The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights has called the ongoing military operation against the Rohingya in Myanmar a “textbook example” of ethnic cleansing. The Equal Rights Trust joins the UN and others urging the Government of Myanmar to bring an immediate end to all violence against the Rohingya in Rakhine State and to allow access to the region for humanitarian agencies and to the media and independent organisations seeking to document the situation there.

Each year, World Refugee Day commemorates the strength, courage and perseverance of millions of refugees. On World Refugee Day this year the Equal Rights Trust stands in solidarity with thousands of Rohingya refugees who have fled and who continue to flee discrimination and violence in Rakhine State, Myanmar. Today we make an urgent call to the government of Myanmar to address the root causes of this cycle of flight, and for governments of other countries in the region to fulfil their duties to protect the Rohingya and all other refugees within their borders.

Celebrations are underway in Myanmar as Aung San Suu Kyi and her National League for Democracy (NLD) are emerging victorious in a national election that is being described as a “dawn of a new era”. But the political leaders, including the so called icon of Burmese democracy, have colluded in the disenfranchisement of the Rohingya minority, by failing to condemn the wave of persecution and discrimination culminating in the deletion of hundreds of thousands of Rohingya from the voting register.

Bangkok, 14 September 2015

The Equal Rights Trust and the Institute of Human Rights and Peace Studies, Mahidol University, have launched an International Coalition on Rohingya Rights at an international forum in Bangkok convened by the two organisations.