The denial of the Rohingya genocide: failure of international law and justice

Nisa Rahman | October 16th, 2020

The world has turned a blind eye to the increasing human rights violations and the destruction of humanitarian assistance desperately needed by the Rohingya Muslims. The Rohingya, an ethnic group in Myanmar, are being persecuted by their government and military. The endless bloodshed is due to tensions emerging from severe discrimination against the Rohingya in regards to their ethnicity and religion. In addition, “Myanmar’s government denies them citizenship, refusing to recognize them as people and seeing them as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh.”(1)

The prejudice embedded in this government is driving them to implement an indiscriminate massacre of women, children and families all because their religion does not align with the state. Moreover, their physical appearance is called into question as it does not meet the societal standards of having skin that is “fair and soft” like other ethnicities around the country. (2) As a result, they are not only forbidden to practice their faith in peace, but they are also tormented over their appearance, something that constructs their identity and is beyond their control; they are convicted for who they are and what they believe in.

The Myanmar government is committing an “ethnic cleansing campaign of murder, rape, and arson,”(3) which is an extreme campaign caused with the intent of diminishing the religion of Islam and the Rohingya population. “Ethnic Cleansing,” in the legal atmosphere, is known as genocide as they both perpetuate the purpose of unlawfully killing people on the account of their race, ethnicity and religion. (4) The atrocious murders have initiated an investigation by the International Criminal Court (ICC), thanks to Gambia’s courage, and a universal jurisdiction filed on the grounds of permitting other states to intervene. (5)

The limited footage displayed in the media, was enough reason for Gambian Justice Minister, Abubacarr Tambadou, to pursue what the world saw as allegations, into what he saw as violations. It was through the survivors’ stories in which he understood the systematic attacks against Rohingya, from “burning down houses to snatching babies from their mothers’ arms and throwing them alive into burning fires to raping women to executing men,”(6) and the list goes on. In the midst of destroying them, humanity itself is diminishing within this system of neglect. The pursuit of justice ended in failure due to lack of unity in the world. The Rohingya people’s living conditions have reached an extent to where they are deprived of all basic services including education and health care, consequently, making it “so hellish that people see no option to flee.” (7) This corroborates the dehumanization this ethnic group is suffering through, in which they are forced to give up the little control they have and become subjective to the government’s oppression.

Surrounding countries, like Malaysia and Indonesia, are incapable of granting asylum to the Rohingya refugees, due to their country’s financial instability. Even so, the world can at least hold the people that have committed these cruel acts liable for their crimes. (8) The United Nations council members refuse to address this situation as a genocide; it is declared that they are unlikely to “pursue the allegations of genocide and crimes against humanity” occurring in Myanmar. (9) The fact that they identify this as an “allegation” displays the ignorance that is present in our international leaders. The struggle to determine this as a genocide by the virtue of its legal definition, however, does serve difficult. The Myanmar government not only refuses to cooperate, but prohibits UN Human Rights Council access to investigate the country. (10) The “government denied extensive evidence of atrocities, refused to allow independent investigators access to Rakhine State, and punished local journalists for reporting on military abuses.”(11)

For a country that repeatedly rejects these allegations against them, they are doing quite a lot to prevent their crimes, which they contested doing in the first place, from being exposed. Furthermore, Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize Winner, who has the reputation of a “beacon for universal human rights,”(12) justifies the government’s actions and considers it to be “exaggerated claims of violence.”(13) In respect to her notability, the United Nations suspects the allegations to be false and the inadequate amount of evidence provided, to be insufficient. Their decisions after witnessing explicit evidence of “murder, torture, sexual slavery and extermination” inflicted by the government of Myanmar has exposed the imprudence of the international leaders. (14)

In addition to the constraints the UN Human Rights Council face to gather viable evidence of abuse, their lack of exertion is also apparent. Although the United Nations understand how crucial allegations are against a country and how they “all rely extensively on a fact-finding mission by the UN Human Rights Council,” they did not live up to the purpose of their organization. Gambia, a small west African nation, invested more effort than the United Nations, by uniting “dozen of other Muslim countries” to gather extensive information and testaments from Rohingya Refugees to propose to the International Court of Justice. (15) It is apparent that the UN lacks a system that inquires evidence in a way that differentiates from what is incriminating to what is the truth because of how long it has taken them to recognize the violence in Myanmar.

