On Human Rights Day (Dec. 10th) the Rohingya Human Rights Network called on Canada to invoke the UN Genocide Convention once again.

Full text of the statement is below, and a link to the video of media coverage.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MtKjKnINLns

MEDIA CONFERENCE ON THE OCCASION OF HUMAN RIGHTS DAY

Monday, December 10, 2018, 10:00 A.M.

Ottawa, ON

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My name is Fareed Khan and I’m here today with representatives of the Canadian Yemeni and Uyghur communities to observe Human Rights Day and Victims of Genocide Commemoration Day. 

I’m also here on behalf of the Rohingya Human Rights Network to ask the Canadian government to live up to its treaty obligations under the UN Genocide Convention and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

This past September and October the House of Commons and Senate both passed motions with unanimous support that recognized the Rohingya genocide.  A symbolic act that was welcomed by Rohingya activists.

In addition, Canada showed leadership in international forums by putting the Rohingya crisis on the agenda at gatherings of world leaders such as the G7, and working with the United Nations to have the crimes committed by Myanmar leaders referred to the International Criminal Court under the Rome Statute.  For this, we thank the Canadian government.

However, while these actions are to be commended, Canada and the rest of the international community failed the Rohingya as it watched from the sidelines while the government of Myanmar unleashed genocidal horrors against a helpless people.

Noted human rights and genocide scholars agreed that what Myanmar was perpetrating on the Rohingya was genocide.  Studies and reports provided to the United Nations going back several years had concluded that what was being done to the Rohingya was a genocide in progress and that it was only a matter of time before mass atrocities would be unleashed.  All this data was available to the Canadian government and its allies and other international partners last fall and yet the world stood by and did nothing while tens of thousands were killed and the largest refugee camp in the world came into being in Bangladesh.

Despite what the world witnessed last fall it took almost a year of lobbying by our organization and other human rights groups for the government to acknowledge the reality of what was perpetrated on the Rohingya.  And while we welcomed the government’s support for the motions in Parliament, we are left wondering why it took as long as it did.

This is why after many months of meetings over the past year we issued an open letter on September 17th calling on the government to invoke the UN Genocide Convention.  Invoking this treaty would provide Canada and the international community the legal and diplomatic tools necessary to begin the process of holding the State of Myanmar accountable for its crimes – something that those nations that claim to be defenders of human rights have yet to do.

Today and yesterday mark the 70th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Prosecution of the Crime of Genocide – two treaties to which Canada is a state party.  In 1948 Lester Pearson signed both these treaties for Canada as Canada’s foreign affairs minister.  What would he say today if he saw that Canada has failed to live up to its treaty obligations and watches as another genocide take place?

We commend the Canadian government for its practice of repeatedly speaking out on the international stage about the human rights abuses and crimes committed by other nations as it has about Myanmar, and as the Prime Minister recently did at the G20 Summit.  And the $300 million worth of humanitarian aid that Canada has provided for refugees in Bangladesh demonstrates Canadian compassion for those who are suffering the aftermath of the atrocities committed in Myanmar.  However, by themselves the aid and the recognition of human rights crimes committed by Myanmar carry little weight if Canada doesn’t follow through with decisive actions that hold not just individuals, but the state of Myanmar accountable.

International human rights law and the UN Genocide Convention requires all states to act to prevent and stop genocide. Therefore, Canada's recent recognition that the Rohingya have been subjected to this crime, while welcome, must be accompanied by concrete actions to stop the still on-going Rohingya genocide.

So we are once again calling on Canada to invoke the UN Genocide Convention against the State of Myanmar, as we have repeatedly done this past year, so that the state of Myanmar can be held accountable for past crimes, and to prevent additional crimes from being committed against the Rohingya.  If Canada fails to take this action it makes a mockery of Canadian claims to be defenders of human rights and the rule of law, and begs the question “if not now, when” and if not then why not?

On this Human Rights Day, as a Canadian and a human being, I ask my government, a government that says that it values human rights, to act for the sake of the persecuted, the helpless and innocent Rohingya who continue to face death and destruction in Myanmar.

Prime Minister, I ask your government in this Christmas season, the season of giving, to give the gift of humanity in the face of brutality and inhumanity, to give the gift of justice in the face of injustice and persecution, to give the gift of hope to the Rohingya by fulfilling Canada's legal obligations under the UN Genocide Convention, and not repeat the mistakes of Canada’s past which sent innocent men, women and children to their deaths.

Prime Minister, after a year in which the Rohingya witnessed and suffered atrocities that we can’t even imagine, after a year where their lives, families and livelihoods were destroyed, after a year where their dehumanization at the hands of the government of Myanmar reached the pinnacle of horror, it’s time for Canada, which has shown leadership addressing the Rohingya crisis, to show leadership again and invoke the UN Genocide Convention for the sake of the Rohingya and for the sake of our own humanity.