On the 8th of September, BROUK President Tun Khin delivered an oral statement on the human rights situation in Myanmar, at the UN Human Rights Council.
As well as outlining the catastrophic situation in Rakhine and highlighting the failure of the international community to provide adequate aid and protection, he called on states to uphold the international arrest warrants issued by the Argentinian court in BROUK’s universal jurisdiction case.
Tun Khin was also invited to meet with UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk. The meeting followed Türk’s recent statements and reports, in which he warned that atrocities in Rakhine- including indiscriminate airstrikes, forced displacement and weaponised starvation- ‘mirror the horrors of 2017’. He urged referral of the situation in Myanmar to the International Criminal Court, alongside stronger measures to halt arms flows, expand humanitarian protection and ensure safe pathways for Rohingya refugees.
Türk’s findings also documented atrocities carried out by the Arakan Army (AA), which BROUK has now formally petitioned the Federal Court in Buenos Aires to investigate. The petition seeks to expand BROUK’s universal jurisdiction case on the Rohingya genocide to also include atrocity crimes committed by the AA.
During the meeting, Tun Khin reiterated urgent pleas from the Rohingya community, urging states to:
- Fully fund humanitarian assistance to meet the desperate needs of Rohingya refugees and displaced communities;
- Lift aid blockades and end the weaponisation of starvation inside Myanmar;
- Hold perpetrators accountable, including both the Myanmar military and the Arakan Army, by supporting the Argentinian court’s arrest warrants;
- Guarantee Rohingya participation in all decisions that will shape their future.