Situation of Human Rights of Rohingya Muslims and Other Minorities in Myanmar

A/RES/78/219View PDF

Who created this mandate?

A Resolution of the General Assembly, under agenda item 71cHuman rights situations and reports of special rapporteurs and representatives, published in 2023.

What else is in this group?

16 documents · 2015–2025

Newer documents in this group exist (latest: 2025).

2025A/RES/80/221Situation of human rights of Rohingya Muslims and other minorities in MyanmarCompare with earlier document
2025A/HRC/RES/59/2Situation of human rights of Rohingya Muslims and other minorities in MyanmarCompare with earlier document
2024A/RES/79/182Situation of human rights of Rohingya Muslims and other minorities in MyanmarCompare with earlier document
2024A/HRC/RES/56/1Situation of human rights of Rohingya Muslims and other minorities in MyanmarCompare with earlier document
2023A/RES/78/219Situation of human rights of Rohingya Muslims and other minorities in MyanmarCompare with earlier document

This group bundles related documents that are not individually ordered.

Grouped automatically by matching titles within the same organ.

What subjects does this mandate have?

9 topics

Bangladesh Displaced Persons Good Offices Human Rights Human Rights Violations Minorities Muslims Myanmar Refugees

Which reports were submitted under this mandate?

1 report of the Secretary-General submitted under this mandate, 2024.

2024A/79/275Situation of human rights of Rohingya Muslims and other minorities in Myanmar report of the Secretary-General

Identified automatically from the metadata in each report’s UN Digital Library catalogue record.

What does this mandate say?

63 operative paragraphs

Expresses grave concern at the continuing reports of serious human rights violations and abuses by the military and security forces as well as violations of international humanitarian law in Myanmar against civilians, including Rohingya Muslims and other minorities, including those involving mass killings, arbitrary arrests, deaths in detention, torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, deliberate killing and maiming of children, recruitment and use of children for forced labour, aerial attacks against and burning of villages and civilian objects, attacks on schools, hospitals, internally displaced persons camps and places of worship and protected persons in relation to schools and/or hospitals, indiscriminate shelling in civilian areas, deprivation of economic and social rights, rape, sexual slavery and other forms of sexual and gender-based violence, as well as restrictions on exercising the rights to freedom of religion or belief, expression and peaceful assembly, and restrictions on media freedom and full Internet access and other restrictions, which has generated continued forced displacement within Myanmar and across its borders;

Condemns in the strongest terms all violations and abuses of human rights against civilians in Myanmar, including Rohingya Muslims and other minorities, before and after the unjustified declaration of the state of emergency on 1 February 2021 and its later extensions, and emphasizes the importance of conducting international, independent, fair and transparent investigations into the most serious human rights violations in Myanmar, including sexual and gender-based violence and violations and abuses against women and children, and of holding accountable all those responsible for brutal acts and crimes against all persons, including Rohingya Muslims, in order to deliver justice to victims using all legal instruments and domestic, regional and international judicial mechanisms, including the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court, as applicable;

Calls upon the security and armed forces of Myanmar to respect the democratic will and aspirations of the people of Myanmar, to end violence, to fully respect human rights, fundamental freedoms and the rule of law, to uphold democratic institutions and processes, and to end the state of emergency declared on 1 February 2021;

Demands an immediate end to hostilities and all forms of violence throughout the country, and urges restraint and de-escalation of tensions;

Calls upon the security and armed forces of Myanmar to immediately release all those who have been arbitrarily detained, arrested, convicted and sentenced on political grounds, including opposition activists and foreign nationals;

Calls for constructive, inclusive and peaceful dialogue and reconciliation, in accordance with the will and interests of the people of Myanmar, including Rohingya Muslims and other minorities;

Stresses the importance of agreeing on and enforcing an enduring ceasefire, including in Rakhine, a cessation of violence, and restraint by Myanmar security and armed forces and other armed groups, with a view to ensuring safety, security and protection of civilians, including those who are displaced and willing to return;

Calls upon all parties to the conflict to increase their engagement with the United Nations, and with the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict, to strengthen the protection of children, including through the signature of concrete time-bound commitments;

Reiterates the importance of conducting international, independent, fair and transparent investigations into human rights violations and abuses and violations of international humanitarian law in Myanmar, including alleged war crimes, and of holding accountable all those responsible for brutal acts and crimes against all persons, including Rohingya Muslims and other minorities;

Expresses deep concern that, despite the provisional measures ordered by the International Court of Justice on 23 January 2020 in the case of The Gambia v. Myanmar, Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar, including women and children, are not protected and continue to suffer from discrimination, targeted killings, indiscriminate violence and serious injuries, including by indiscriminate fire, shelling, landmines or unexploded ordnance;

