Hate crimes in USA, Rohingyas in Myanmar and Sri Lanka’s transitional justice (HRC36, 2017, OS)

IMADR statement on “Hate crimes in USA, Rohingyas in Myanmar and Sri Lanka’s transitional justice” at the 36th session of the Human Rights Council. Whole text can be read below or downloaded here. 

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IMADR Oral Statement: 36th session of the Human Rights Council

Item 2: General Debate – Oral update by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights

12 September 2017

Speaker: Taisuke KOMATSU

Thank you Mr. President,

We express our grave concern regarding the increase of racist manifestations around the world, which is undoubtedly encouraged by the new leadership in the USA. The U.S. President’s failure to condemn the racist violence in Charlottesville in August is interpreted by many as justification for hateful activities. We need to recognise that the lack of condemnation of hate crimes and hate speech has led to mass human rights violations in many countries, most recently in Myanmar.

We echo the High Commissioner’s concern over the dire situation of Rohingyas. It is seriously disappointing that the high-level representatives of the Government of Myanmar continuously fail to protect the human rights of Rohingya civilians, while its security forces perpetrate atrocities in the name of “anti-terrorism campaigns”. We strongly urge this Council to take meaningful action to hear the Rohingya victims’ pleas. After the past failure in Sri Lanka, we cannot afford for the Council to fail again.

In Sri Lanka, we share growing concerns on the slow progress of the Government in fulfilling its promises in Resolution 30/1. Although the Government is cooperating with the UN human rights mechanisms, the political will to implement their recommendations is missing. Instead of taking action to restore the dignity of victims and their families, political leaders are preoccupied with own gains. We join the High Commissioner’s call to immediately operationalise the Office on Missing Persons (OMP). As Sri Lanka’s internal-external gap remains wide, we once again call upon the Council to tighten its grip on Sri Lanka until victims themselves can call it the Council’s ‘success model’.

Thank you Mr. President.