Washington, D.C. – Today, New Lines Institute for Strategy and Policy launched the Global Rohingya Initiative, under the leadership of Dr. Azeem Ibrahim, with a collection of research papers and commentaries that examine various aspects of accountability, political, and humanitarian issues surrounding the Rohingya crisis.
The Global Rohingya Initiative seeks to re-energize international efforts to address the ongoing Rohingya genocide and promote short-, medium-, and long-term solutions. The initiative focuses on three foundational and interlocking issues facing the Rohingya: accountability, policy and politics, and humanitarian issues.
“Last year, we issued a global call for papers and received submissions from around the world, including many from the Rohingya themselves,” said Ibrahim, director of New Lines Institute’s Special Initiatives department. “Today, we proudly publish this collection, which includes recommendations on how to ensure accountability, what must change on the ground for the Rohingya to live freely (to include basic human rights), and the need to capture Rohingya customs and traditions. New Lines is honored to be the convening institution in building this foundational framework to examine one of the most heartbreaking and toughest humanitarian crises in the world today.”
For decades, the Rohingya people have been persecuted by their own country and sought uneasy refuge in neighboring countries. Successive Burmese governments have violated their rights to identity, nationality, and security through systemic discrimination, violence, and repression. Myanmar’s military, which again seized power from a nominally civilian government in a February 2021 coup, continues to commit atrocities against the Rohingya as part of its systematic denial of their right to live in peace and dignity as full citizens of Myanmar. While the international community has loudly condemned the atrocities against the Rohingya – including through the United States’ 2022 genocide determination – and provided them with substantial humanitarian assistance, long-term sustainable solutions to the crisis remain elusive.
“The GRI recognizes it is critical that efforts to address this multi-dimensional crisis must center Rohingya voices if they are to be successful and sustainable. Most of these papers were authored or co-authored by Rohingya scholars, civil society activists, and women leaders,” said former U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for Global Women’s Issues Kelley Currie. “This choice to focus on publishing Rohingya thought leadership was very intentional and will be an important contribution to more effective policymaking.”
The collection includes:
- “Corporate Accountability and the Rohingya Genocide,” by N. Hasan and Regina M. Paulose
- “Deconstructing Dowry: A Call for NGOs to Examine Underlying Social and Economic Factors in the Rohingya Camps,” by Camilla Gray and Umme Tamima
- “Statelessness – the Root Cause of the Rohingya Crisis – Needs to Be Addressed,” by Md Mahbubur Rahman
- “Rohingya Cultural Preservation: An Internationally Coordinated Response Is Urgent,” by Saqib Sheikh and Carolyn Morris
- “An Analysis of Various International Responses to the Conflict in Myanmar Compared With That in Ukraine,” by Raïss Tinmaung, BE, MA, CD; Rohingya Human Rights Network
- “An Analysis of the Patterns and Limits of Humanitarian Responses to the Rohingyas in Bangladesh,” by Nahian Reza Sabriet and Amena Mohsin
- “The Rohingya Crisis: Eight Potential Pathways to Repatriation,” by Imtiaz Ahmed, Professor of International Relations, University of Dhaka
To read the full collection, The Accountability, Politics, and Humanitarian Toll of the Rohingya Genocide, please click here.
Media Contact: [email protected]
