The Rohingya Human Rights Network and others advocating on behalf of the Rohingya spoke at a media conference on Parliament Hill on September 17th to present an open letter to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau signed by more than 120 Canadian human rights experts, legal scholars, renowned jurists, academics, specialists in international law, genocide scholars, as well as by social justice, human rights, civil society and faith based organizations. The letter calls on Canada to fulfil its legal and moral obligations under the UN Genocide Convention and take action against Myanmar’s civilian and military leaders responsible for the Rohingya genocide.
The letter is also critical of Canada’s limited response to the Rohingya crisis, and particularly Canada’s reluctance to designate as a genocide the brutal campaign by Myanmar carried out (and continuing to be carried out) against that country’s defenseless Rohingya ethnic minority.
"Fareed Khan, a spokesman for the Rohingya Human Rights Network and one of the letter’s signatories, said the Trudeau government has been 'humming and hawing and hesitating' to take decisive action on the Rohingya crisis. He said calling it a genocide would ensure those responsible are held to account."
"Prof. John Packer, former assistant to the UN Special Rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar who is now a law professor at the University of Ottawa, said Canada could invoke the Genocide Convention by mobilizing like-minded countries to initiate a genocide case against Myanmar at the International Court of Justice."