. Use hashtags for increased visibility. #Rohingya #ProtectTheRohingya

Learn more

• What We, As Citizens, Can Do to Fight Genocide, Washington Post — Op-ed on how we can stand up against genocide.

The Rohingya – Background

Myanmar was under the rule of an oppressive military junta from 1962 until 2011. In this majority Buddhist nation, the regime was responsible for major human rights abuses against ethnic and religious minority groups – including the Muslim Rohingya living in the Rakhine state.

From 1977-1978, Myanmar’s military government carried out killings, rape, and arson against the Rohingya in western Myanmar. Four years later, in 1982, the government enacted the Myanmar Citizenship Law and stripped the Rohingya of their citizenship. The government justified the Citizenship Act by claiming that the Rohingya were Bengali, even though the Rohingya had been living in Myanmar for generations. The Rohingya were left stateless, subject to restrictions on freedom of movement and property ownership, denied access to education, and unable to hold public office.

In May 1990, the government held the first free elections in almost thirty years. The National League for Democracy (NLD), led by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, won around 80% of seats. These election results were later annulled by the military government.

Aung San Suu Kyi was placed under house arrest for the first time in 1989. She spent the next two decade in and out of military confinement. On November 9, 2010, Myanmar’s ruling junta stated that they had won the country’s first elections in 20 years with 80 percent of the votes. The NLD refused to register for the election without Suu Kyi, who was then released from house arrest four days after the election. Pro-democracy groups allege that the military regime engaged in rampant fraud to achieve its result, and the election is regarded as a sham. Thein Sein was sworn in as president the next year, marking the transition from military rule to a façade of civilian democracy.

Democratic Rule

In 2015, the NLD, led by Aung San Suu Kyi, won the election, and in 2016, the democracy movement took power; however, the military retained a tight hold on all legislative and executive operations.

In 2017, one year after the NLD gained leadership of the country, the military escalated their persecution of the Rohingya in Rakhine state. They burned Rohingya villages to the ground; tortured and killed people; and raped and brutalized women and girls.

Nearly a million Rohingya escaped the violence by fleeing to neighboring Bangladesh. As of Spring 2021, there are over a million Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh.

Bangladesh has made it clear that they do not want the Rohingya. However, the several hundred thousand Rohingya remaining in Myanmar are at grave risk for continued persecution, and there is little hope for the displaced Rohingya to return to Myanmar safely.

The UN has described the Rohingya as “the most persecuted people on earth.”

What did the newly- elected democratic party, under the leadership of Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, do about the genocide of the Rohingya?

The NDL failed to condemn the atrocities carried out by Myanmar’s military. Aung San Suu Kyi personally defended the military from accusations of genocide. She also denied visas to UN human rights teams investigating the crisis and prevented international organizations from delivering aid to Rakhine state.

International Justice for the Rohingya

There are currently three international trials to prosecute perpetrators of violence against the Rohingya: at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), at the International Criminal Court (ICC), and in the federal courts of Argentina.

The Gambia, a small west African country, has brought charges of genocide against Myanmar to the ICJ alleging that Myanmar has violated the Convention on the Prevention and Elimination of Genocide. The Gambia case also included ‘provisional measures,’ which the court approved and which requires Myanmar to stop all violence, to cease destroying evidence, and to protect Rohingya from further violence. Myanmar is ordered to report back in 4 months and every 6 months thereafter.

The case at the International Criminal Court would prosecute Myanmar military leaders for violence against the Rohingya in Bangladesh.

Finally, Argentina is using the principle of Universal Jurisdiction to prosecute Aung San Suu Kyi and military leaders in Myanmar for their role in perpetrating the genocide of the Rohingya.

The Return to Military Control

Aung San Suu Kyi faced significant backlash from global powers over her refusal to stand up for the Rohingya. However, she and the NDL political party gained popularity in Myanmar and won the 2020 election by a landslide.

The military leaders faced a significant loss of both power and finances as a result of the election and declared that the election was fraudulent, taking a page from the ‘election fraud’ playbook in the United States.

The military staged a coup on February 1, 2021. They arrested Aung San Suu Kyi, President Win Myint, and others from the elected government. The military then declared a one-year state of emergency.

Protests erupted throughout Myanmar and the military responded with a brutal crackdown. As of May, 2021, over 750 civilians have been killed by military forces. There are also credible reports of mass detentions of several thousand people and of torture.

With the military junta back in power, it is likely that the Rohingya remaining in Rakhine state are in grave danger despite the order from the International Court of Justice.

Legal Action

On December 6, 2021, legal cases were filed against Meta Platforms Inc (formerly Facebook) in the US and the UK. The $150 billion law suit is over the lack of action taken by Facebook to stop campaigns against the Rohingya on the platform. The lawsuits allege that Facebook’s tolerance of these hateful campaigns has contributed to the genocide of the Rohingya people.

This follows a 2018 UN report stating that Facebook had fueled hate speech against the Rohingya and contributed to violence.

Updated September 2023.