For the past 60 years the Rohingya Muslims have faced persecution. Over the past three decades the persecution against them has intensified into a coordinated state-led program of destruction. They were stripped of their citizenship by military dictatorships and have lived a stateless existence, deprived of their basic rights for over three decades. 

Prof. Maung Zarni and Alice Crowley note in their article The Slow-Burning Genocide of Myanmar's Rohingya that the situation has gotten even more dire. They write that "Since 1978, the Rohingya, a Muslim minority of Western Burma, have been subject to a state-sponsored process of destruction" (p.1). The Queen Mary University Law School in partnership with the International State Crime Initiative (Countdown to Annihilation: Genocide in Myanmar) and Yale Law Schools (Persecution of the Rohingya Muslims: Is Genocide Occuring in Myanmar's Rakhine State?) have published reports that conclude that the persecution of the Rohingya fits the definitions of "genocide." Seven Nobel Peace Prize laureates have also gone on the record describing the violence faced by the Rohingya as genocide.

A genocide in the 21st century is a failure of our collective humanity! If we do not lift our voice and call on those who are in position to put a stop to the genocide then we are at the least derelict in our duty to oppose injustice. There is a lot of hope that Aung San Suu Kyi, the long time democracy advocate and Nobel Prize winner, whose party won recent elections will alter the status quo.

You can make a difference, demand that Aung San Suu Kyi speak up for the Rohingya and make the end of their persecution a priority!