The forgotten genocide: The Rohingya crisis and the world’s divided attention

The Rohingya, once at the forefront of global humanitarian concern, have seen their plight fade from the international spotlight, leaving them with few advocates as Myanmar’s military and the Arakan Army continue their relentless campaign of ethnic cleansing.

 

By Fareed Khan

  

Eight years ago, in August 2017, a crisis erupted in Myanmar’s Rakhine State, thrusting the plight of the Rohingya, a stateless Muslim minority, into global focus. What began as targeted violence escalated into a genocide, as determined by the United Nations in 2018. But the roots of the genocide go back to the 1980s.

In 1982, the Rohingya, a Muslim minority in predominantly Buddhist Myanmar, were stripped of their citizenship under the government’s 1982 Citizenship Law, rendering them stateless and laying the foundation for decades of systemic persecution and oppression. This act of legal erasure marked the beginning of a slow-burning genocide, one that has unfolded over 40 years through waves of violence, displacement, and erasure. Despite brief moments of global attention, the Rohingya crisis has faded from the world’s consciousness, overshadowed by other conflicts. While the ongoing genocide in Gaza demands urgent attention, the international community must acknowledge its capacity to address multiple human rights crises simultaneously.

Under the 1982 law, the Rohingya were denied recognition as one of Myanmar’s ethnic groups, branding them as “Bengali” outsiders despite more than eleven centuries of residence in Rakhine State. This legal disenfranchisement fuelled state-sanctioned discrimination, restricting their access to education, healthcare, and freedom of movement. Over the decades, the Myanmar military orchestrated periodic pogroms, each more brutal than the last, aimed at ethnically cleansing the Rohingya from the country. By 2017, the Rohingya population in Myanmar stood at approximately 1.3 million, but the violence that erupted that year would drastically alter this number.

In August 2017, the Myanmar military launched a ferocious assault on the Rohingya, triggered by attacks on police by the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA). The response was disproportionate and genocidal, marked by mass murders, gang rapes of Rohingya women, babies killed in front of their parents, summary executions, and the razing of hundreds of Rohingya villages.

Over 700,000 Rohingya fled to Bangladesh, joining earlier waves of refugees to form the world’s largest refugee camp in Cox’s Bazar, now home to over 1.2 million people. The United Nations and human rights organizations documented these atrocities, with the UN’s 2018 Independent Fact-Finding Mission concluding that the military’s actions constituted genocide, calling for prosecution at the International Criminal Court (ICC).

Canada showed leadership

Canada emerged as a leader in the response to the crisis, with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau appointing Bob Rae as Special Envoy to Myanmar in October 2017. Rae’s 2018 report, "Tell Them We’re Human", outlined 17 recommendations, including humanitarian aid, diplomatic pressure, and accountability measures. That year, Canada committed $300 million over three years (2018–2021) to support Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh and displaced populations in Myanmar.

As part of Canada’s response to the crisis, in September 2018, Canada’s House of Commons unanimously declared the Myanmar military’s actions a genocide, a bold step that also saw the revocation of Aung San Suu Kyi’s honorary Canadian citizenship due to her complicity in the atrocities. Canadian news outlets lauded these moves, with The Guardian in the UK reporting Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland’s commitment to “justice and accountability” for the Rohingya.

Yet, even as Canada took these steps, the international community’s focus began to wane. There was a rise in international attention when on November 11, 2019 Gambia filed a genocide case against Myanmar at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), under the Genocide Convention. Canada announced its intent to intervene in the case in 2020 and again in 2022, but didn’t follow through. No formal intervention materialized until November 2023, when Canada joined Denmark, France, Germany, the Netherlands, and the UK in a joint declaration, a delay that frustrated advocates like the Rohingya Human Rights Network in Canada (RHRN), which has repeatedly called for stronger Canadian action, noting in 2020 that Canada’s leadership was crucial but incomplete without concrete steps like increased support for refugees in the camps and for Gambia’s genocide case at the ICJ.

