Citizens for Justice and Peace
Rohingya children confronted with potential “massive mental health crisis”
04-Jan-2018
The New York Times, in a report that featured first-person accounts and photographs from Rohingya refugee camps in Bangladesh, painted a picture of the dismal future of Rohingya children. The Times reported that of the more than 655,000 Rohingya who have escaped to Bangladesh from Myanmar, 380,000, or nearly 60%, are minors, according to Save the Children.…
Plight of the Stateless Rohingya People A Timeline of their history and exodus
30-Dec-2017
The Rohingya people have been living a ‘stateless’ existence for several years now. Originally residents of the Arakan region in Rakhine province of Myanmar, many have been forced to flee their homes and seek refuge in neighbouring Bangladesh and even India due to persecution at the hands of the Buddhist majority government. Many Rohingya have…
Aung San Suu Kyi “avoided” discussing rape of Rohingya when meeting UN official
28-Dec-2017
Pramila Patten, the United Nations’ Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict, visited Myanmar earlier this month to discuss the Rohingya crisis with the government. The Guardian was able to see a letter Patten sent to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, which indicated that Aung San Suu Kyi, Myanmar’s state counsellor, did not engage in “any…
Young Rohingya refugees are heading families
28-Dec-2017
The United Nations’ refugee agency, UNHCR, in a story titled ‘Orphaned Rohingya children forced to grow up too fast’, has featured teenager Rohingya children who have been compelled to take on the responsibility of their siblings, having lost their parents. UNHCR said “some 650,000” Rohingya refugees have fled to Bangladesh, and that it believes children…
UN Special Rapporteur denied access to Myanmar
22-Dec-2017
Myanmar’s government has notified United Nations Special Rapporteur Yanghee Lee that she has been denied access to the country, and cooperation has been rescinded for the length of her term. Lee, who was appointed UN Special Rapporteur on Myanmar in 2014, said, “This declaration of non-cooperation with my mandate can only be viewed as a…
Livin’ on a Prayer A look at the migrant crisis on International Migrants Day
18-Dec-2017
Today, on International Migrants Day (December 18), CJP believes that it is vital to recognise the plight of both refugees and migrants, who often face similar struggles, though their legal definitions differ. According to the United Nations (UN), “Refugees are persons who are outside their country of origin for reasons of feared persecution, conflict, generalized…
Myanmar government green lights case against Reuters journalists
18-Dec-2017
A government spokesman told Reuters that Myanmar’s President Htin Kyaw has permitted the police to go ahead with a case against two Reuters journalists who were arrested last week. According to Reuters, the Ministry of Information last week said they had “illegally acquired information with the intention to share it with foreign media”, and that…
40 Rohingya villages burned since October: HRW
18-Dec-2017
Human Rights Watch (HRW) has said that analysis of satellite images has found that Rohingya villages have been further destroyed in Myanmar’s Rakhine state during October and November. HRW said it has pinpointed 40 villages “with building destruction,” making the number of villages “that have been partially or completely destroyed” 354 since August 25, 2017.…
AP finds “sweeping and methodical” rape of Rohingya women and girls
11-Dec-2017
An Associated Press investigation that involved interviews with 29 Rohingya women and girls who escaped to Bangladesh from Myanmar found that Myanmar’s security forces have engaged in systematic rape against the minority. AP notes that there was “a sickening sameness” in the sexual assault survivors’ reports, “with distinct patterns in their accounts, their assailants’ uniforms…