As co-chairs of the APPG on the Rights of the Rohingya, Rushanara Ali MP and Jeremy Hunt MP wrote an article in The Times Red Box to mark the third anniversary of the Rohingya refugee crisis.
“The UK has played a vital role in providing humanitarian assistance in Bangladesh and Myanmar. This must continue, but the UK must do more to secure justice for crimes committed against the Rohingya.
As a permanent member of the UN security council, and the “penholder” both for Myanmar and for the protection of civilians, the UK has a special responsibility to lead by proactively championing the genocide case against Myanmar at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which was brought forward earlier this year by the Gambia, and supported by Canada and the Netherlands.
The genocidal violence against the Rohingya in the summer of 2017 didn’t come out of the blue, but a culmination of decades of persecution, systematic discrimination and the denial of citizenship and basic human rights. The international community chose to keep faith with Aung San Suu Kyi and Myanmar’s transition towards democracy. The Rohingya paid a terrible price for our collective failure to act. We must not let them down again.”
Rushanara meeting Rohingya Refugees in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh in 2018.