Urges Myanmar, in accordance with the order of the International Court of Justice to take all measures within its power to prevent the commission of all acts within the scope of article 2 of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, to ensure that its military and any irregular armed units that may be directed or supported by it and any organizations and persons that may be subject to its control, direction or influence do not commit, inter alia, any such acts, to prevent the destruction and ensure the preservation of evidence and to report to the Court as ordered on all measures taken to give effect to its order;

Expresses grave concern about the ongoing restrictions on humanitarian access in all conflict areas across Myanmar, including in Rakhine and Chin States and Sagaing and Magway Regions, also in the aftermath of Cyclone Mocha, as well as the limited steps taken to ensure access to health care for Rohingya, and urges the granting of full, unrestricted and safe access to all humanitarian actors and all United Nations mandate holders and human rights mechanisms, including the Special Envoy of the Secretary-General on Myanmar, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar, the United Nations country task force on monitoring and reporting grave violations committed against children, the Independent Mechanism for Myanmar, established by the Human Rights Council in its resolution 39/2, and relevant United Nations agencies and international and regional human rights bodies to independently monitor the situation of human rights and to ensure that individuals can cooperate without hindrance with these mechanisms and without fear of reprisal, intimidation or attack, and expresses deep concern that international access to affected areas of northern Rakhine State and other areas affected by violence remains severely restricted for the international community, including for United Nations agencies, humanitarian actors and international media;

Calls upon the United Nations to ensure that the Independent Mechanism for Myanmar, as established by the Human Rights Council in its resolution 39/2, is afforded the flexibility that it needs in terms of staffing, location and operational freedom so that it can deliver as effectively as possible on its mandate, and be able to brief Member States on its activities, and urges Myanmar, Member States, judicial authorities and private entities to cooperate fully with the Mechanism, including by granting it access, including access to witnesses where applicable, and by providing it with every assistance in the execution of its mandate;

Expresses grave concern at the potential retraumatization of survivors of human rights violations and abuses, particularly child survivors and sexual violence survivors, and calls upon all actors engaging in documentation to follow the “do no harm” principle for evidence-gathering in order to respect the dignity of survivors and to avoid retraumatization, and calls for fully addressing the needs of victims and survivors and their right to effective remedy, including through prompt, effective and independent casualty recording and guarantees of non-recurrence;

Underlines the importance of consulting with survivors and families of victims, including Rohingya and other minorities, and including them in advancing justice and accountability, as appropriate;

Reiterates the urgent call upon Myanmar or the Myanmar military where applicable:

To end immediately all violence and all violations of international law in Myanmar, to ensure the protection of the human rights of all persons in Myanmar, including of Rohingya and persons belonging to other minorities, and to take all measures necessary to provide justice to victims, to ensure full accountability and to end impunity for all violations and abuses of human rights law and violations of international humanitarian law, starting with a full, transparent and independent investigation into reports of all these violations, and calls for the release of the report of the Independent Commission of Enquiry established in 2018 in full or to share its findings with relevant international mechanisms;

To engage in inclusive, constructive and peaceful dialogue and reconciliation, in accordance with the will and interests of the people of Myanmar, including Rohingya Muslims and other minorities;

To ensure the right to return of all refugees, including Rohingya Muslims, hosted in other countries, and take concrete actions to create conditions necessary for voluntary, safe, dignified and sustainable return and reintegration, regretting the fact that not a single Rohingya so far has returned through a bilaterally set up mechanism for repatriation between Bangladesh and Myanmar owing to the failure of Myanmar to create such conditions in Rakhine State;

To build trust among Rohingya Muslims in camps in Bangladesh through confidence-building measures, including by arranging voluntary “go and see” visits to Rakhine State by Rohingya representatives;

To ensure full protection of the human rights and fundamental freedoms of all persons in Myanmar, including Rohingya Muslims and other minorities, in an equal, non-discriminatory and dignified manner, in order to prevent further instability and insecurity, alleviate suffering, address the root causes of the crisis, including by repealing or reforming discriminatory legislation, and forge a viable, lasting and durable solution;

To fulfil its human rights obligations and commitments to protect the right to freedom of expression, including online, and the rights to freedom of association and peaceful assembly, to create and maintain a safe and enabling environment for civil society and independent media;

To take the measures necessary to end discrimination and prejudice and to combat the incitement of hatred against Rohingya Muslims and persons belonging to other minorities, and to publicly condemn such acts and combat hate speech, while fully respecting international human rights law, as well as to promote interfaith dialogue in cooperation with the international community and encourage political and religious leaders in the country to work towards reconciliation among communities and national unity through dialogue, and to implement the Peacebuilding Fund project to address hate speech;

To protect all persons and communities, in line with international humanitarian law and human rights law, including the Rohingya Muslims and other minorities;

