Executive Summary In August 2017, the armed forces of Myanmar (Tatmadaw) unleashed a campaign of widespread and systematic attacks on the country’s Rohingya communities, escalating previous episodes of violent human rights abuses committed against the Rohingya population. The United Nations (UN) and multiple human rights groups documented that Myanmar security forces committed rape, gang rape, […]

In August 2017, Myanmar security forces and Rakhine Buddhist civilians attacked hundreds of villages in northern Rakhine state, massacring thousands of Rohingya Muslim residents and burning their homes to the ground.

Two years ago, the government of Myanmar unleashed a scorched-earth campaign against the Rohingya Muslims. Impunity prevails for these atrocities, which are only the most recent in the long story of the Rohingya’s persecution in Myanmar. When will the Rohingya see justice done?

In the final weeks before the massive 2017 Rohingya exodus from Myanmar, reports indicate that the vast majority of Rohingya settlements suffered violence, often extreme, at the hands of Myanmar security forces and civilians. As part of a large-scale and unique research effort to determine the scope, scale, and patterns of these attacks, Physicians for […]

Originally published in Asia Times The tens of thousands of Rohingya Muslims who have fled to India to escape widespread and systematic violence and discrimination in Myanmar face an existential threat from a new source: India’s government. Early this month, a senior government minister announced that Indian authorities would move expeditiously to deport the country’s sizable Rohingya […]

NEW YORK – A new report from Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) exposes an underreported legacy of the August 2017 violence against Muslim Rohingya civilians by Myanmar security forces: long-term physical disabilities that may condemn many survivors to lifetimes of physical pain and economic insecurity. The new report, “Shot While Fleeing: Rohingya Disabled by Myanmar […]

A new report from Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) documents widespread sexual violence committed by the Tatmadaw, the armed forces of Myanmar, and Myanmar security forces against the Rohingya during a massive campaign of violence in August 2017 that drove more than 720,000 Rohingya into neighboring Bangladesh. Doctors, nurses, mental health experts, and other health […]

Executive Summary On August 27, 2017, Myanmar security forces and Rakhine Buddhist civilians attacked the village of Chut Pyin in northern Rakhine state, massacring its Rohingya Muslim residents and burning their homes to the ground. The attackers perpetrated a vast array of human rights violations on the Rohingya villagers, including killings, disappearances, beatings, stabbings, rape, […]

Hopes of controlling the COVID-19 pandemic are increasing, with nearly five billion doses of vaccines administered globally. Yet for vulnerable populations such as Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh, there is a long road ahead. As a result of the violent August 2017 crackdown on Rohingya previously living in Myanmar, Bangladesh hosts a population of nearly one […]

This post originally appeared in the Asia Times. The government of Myanmar reached out late last month to the hundreds of thousands of Rohingya refugees who have taken refuge in the Bangladeshi city of Cox’s Bazar with a seemingly straightforward plea: “Come back home.” That offer might have seemed irresistible for those familiar with conditions in the teeming […]

This post originally appeared in the Asia Times In its Cox’s Bazar refugee camps, Bangladesh has generously provided a modicum of safety and dignity to the Rohingya refugee survivors of the Myanmar military campaign of widespread and systematic violence in late 2017. But the durability of that safety and dignity is now in doubt. Last week, the Bangladeshi […]

Originally published by Malaysiakini On Nov 11, Gambia filed a 1948 Genocide Convention violation complaint against Myanmar with the International Court of Justice (ICJ), a decisive step toward justice for the Rohingya. But Gambia’s ground-breaking move also underscored the failure of Association of Southeast Asian Nation (Asean) member states, and particularly Malaysia, in taking the lead in […]

Last week, the government of Myanmar started paying a real price for its failure to provide meaningful accountability for its security forces’ widespread and systematic violence against the country’s Muslim Rohingya minority in northern Rakhine state in late 2017. Literally. On February 26, Germany’s development minister, Gerd Müller, announced that Berlin was suspending development cooperation with Myanmar because of […]

I recently met with a Rohingya man in Burma, who was eager to board a boat and flee from Rakhine state. He had a young son, however, his first-born, and was worried that his child might not survive the trip to Malaysia in an open boat. Despite the possible dangers, he was debating risking his […]

UN Special Rapporteur to Myanmar Yanghee Lee will visit Bangladesh on January 19 to assess the conditions of the more than 920,000 Rohingya who have sought refuge there following widespread and systematic violence in Myanmar. Lee is tasked with assessing the human rights situation in Myanmar but has been blocked on several occasions by the […]

Originally published in Malaysiakini. The integrity of the Malaysian government’s strong rhetorical support for the safety and protection of Myanmar’s beleaguered Rohingya minority got put to the test last week. And Malaysia failed to deliver. On dangerously overcrowded boats, hundreds of Rohingya seeking refuge in the country from oppression and violence in Myanmar’s Rakhine state […]

On November 11, the Gambia filed a 1948 Genocide Convention violation complaint against Myanmar with the International Court of Justice (ICJ), a decisive step toward justice for the Rohingya. Canada’s minister of foreign affairs, Chrystia Freeland, declared that Canada “welcomes” the Gambia’s move, but omitted that the Canadian government could and should have taken the […]

This post originally appeared in the Asia Times Historic temples. Sandy beaches. Fishing grounds and farmland galore. This is the idyllic and profitable picture that the government of Myanmar painted last week for potential investors in the country’s troubled Rakhine state. The government sought to allure crowds of potential investors from countries including Japan and South Korea […]

Last week, the Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in Myanmar called on the Burmese government to officially engage ethnic minority groups in serious dialogue and grant them fundamental rights. He specifically referenced the rights of the Rohingya in this call to action. The Rohingya are one of the most persecuted minorities in […]

Myanmar’s Rakhine state, from which hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslims were driven last year, is still experiencing unrest, and incidents of violence are continuing along the Myanmar-Bangladesh border. Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) reiterates that plans for an imminent Rohingya repatriation should be suspended until there is sustainable change in the region to ensure […]

On the eve of the second anniversary of the August 2017 campaign of extreme violence by Myanmar security forces against Rohingya civilians in northern Rakhine state, the experiences of “Chesa” and Chit” (not their real names) recall the brutality of that campaign. “Chesa,” a 60-year-old Rohingya woman, and “Chit,” her 20-year-old daughter, were interviewed by […]

This post originally appeared in the Asia Times The suffering of the Rohingya survivors of the Myanmar military’s scorched-earth campaign of mass killings, torture, gang rape, and arson isn’t over. Not by a long shot. Just ask Rabia Basri, Abdul Wahid and Abu Gofar (not their real names). Rabia Basri was 21 years old on […]

Sunday marks the two-year anniversary of the start of a widespread and systematic campaign of mass killings, torture, mutilations and sexual violence by Myanmar security forces targeting the Muslim Rohingya ethnic minority in northern Rakhine province. That violence resulted in the torching of hundreds of Rohingya villages, killed at least 10,000 Rohingya civilians and prompted […]

For Immediate Release Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) welcomed the introduction of a resolution that aims to end discrimination against the Rohingya, a minority group in Burma (officially the Union of Myanmar) that is one of the world’s most persecuted ethnic groups. Rep. Jim McGovern (D-MA) introduced House Resolution 418 yesterday afternoon along with co-sponsors […]

Dr. Parveen Parmar is a PHR expert and chief of the Division of International Emergency Medicine and associate professor of Clinical Emergency Medicine at the University of Southern California’s Keck School of Medicine. A longtime consultant to PHR on the persecution of minorities in Myanmar, Dr. Parmar travelled with a PHR team to Bangladesh in […]