Excellencies,

Ladies and gentlemen,

As we close this high-level meeting, I thank all of you for your participation and commitments to renew our collective attention to the situation in Myanmar.

Today’s high-level meeting underlined how important it is to uphold the situation of the Rohingya Muslims and other minorities.

Because 8 years is way too long.

And because the situation is so dire.

When listening to some of the civil society voices like Maung Sawyeddollah, a Rohingya Muslim formerly living in Cox’s Bazar, we could hear the pain in his voice and so many other voices of these 8 years.

We could hear the pain of 8 years, not being able to return home.

We could also hear it also in the report of The Special Envoy on Myanmar stating that “The violence continues between the military and ethnic armed organizations and people’s defense forces.”

Meaning that people cannot return even though they wish to so much.

We have also heard that UNICEF had to suspend major segments of its education program for both Rohingya refugees and Bangladeshi host communities in Cox’s Bazar.

We could understand the pain, what it means when High Commissioner for Human Rights put it in numbers, “Nearly a third of the country’s population, some 15.2 million people, are facing acute food insecurity this year. That represents an increase of almost 2 million people in a year.”

It was so important that Lucky Karim, a Rohingya refugee formerly living in Cox’s Bazar, added the questions we have to face: “How do we prepare for repatriation when people in Rakhine State are starving, suffering from the impacts of conflict, and still trying to flee? How do we prepare for political solutions in Rakhine State if we do not have a counterpart willing to engage in conversations about our future?”

I would like to thank you, excellencies, and the Member States, for reacting to these important questions, even though we cannot answer them all today, but making clear in so many statements that for far too long the world didn’t care.

That for far too long, Rohingya Muslims have been subject to violence, armed conflict, and targeted persecution.

That for far too long we have faced this lack of funding.

So it was important to hear some concrete contributions by Member States to support Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh and also those proposals to address the root causes of the conflict and chart the way forward.

It was important that the Special Envoy of the ASEAN Chair on Myanmar underlined that the international community must step up to support efforts to bring peace and scale up funding.

Now is the time to translate this momentum into action.

Three priorities are clear from today’s discussion:

First, we must provide adequate and sustained financial support to deliver basic necessities for refugees and internally displaced persons including food security, health services, and education.

Second, we must remember that refugees want to return home—to their communities, families, and livelihoods. But that we need an environment where they can return home in dignity, voluntarily, and safely. Meaning also to end impunity and enabling their full participation in society.

And third, a sustainable resolution to this crisis means building trust with an inclusive peace process. This includes ensuring citizenship and fundamental rights and freedoms for all.

Excellencies,

Ladies and gentlemen,

Dear participants of civil society,

And especially dear Rohingya people,

Today is just a starting point, we have to do more.

And therefore, an action-oriented summary from this discussion is forthcoming.