Joint Press Release: ICC declines to protect Stateless Rohingya from Genocide and Crimes Against Humanity

Arakan Rohingya National Organisation (ARNO)

Joint Press release: 16th September 2017

ICC declines to protect Stateless Rohingya from Genocide and Crimes Against Humanity

We the undersigned organisations would like to stress that, with the initiative of the Arakan Rohingya National Organisation (ARNO), the Rohingya Intellectual Community Association of Australia filed through their Counsel, a communication with the International Criminal Court (“the ICC”) in December 2015 and filed a follow up communication in August 2017, with the support of the Rohingya Community Worldwide. 

Counsel representing our organizations submitted that the ICC should exercise jurisdiction on the grounds that the Rohingya are a stateless minority and no legal recourse exists for them in Myanmar as a result of their statelessness. The ICC finally responded in August 2017 that it does not have jurisdiction on the mass atrocity crimes committed against the Rohingyas. The Rohingya continue to have no access to justice and therefore do not have any redress in Myanmar if they are persecuted. 

Acts of mass atrocity and genocide against the defenseless Rohingya and other minority civilians can never be a purely internal matter of Myanmar. These acts have been ongoing for over thirty-nine years. The UN and international community have a ‘responsibility to protect’ and should intervene to save thousands of lives and protect human security. 

We, therefore, appeal to the UN Security Council, international community, OIC, ASEAN and Myanmar’s neighbours to intervene immediately in the matter to protect helpless Rohingya people and similarly situated minorities in the region from Myanmar’s state sponsored genocide and crimes against humanity. In addition, we thank and plead to the international community to continue providing humanitarian assistance both in Arakan and in Bangladesh on humanitarian grounds. 

The Following organizations are the signatories of this press release.

• Arakan Rohingya National Organisation, 
• Burmese Rohingya Organisation UK, 
• Bradford Rohingya Community UK, 
• Burmese Rohingys Community Denmark,
• Burmese Rohingya Community Australia, 
• Burmese Rohingya Community Japan, 
• Canadian Burmese Rohingya Organisation, 
• Rohingya Advocacy Network Japan, 
• Rohingya Arakanese Refugee Committee,
• Rohingya Blogger,
• Rohingya Community Germany, 
• Rohingya Community Switzerland, 
• Rohingya Community Finland, 
• Rohingya community Italy, 
• Rohingya community Sweden, 
• Rohingya Organisation Norway, 
• Rohingya Society Netherlands, 
• Rohingya Society Malaysia, 
• The European Rohingya Council

For more details, please contact:

Dr. Hla Myint: +61-423381904

Ronnie: +44-7783118354

Email: info@rohingya.org