A deteriorating situation and waning attention

By 2021, the situation in Myanmar deteriorated further with a military coup that deposed the civilian government, intensifying violence against the Rohingya. The remaining 600,000 Rohingya in Myanmar faced starvation, internment, and attacks from both the military and the Arakan Army, a Rakhine militia. In June 2022, Canada announced a second phase of its strategy, committing $288.3 million from 2021 to 2024 to support Rohingya refugees and crisis-affected populations. However, no new funding has been announced since, leaving humanitarian aid for the 1.2 million Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh critically underfunded according to the United Nations

Canadian news coverage of the Rohingya crisis, robust in 2017–2018, dwindled by 2022, and is practically non-existent today as other crises dominate the news headlines. Additionally, human rights organizations have noted Canada’s diminished interest in the plight of the Rohingya, highlighting the lack of a new special envoy after Rae’s departure in 2020.

The parallels between the plight of the two peoples are stark. Both the Rohingya and Palestinians face systematic ethnic cleansing, mass displacement, and targeted violence against civilians. In Gaza, Israel’s military campaign has killed more than 70,000, displaced millions, and destroyed a society, drawing global condemnation. Euromed Human Rights Monitor, a Geneva-based NGO, has called the Gaza crisis "the most transparent genocide in history". The Rohingya, like Palestinians, endure daily atrocities—starvation in Rakhine camps, attacks by the Arakan Army, and a lack of safe return options—yet their plight does not garner the same attention it did several years ago.

The international community’s focus on Gaza, while justified, reveals a troubling limitation—the assumption that global attention is a zero-sum game. The Rohingya’s fading visibility underscores this, as international aid to Cox’s Bazar has plummeted since 2020, with the UN reporting a 2023 funding shortfall of over 50% for the Rohingya Joint Response Plan. In a March 2023 statement, Doctors Without Borders noted that global indifference and under-funding will leave the Rohingya refugees in squalid conditions, reliant on overstretched humanitarian agencies, and will result in malnutrition and outbreaks of deadly diseases. Canada’s initial leadership—its 2018 and 2021 aid packages, limited sanctions, and genocide recognition—has not been sustained, with no new special envoy appointed and resettlement efforts stalled.

The Rohingya community in Canada is very small at just under 1,000 people, with only a few hundred resettled here since 2017, a minute fraction when compared to the more then 225,000 Ukrainian refugees accepted since 2022, or the more than 100,000 Syrian refugees resettled since 2015.

Next steps

So what can Canada do today?

First, Canada can demonstrate that the global community has the ability to address multiple crises simultaneously. The Rohingya genocide, like Gaza’s, meets the UN Genocide Convention’s criteria—systematic intent to destroy a group via mass murder, displacement, and cultural erasure. It requires accountability, more humanitarian aid, and stronger diplomatic pressure. Canada can lead by example by appointing a new special envoy to coordinate Canadian efforts for the Rohingya.

Second, given the significant shortfall in funding for humanitarian aid for Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh, Canada should play its part in supporting UN aid efforts at levels similar to what it did in 2018 and 2021. It is a small price to pay to maintain stability in the region.

Additionally, Canada can revisit refugee resettlement efforts. It’s 2018 offer to take in vulnerable Rohingya, including rape survivors, was rebuffed by Bangladesh at the time. But the political situation there has changed with the previous government ousted, and renewed efforts by Canada with the new Bangladeshi leadership could make resettlement of Rohingya refugees a reality.

Finally, with Gambia's ICJ case still ongoing Canada has a chance to show leadership there by providing robust support to Gambia's legal team. On the basis of the November 2023 joint statement Canada can commit its own legal resources and funds to try and speed up the process at the ICJ given that it is now six years since Gambia filed its genocide case and there has seemingly been little progress. Justice delayed is justice denied. Canadian efforts to expedite the proceedings would bring the Rohingya closer to getting justice.