Ultimately, the International Court of Justice finally declared genocidal violence against the Rohingya Muslims in January 2020. (16) This ignited hope for the various countries that are suffering similar circumstances, and for the children and families that are still in the state, or have become refugees living in camps. Nevertheless, the oppressive ruling still continues in Myanmar and the violence against the Rohingya Muslims has escalated because “until the international community forces the military and the government to pay a price for killing and oppressing our people, [it] will continue to do so.” (17) As long as the perpetrators behind the genocide are exempted from their transgressions, the vulnerability of Rohingya Muslims will be exploited.

Endnotes

1. "World Court Acts to Prevent Rohingya Genocide." BBC News. Last modified January 23, 2020. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-51221029.

2. The Washington Post. Last modified February 13, 2015. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2015/02/13/why-does-this-buddhist-majority-nation-hate-these-muslims-so-much/.

3. "The West Wouldn’t Hold Myanmar Accountable for Ethnic Cleansing. Now a Small African Nation is Stepping in." Human Rights Watch. Last modified September 25, 2020. https://www.hrw.org/news/2019/11/19/west-wouldnt-hold-myanmar-accountable-ethnic-cleansing-now-small-african-nation.

4. "The West Wouldn’t Hold Myanmar Accountable for Ethnic Cleansing. Now a Small African Nation is Stepping in." Human Rights Watch. Last modified September 25, 2020. https://www.hrw.org/news/2019/11/19/west-wouldnt-hold-myanmar-accountable-ethnic-cleansing-now-small-african-nation.

5. "Crimes Against the Rohingya: ICC Jurisdiction, Universal Jurisdiction in Argentina, and the Principle of Complementarity." Opinio Juris. https://opiniojuris.org/2019/12/23/crimes-against-the-rohingya-icc-jurisdiction-universal-jurisdiction-in-argentina-and-the-principle-.

6. "Rohingya Crisis: The Gambian Who Took Aung San Suu Kyi to the World Court." BBC News. Last modified January 23, 2020. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-51183521.

7. "Argentine Court Moves Closer to Opening Case Against Myanmar for Rohingya Genocide." The Business Standard. Last modified June 2, 2020. https://tbsnews.net/rohingya-crisis/argentine-court-moves-closer-opening-case-against-myanmar-rohingya-genocide-87985.

8. "Why is No One Helping Myanmar’s Rohingya?" Reuters. Last modified June 17, 2015. https://blogs.reuters.com/great-debate/2015/06/17/why-is-no-one-helping-myanmars-rohingya/.

9. Tisdall, Simon. "UN Tells of Myanmar Genocide but Are World Powers Listening?" The Guardian. Last modified August 27, 2018. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/aug/27/un-claim-of-myanmar-genocide-is-a-litmus-test-for-global-justice.

10. "World Report 2019: Rights Trends in Myanmar." Human Rights Watch. Last modified January 17, 2019. https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2019/country-chapters/myanmar-burma.

11. "World Report 2019: Rights Trends in Myanmar." Human Rights Watch. Last modified January 17, 2019. https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2019/country-chapters/myanmar-burma.

12. "Aung San Suu Kyi: Democracy Icon Who Fell from Grace." BBC News. Last modified January 23, 2020. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-pacific-11685977.

13. "Myanmar Must Prevent Genocide Of Rohingya, U.N. Court Rules." NPR.org. Last modified January 23, 2020. https://www.npr.org/2020/01/23/798821883/myanmar-must-prevent-genocide-of-rohingya-u-n-court-rules.

14. Ratcliffe, Rebecca. "UN's Top Court Orders Myanmar to Protect Rohingya from Genocide." The Guardian. Last modified January 23, 2020. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jan/23/international-court-to-rule-on-rohingya-genocide-safeguards .

15. "Myanmar Must Prevent Genocide Of Rohingya, U.N. Court Rules." NPR.org. Last modified January 23, 2020. https://www.npr.org/2020/01/23/798821883/myanmar-must-prevent-genocide-of-rohingya-u-n-court-rules.

16. Hoelzl, Cape D. "Myanmar Military Steps Up Attacks As Coronavirus Spreads." Breaking News, World News and Video from Al Jazeera. Last modified April 16, 2020. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/4/16/myanmar-military-steps-up-attacks-as-coronavirus-spreads.

17. ABC News. "3 Years Later, US Pressed to Declare Rohingya Crisis 'genocide,' Hold Myanmar Accountable." ABC News. Last modified August 25, 2020. https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/years-us-pressed-declare-rohingya-crisis-genocide-hold/story?id=72522830.