The Rohingya are a Muslim minority group in Myanmar (Burma), with an estimated population of around 1 million living in the country’s Rakhine State. Recognized as one of "the world’s least wanted people", Rohingya in Myanmar have been stateless since the government passed the 1982 Citizenship Act, which denied them equal access to citizenship and stripped them of any remaining vestiges of citizenship they had previously held.

On June 22, 2016, Myanmar’s Information Ministry instructed officials to call Rohingyas "people who believe in Islam in Rakhine State", effectively banning the use of the term ‘Rohingya’. Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, also reportedly informed United Nations Special Rapporteur on Myanmar, Yanghee Lee, that the government would no longer be using the term Rohingya.

For decades Rohingya have also been subjected to systematic persecution and grave human rights abuses by Myanmar authorities and local Rakhine (the majority Buddhist population in Rakhine State). These acts of violence and torture have claimed the lives of thousands of Rohingya, while displacing hundreds of thousands more. Over 100,000 Rohingya now reside in internally displaced persons camps where they have no freedom of movement and are deprived of access to food, water, sanitation, healthcare and education.

We call on the Myanmar Government to immediately recognize the Rohingya as a minority group in Myanmar and amend the 1982 Citizenship Law to reduce statelessness and ensure Rohingya have equal access to full citizenship rights.

We also call on the United Nations Human Rights Council to adopt a resolution to establish a commission of inquiry on the human rights situation in Rakhine State, Myanmar.