The Rohingya, once at the forefront of global humanitarian concern, have seen their plight fade from the international spotlight, leaving them with few advocates as Myanmar’s military and the Arakan Army continue their relentless campaign of ethnic cleansing. Canada, which demonstrated leadership in 2018 by recognizing the genocide and committing significant aid, has the opportunity to reclaim its role as a champion of justice.

The parallels between the Rohingya’s suffering and the ongoing violence in Gaza, where systematic destruction continues, underscore the need for a sustained, collective response any time the horrors of genocide are taking place. By acting decisively for the Rohingya, Canada can overcome the shame of failing to act to help the Palestinians and show that its seeming commitment to the "international rule of law" is more than rhetoric. However, whether Canada’s leaders possess the moral resolve to live up to their proclaimed role as defenders of the international order remains uncertain, as their actions will ultimately define their legacy in confronting these atrocities.

© 2025 The View From Here. © 2025 Fareed Khan. All Rights Reserved.

Are we living in a post-human rights world?

Western hypocrisy around human rights extends beyond doing nothing to halt Israel’s genocide in Gaza. They’ve also done little to stop atrocities against the Rohingya, Uyghurs, Darfuris and others.

 

By Fareed Khan 
  
The world seems to be heading towards a precipice, towards a dangerous descent into a reality where human rights are no longer a universal guarantee but a privilege for the select few. The infrastructure of human rights, painstakingly built after the horrors of World War II, is under relentless assault—both at home and abroad. Our political leaders, entrusted with safeguarding these sacred principles, are complicit in their erosion, either through inaction, selective outrage, or outright suppression.

 

The hypocrisy of Western nations, the very architects of the post-war international legal order, is glaring. From being complicit in the ongoing genocide in Gaza to the silencing of dissent in democratic countries like the United States, the evidence is unmistakable. We are perilously close to a post-human rights world, and the vast majority of the public don't even realize the danger this poses. If we fail to defend the domestic and international human rights framework now, we risk a future where no one’s rights are secure, and the term will become meaningless in international law.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted in 1948, was a beacon of hope, a promise that the atrocities of global conflict and the Holocaust would never be repeated. Eleanor Roosevelt, a champion of this cause, declared, “People who continue to be denied the respect to which they are entitled as human beings will not acquiesce forever in such denial." And we see that today in the oppression of Palestinians by Israel, of Uyghurs by China, of the Rohingya by Myanmar, of Muslims by India, of illegal migrants by the US, and the violation of the rights of people who are LGBTQ2 by Russia. Every assault against the fundamental rights of minority populations is an assault on the human rights of all people, wherever they may be.

Western nations, which claim to uphold the international legal order, display a galling double standard on how they address the matter of violating fundamental rights. When Russia invaded Ukraine, the West mobilized swiftly, condemning Vladimir Putin’s war crimes, talking about how the rights of Ukrainians were violated, and even invoking the term “genocide” to describe Russian actions. Billions of dollars in economic aid and military assistance flowed to Ukraine, a testament to the West’s capacity to act when it feels its interests are under threat. But when Israel’s 20-month campaign of war crimes and crimes against humanity against Palestinians in Gaza unfolded—killing over 63,000 to date, displacing millions, and destroying an entire society—the response is tepid political platitudes and empty calls for restraint. There have been no broad sanctions against Israel as punishment for its crimes, no arms embargoes, no accountability compared to the West’s reaction to Russia’s war in Ukraine. This selective defence of human rights exposes a chilling truth: for the West, some lives are of lesser value, particularly if they happen to be brown or black, and especially if they are Muslim.

