On 30 September 2025, the United Nations General Assembly will convene a High-Level Conference on the Situation of the Rohingya. Already in 2017, the then U.N. High Commissionor for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad al Hussein said that the attacks against the Rohingya in Rakhine state of Myanmar and their flight to Bangladesh was a "textbook example of ethnic cleansing". The brutal attacks against the Rohingya have been well organized, coordinated and systematic, with the intent of not only driving the Rohingya population out of Myanmar but preventing them from ever returning to their homes.
Since the Rohingya fled in 2017, most to Bangladesh, their land has been sold, mostly to hotel firms to build hotels and holiday homes along the coast.
The Rohingya are mostly Muslims and came from what is now India long before the creation of the modern states of India, Bangladesh and Burma. Their long-ago Indian origins allowed the Myanmar government to strip them of Myanmar nationality, thus preventing them from voting in elections and potentially having members of parliament who might defend their rights. In practice, there is no parliament so that was an unreasonable fear on the part of the government.
Bangladesh, to which most of the Rohingya fled, is already densely populated, poor, and currently in an unclear transition phase after a change of government. The Rohingya have been settled on small islands and unstable land making permanent resettlement difficult, perhaps impossible. Their return to Myanmar also seems difficult if not impossible.
Thus, it will be important to see what the U.N. conference proposes and what the next steps may be.
The Association of World Citizens, as well as other U.N.-focused NGOs have been active on the Rohingya issues and will continue their concern.
René Wadlow, Association of World Citizens
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