To expedite efforts to eliminate statelessness and the systematic and institutionalized discrimination against members of all minorities, in particular relating to Rohingya Muslims, by, inter alia, reviewing and reforming the 1982 Citizenship Law, which has led to deprivation of human rights, by ensuring equal access to full citizenship through a transparent, voluntary and accessible procedure and to all civil and political rights, by allowing for self-identification, by amending or repealing all discriminatory legislation and policies, including discriminatory provisions of the set of “protection of race and religion laws” enacted in 2015 covering religious conversion, interfaith marriage, monogamy and population control, and by lifting all local orders restricting rights to freedom of movement and access to civil registration, health and education services and livelihoods;

To dismantle the camps for internally displaced persons in Rakhine State with a clear timeline and without further delay, ensuring that the return and relocation of internally displaced persons is carried out in accordance with international standards and best practices, in cooperation with the United Nations and the international community, and affected communities, including as set forth in the Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement;

To accelerate full implementation of all the recommendations of the Advisory Commission on Rakhine State to address the root causes of the crisis;

To ensure that Rohingya, other minorities and internally displaced persons have an equal opportunity for representation and the full, equal and meaningful participation as candidates and voters in all general elections;

To end and prevent the unlawful recruitment and use of children by all armed and security forces, including by implementing all activities of the joint action plan on children and armed conflict in coordination with the United Nations, and to address protection gaps by engaging with the task force on monitoring and reporting violations committed against children, notably by developing a joint action plan on killing and maiming and rape and other forms of sexual violence committed against children;

To protect the rights of all children, including Rohingya children, in accordance with the obligations of Myanmar under the Convention on the Rights of the Child, including the right to acquire a nationality, to eliminate statelessness, to ensure the protection of all children in armed conflict and to end the unlawful recruitment and use of children for forced labour;

To cooperate with the Special Envoy of the Secretary-General on Myanmar, once appointed, including by facilitating unconditional visits to Myanmar and meaningful engagement with all stakeholders, including Rohingya Muslims and those arbitrarily detained;

To cooperate and engage meaningfully with the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar, the Independent Mechanism and other United Nations mandate holders and mechanisms working on Myanmar, including by facilitating visits and granting unrestricted access throughout the country;

To allow the resumption of family visits, grant immediate access, without undue restrictions, to appropriate international organizations and provide medical services to detainees and detention facilities;

To review and repeal the amendments made in 2018 to the Vacant, Fallow and Virgin Lands Management Law, and to establish an inclusive land governance framework and to resolve issues of land tenure, in full consultation with affected populations, including ethnic and religious minority communities, in particular Rohingya Muslims;

To end the reclassification of areas where Rohingya villages were previously located, and the removal of the names of villages from official maps, potentially altering how the land may be used, and stop, without delay, the construction of military facilities in those villages;

To swiftly implement the five-point consensus reached at the Leaders’ Meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) held on 24 April 2021 to facilitate a peaceful solution in the interests of the people of Myanmar and their livelihoods, and to that end calls upon all stakeholders in Myanmar to cooperate with the Association and the Special Envoy of the Chair of the Association, and expresses its support for these efforts;

To take concrete steps to strengthen institution-building and structural reforms to uphold the rule of law, human rights and democratic principles, through a participatory and inclusive approach, including efforts to ensure the independence of the judiciary, and by reforming the security sector to enhance civilian control;

To facilitate independent, impartial and thorough investigations into all allegations of violations of international humanitarian law, including into conduct that may constitute war crimes and crimes against humanity, including the use of starvation as a method of warfare, crimes of sexual violence and allegations of human rights violations, and ensure that the perpetrators are brought to justice through transparent and credible processes;

Underscores the importance of providing protection and assistance, including non-discriminatory access to services such as medical and psychosocial care, specifically tailored to women and girls, especially those who are victims of sexual and gender-based violence and human trafficking;

Reiterates its deep concern at the continued plight of Rohingya, and commends the commitment of the Government of Bangladesh and other Member States to provide temporary shelter, humanitarian assistance and protection to them;

Encourages Myanmar to continue to work with Bangladesh, in line with the bilateral instruments on repatriation signed by Bangladesh and Myanmar, in order to expedite the creation of a conducive environment for the voluntary, safe, dignified and sustainable return of the forcibly displaced Rohingya in Bangladesh, with the full support and meaningful involvement of the international community, including the United Nations and its funds, programmes and agencies, and stresses the importance of meaningfully engaging with civil society and the displaced communities;

Recognizes that the continuing multifaceted crisis that has arisen following the declaration of the state of emergency on 1 February 2021, inter alia, the cross-border displacement and prolonged delay in the repatriation of Rohingya, has serious negative impacts on the peace and stability of the region, particularly for the neighbouring countries of Myanmar, and stresses the urgent need for concrete action towards a sustainable solution to the crisis in line with the will of the people of Myanmar;

