UN condemns human rights abuses against Myanmar’s Rohingya

Photo: Collected

The United Nations (UN) General Assembly has approved a resolution condemning human rights abuses against Myanmar's Rohingya Muslims and other minorities. 

It also calls on Myanmar's government to stop the incitement of hatred against the Rohingya and other minorities in Rakhine, Kachin and Shan states. 

The resolution was passed by a total of 134 countries in the 193-member world body, with nine votes against and 28 abstaining on Friday. General Assembly resolutions are not legally binding but they do reflect world opinion. 

Thousands of Rohingya were killed and more than 700,000 fled to neighbouring Bangladesh during an army crackdown in the Buddhist-majority country in 2017. Myanmar (formerly Burma) insists it was tackling an extremist threat. 

Earlier this month, the country's leader Aung San Suu Kyi rejected allegations of genocide at the UN International Court of Justice (ICJ).

The UN resolution expressed alarm at the continuing influx of Rohingya Muslims to Bangladesh over the past four decades, now numbering 1.1 million including 744,000 who arrived since August 2017, "in the aftermath of atrocities committed by the security and armed forces of Myanmar".

It highlighted the findings of an independent international mission "of gross human rights violations and abuses suffered by Rohingya Muslims and other minorities" by Myanmar's security forces, which the mission described as "the gravest crimes under international law". Read more