U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk has called on member states to refer Myanmar’s situation to the International Criminal Court (ICC), saying years of international efforts to resolve the country’s devastating human rights crisis have failed.
Speaking Monday at the 63rd session of the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva, Turk also called for a halt to supplying weapons, ammunition, jet fuel and dual-use goods to Myanmar. He said such supplies must be stopped wherever there is a clear risk they could facilitate violations of human rights and international humanitarian law. Turkish news agency Anadolu reported the news Monday (Sept. 7).
Turk said more than 1,200 civilian deaths have been confirmed through reliable sources during the review period, though open-source information suggests the actual number could exceed 3,000. Airstrikes remain the leading cause of civilian deaths. Describing the situation of the Rohingya in Rakhine as “catastrophic,” he said they are being subjected to widespread and systematic human rights violations, including arbitrary arrests, torture, sexual and gender-based violence, enforced disappearances, forced labor and forced conscription by the military and the Arakan Army.
Turk also warned against efforts to normalize ties with Myanmar’s military. In his words, what’s needed is not merely “measured engagement,” but “human rights-based engagement.” Such engagement, he said, must be conditioned on an end to violence, humanitarian access, and the release of arbitrarily detained people.
He also warned that returning Rohingya and other refugees under the current insecure conditions is out of the question. Such repatriation, he said, would directly violate the principle of “non-refoulement,” under which no refugee may be forcibly returned to a country where their life, freedom or safety could face serious risk.