Recognizes with appreciation the assistance and support of the international community, including regional organizations, in particular ASEAN, and the countries neighbouring Myanmar;

Calls upon the international community to effectively address irregular maritime movements of Rohingya, in cooperation with the relevant United Nations agencies, as well as ensure international burden- and responsibility-sharing, especially by the States parties to the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees;

Emphasizes the need for Myanmar to continue to cooperate fully with the Government of Bangladesh and with the United Nations, in particular the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, and in consultation with the populations concerned to enable the voluntary, safe, dignified, sustainable and well-informed return of all refugees and forcibly displaced persons and internally displaced persons to their places of origin in Myanmar, and to ensure protection of returnees and give them freedom of movement and unimpeded access to livelihoods, social services, including health services, education and shelter, and to compensate them for all losses;

Calls for the reinstatement and subsequent implementation of the memorandum of understanding signed by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and the United Nations Development Programme with Myanmar, to support the creation of conditions for the return of refugees from Bangladesh;

Underlines the urgent need for support for the expansion of the pilot projects by the United Nations Development Programme and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees under which the internally displaced Rohingya, living under difficult conditions in northern Rakhine State, can return to their places of origin or to a place of their choice and their communities can receive multisectoral assistance;

Calls upon the international community, in the true spirit of solidarity, interdependence and more equitable burden- and responsibility-sharing, to support Rohingya refugees and forcibly displaced persons sheltered in Bangladesh until conditions for return are met, including by adequately funding the 2023 joint response plan for the Rohingya humanitarian crisis and, in this regard, by leveraging the opportunities at the Global Refugee Forum 2023;

Also calls upon the international community to support the humanitarian efforts in Myanmar to meet the humanitarian needs of all affected persons of all communities, taking into account the vulnerable situation of women, children, older persons and persons with disabilities;

Welcomes the continued engagement of ASEAN in facilitating a peaceful solution in the interests of the people of Myanmar, looks forward to its continued implementation of the preliminary needs assessment to provide effective humanitarian assistance, facilitate the repatriation process and promote sustainable development in Rakhine State, and also looks forward to the comprehensive needs assessment when conditions allow;

Encourages all business enterprises, including transnational corporations and domestic enterprises operating in Myanmar, to respect human rights in accordance with the Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights and the recommendations made by the independent international fact-finding mission in its report on the economic interests of the Myanmar military;

Requests the Secretary-General:

To continue to provide his good offices and to pursue his discussions relating to Myanmar, involving all relevant stakeholders, and to offer assistance to Myanmar;

To swiftly appoint a Special Envoy on Myanmar, and to submit the report of the Special Envoy covering all relevant issues addressed in the present resolution to the General Assembly at its seventy-ninth session;

To provide all assistance necessary to enable the Special Envoy on Myanmar, once appointed, to promptly and effectively discharge its mandate and to report to Member States periodically, or as warranted by the situation on the ground, including through a workplan for the Special Envoy’s work in Myanmar;

To develop a strategy for the engagement of the United Nations in Myanmar and identify ways in which the existing mandates can more effectively deliver in their respective areas of responsibility concerning Myanmar and can complement each other’s work through enhanced coordination;

To ensure that all in-country programmes incorporate a human rights-based approach and undergo due diligence processes;

To call the continued attention of the Security Council to the situation in Myanmar with concrete recommendations for action to restore peace, end the state of emergency, promote fully inclusive and representative dialogue aimed at supporting the democratic path in Myanmar and resolve the humanitarian crisis, promoting the voluntary, safe, dignified and sustainable return of Rohingya refugees and forcibly displaced persons and ensuring accountability for those responsible for mass atrocities and human rights violations and abuses;

To support the implementation of the 2018 recommendations of the independent international fact-finding mission on Myanmar and assist the work of the ongoing Independent Mechanism, including by facilitating a dialogue between the General Assembly and the Mechanism during the seventy-ninth session of the Assembly;

To fully implement the recommendations contained in the report of the independent inquiry into the involvement of the United Nations in Myanmar from 2010 to 2018 in order to ensure more effective work in the future and to strengthen the prevention capacity of the United Nations system;

To support the reinstatement and subsequent implementation of the memorandum of understanding signed between Myanmar and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and the United Nations Development Programme, to encourage all relevant United Nations agencies to lend their support for the efforts, as appropriate, in this regard, and to continue to report on its status;

Requests that the next Special Envoy participate by way of an interactive dialogue in the seventy-ninth session of the General Assembly;

Decides to remain seized of the matter, inter alia, on the basis of the reports of the Secretary-General, the independent international fact-finding mission on Myanmar, the Independent Mechanism, the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar and the Special Envoy of the Secretary-General on Myanmar.

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