Western hypocrisy around human rights extends beyond Palestine. The Rohingya, the Uyghurs, the Kashmiris under Indian rule, and the Darfuris in Sudan face persecution, violence, and erasure, yet Western capitals remain largely silent. Where is the political will to address these crises? As Nelson Mandela once said, “To deny people their human rights is to challenge their very humanity.” By ignoring these atrocities, Western leaders are not just failing to act—they are denying the humanity of millions. The Centre for Civil and Political Rights notes a “degradation in cooperation” with UN Treaty Bodies, with states like Sri Lanka, Somalia, and Haiti skipping scheduled human rights reviews, and others, like Burundi, openly defying scrutiny. This disengagement signals a broader contempt for the mechanisms designed to protect human rights globally.

 

Closer to home, the democratic West is no bastion of freedom either. In the United States, the Trump administration has targeted pro-Palestinian protesters with chilling precision. There is the case of Columbia student Mahmoud Khalil, a legal resident of the US married to an American, who was whisked off by Immigration, Customs and Enforcement (ICE) agents to a Louisiana prison, and held for months without being allowed easy access to his lawyer. And then there is the case of Turkish graduate student Rümeysa Öztürk at Tufts University, who was arrested by masked Department of Homeland Security agents and sent to the same Louisiana prison as Khalil. Their “crimes” were that Khalil was a leading voice in anti-genocide protests at Columbia, while Öztürk co-wrote an op-ed in her campus newspaper about Israel committing genocide in Gaza. Hundreds of protesters opposing the Gaza genocide across the US have faced arbitrary arrests and jail time, their right to free speech trampled under the very questionable justification of “national security.”

Meanwhile in Canada, the passage in Parliament of Bill C-5 (“Building Canada Act”) grants the federal government sweeping powers to fast-track infrastructure projects, and ignore Indigenous treaty rights despite widespread opposition from first nations. Indigenous leaders have vowed that major civil unrest by Indigenous people will occur if their views are ignored and their rights violated when the federal and provincial governments move forward on major projects.

Across the Atlantic, Germany has banned the display of the Palestinian flag, while France has moved to suppress pro-Palestinian protests, effectively criminalizing solidarity with a people enduring genocide. These actions are not isolated but reflect a broader surge in authoritarian politics in Western democracies, reminiscent of the 1930s when fascist ideologies stifled dissent, marginalized minorities, and fuelled racist and political violence.

This suppression of free expression extends beyond governments. In the US, Canada and parts of Europe employers are disciplining or even firing workers who publicly criticize Israel’s genocidal crimes. In Canada, major news outlets—CBC, CTV, Global, National Post, and the Globe and Mail—consistently frame stories about Israel and Palestine through an anti-Palestinian, pro-Israel lens, perpetuating racism and curbing the rights of Palestinians to be heard, and tell stories of their persecution.

Compounding this crisis is the severe defunding of UN human rights mechanisms. Critical UN agencies, vital for protecting millions of vulnerable people worldwide, face crippling budget shortfalls due to funding cuts from the United States and other nations. The UN Human Rights Committee, responsible for monitoring compliance with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, has had to scale back its work, including indefinitely postponing Canada’s first review in a decade. At a time when state-sanctioned violence, inequality, and repression are escalating, weakening these institutions undermines accountability, enables further persecution of minorities, and destabilizes societies.

This assault on human rights is not just an international failure—it’s a domestic concern in the West as well. The rise of fascist elements in the West, often cloaked in populist rhetoric, threatens the rights of anyone who doesn’t conform to the dominant majority. In the US (with its MAGA cult), Canada, and Europe, we are seeing a growing intolerance for dissent, particularly when it challenges powerful interests. The suppression of pro-Palestinian voices, being pushed by Zionist groups and their allies, the erosion of Indigenous rights, and the targeting of minority communities signals a dangerous trend. Martin Luther King Jr. reminded us, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” So if we allow these violations to persist unchecked, we pave the way for a world where no one’s rights are safe.

