UNA-UK is urging all its members and supporters to take action to help protect Burma’s Rohingya minority.
Denied citizenship by the Burmese government, the Rohingya, a marginalised Muslim community, have suffered persecution for decades. Violence against them escalated this summer, with over 100,000 Rohingya forced to flee their homes and unknown numbers – thought to be in the hundreds or more – killed.
Although the Rohingya are the worst affected, other minorities have also been subjected to violence and the Burmese government has repeatedly failed to curb what increasingly resembles ethnic cleansing.
In 2005, all UN Member States endorsed the ‘Responsibility to Protect’, which affirms the duty of all states to protect those within their borders, and the international community's responsibility to act if a state fails in this duty.
The Burmese government has proved time and again that it is manifestly unwilling to uphold its responsibility to protect the Rohinyga and other minorities in the country.
UNA-UK is therefore urging the UK government to push for:
- A UN Security Council resolution reminding Burma of its responsibility to protect and agreeing to the dispatch of international observers to monitor the situation
- Neighbouring states to help, with the support of the international community, those fleeing violence
- An inclusive national reconciliation process involving all minorities