Politicians and the public must wake up and smell the coffee. The global human rights infrastructure is not a luxury we can ignore, it’s the bedrock of a just society and it is under assault like never before. By comparison nations have no qualms about funnelling tens of billions of dollars into military budgets, yet they balk at funding the UN’s human rights mechanisms adequately, which cost a fraction of those sums.

This is not a question of resources but of priorities. The CCPR Centre’s 2023 Annual Report highlights the increasing hostility toward human rights defenders, with some states obstructing dialogue and withdrawing from reviews altogether. Western leaders claiming to defend human rights, but only selectively, enables this backsliding. Canada, the US, and European democracies which repeatedly claim to be upholders of human rights must reinvest in the UN, strengthen treaty bodies, and hold all states—friends and foes alike—accountable for their obligations under international law.

What kind of world awaits us if the powerful and privileged disregard human rights? The result would be a dystopian nightmare. In a world without human rights, dissent against governments and elites would be criminalized, and free speech would be reserved for those aligned with ruling powers, echoing eras when such rights were nonexistent. Protesters, like Palestinian solidarity activists in the US, could face mass detentions without due process, reminiscent of how political dissenters were dealt with in the former Soviet Union. In Canada, Indigenous communities might see their lands exploited for mega-projects without consultation, their treaty rights violated and reduced to hollow words in historical documents. Across Europe, minority groups—whether ethnic, religious, or political—could face unchecked discrimination, their voices stifled by state-sanctioned bans. Globally, atrocities in places like the Occupied Palestinian Territories, Myanmar, or Sudan would multiply, with no international body empowered to take action. The powerless would be left defenceless, their suffering ignored by a world indifferent to their humanity.

This is not exaggeration—it’s a warning of what lies ahead if the silent majority remains passive. Without a robust human rights enforcement framework, the rule of law collapses, replaced by the dominance of powerful and wealthy elites who would be free to violate human rights if it served their interests. Palestinians, Rohingya, Uyghurs, and others would not be the only victims. Everyone, everywhere, would be vulnerable to unchecked authority and power.

Power itself does not always corrupt, but the fear of losing it often does, as seen in nations like China, Russia, North Korea, and El Salvador. The refusal of Western leaders to punish human rights abusing allies like Israel or challenge powerful domestic lobbies that support it, erodes the very principles they claim to champion.

The time for empty promises about upholding human rights is over. Leaders must act decisively, equipping international human rights organizations and UN bodies with the resources to enforce global standards consistently, while safeguarding freedom of expression home by upholding the principles of national foundational documents like Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms. If we fail to protect the human rights framework we have now, we risk waking up to a world where those rights have been severely weakened or eliminated. The future of our fundamental human rights is in our hands. It is within our power to protect the rights we take for granted or let governments and powerful interests destroy them bit by bit, and return to a darker era, before the concept of human rights existed.

  
© 2025 The View From Here. © 2025 Fareed Khan. All Rights Reserved.

OP-ED -- Canada’s hypocrisy on ‘rule of law’ shows as Rohingya marks 7th Genocide Remembrance Day

With the world’s attention focussed on other international crises, it seems like the plight of the Rohingya no longer matters to nations like Canada which claim to be defenders of the so-called “international legal order.”

by Fareed Khan and Raiss Tinmaung

https://rabble.ca/politics/world-politics/rohingya-remembrance/

 

 

In September 2018 Canada took leadership on the world stage when it became the first country to recognize Myanmar’s atrocities against the Rohingya minority in that country as genocide. As violence against the Rohingya continued in Myanmar, Canada was thanked by Rohingya around the world for showing leadership, and there was hope that the federal Liberal government of Justin Trudeau would play a leading role on the world stage to help prevent further genocidal atrocities against the minority.

 

But as Rohingya world wide marked the seventh anniversary of Rohingya Genocide Remembrance Day on August 25 this year, Canada has not only demonstrated hypocrisy around its frequent claims to being a “rule of law” nation and defender of international human rights, it has also demonstrated its abject failure to defend those rights by doing little of substance to address any of the underlying issues around the Rohingya genocide despite promises to do so on multiple occasions since 2017.

 

Seven years after the most recent genocidal violence experienced by the Rohingya, something which is the culmination of genocidal policies implemented over the past four decades, Canada has shown that it is not interested in addressing the root causes of genocide. 

 

The inaction of Canadian leaders gives the impression that they seem to care little that more than 400 Rohingya villages were destroyed, thousands of Rohingya women were gang raped, or that thousands of men, women and children were butchered by the Myanmar military.

 

Seven years of genocide

 

Since 2017, the political situation in that region of the world has changed. The military is back in control in Myanmar after a 2021 coup, while the Rohingya in the remaining villages in Myanmar’s Rakhine state are being subjected to new atrocities. 

 

Recently approximately 200 people were killed by drone strikes as they tried to flee on boats in the Bay of Bengal. Also, over the preceding months dozens of Rohingya villages were destroyed as Buthidaung township became a battleground for the Myanmar military and a rebel group called the Arakan Army, with the Rohingya caught in between the two forces, and many being forced to flee for their safety.

 

The situation in Bangladesh is also different given the recent regime change that ousted former prime minister Sheikh Hasina. But this means little for the more than 1.3 million Rohingya refugees who are wasting away in the largest refugee camp in the world in that country, with little prospect of returning to their homeland.

 

With the world’s attention focussed on other international crises, it seems like the plight of the Rohingya no longer matters to nations like Canada which claim to be defenders of the so-called “international legal order.”

 

The ‘rule of law’ hypocrisy

 

Canada and its allies have shown that the international rule of law matters little where it doesn’t serve the political agendas of the West.  When they had the opportunity to uphold the foundations of the United Nations – the UN Charter, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Genocide Convention – they chose to do as little as possible or nothing at all where the people facing danger were racialized.

 

Another example of Canadian hypocrisy and failure to act is related to the genocide case filed by Gambia against Myanmar in November 2019.  Despite past calls by Rohingya activists and Canadian human rights organizations for Canada to file a case against Myanmar at the International Court of Justice it was the tiny African nation of Gambia that stepped up and took leadership on the issue. 

 

Since then Canada’s foreign affairs minister has issued media statements on three separate occasions saying it would support Gambia’s case but has failed to follow through each time. To Canadian Rohingya activists it appears that this nation’s leaders are more interested in getting good PR on the international stage than helping to prosecute Myanmar for its genocidal crimes.

 

Canada’s disinterest in preventing or stopping genocide has become very evident over the years with its unwillingness to take action against China in the genocide of its Uyghur minority, its failure to take action or at a minimum condemn the 10-month-long genocide of Palestinians by Israel, as well as Canada’s failure in the 1990s to do anything to help prevent the Rwandan Genocide or the genocide of Muslims in the Balkans. Judging from the inaction of Canadian leaders it seems Canada is more interested in showing humanity and expressing sympathy for genocide victims after the fact than preventing or stopping crimes from taking place.

 

By relegating the Rohingya genocide to the back burner of Canada’s foreign affairs agenda this nation’s leaders have failed again to serve the cause of human rights and international rule of law, as they have so many times in the past, and continue to do in the face of the Palestinian genocide. 

 

In doing so they demonstrate the racism of Canada’s foreign policy, and that preventing or prosecuting genocide is not really a priority for this country.

 

FAREED KHAN

Fareed Khan is the founder of Canadians United Against Hate and has written and commented extensively about issues around racism and human rights. More by Fareed Khan

 

RAISS TINMAUNG

Raiss Tinmaung is a Canadian Rohingya activist and co-founder of the Rohingya Human Rights Network. More by Raiss Tinmaung

 

© 2024 Rabble.ca.  This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

© 2024 The View From Here.  © 2024 Fareed Khan.  All Rights Reserved.