Excellencies, distinguished guests,

I would like first to thank Minister Freeland for her remarks and for, along with Canada, having hosted us today on this important topic. I had the opportunity to discuss the situation of the Rohingya people with the Honorable Bob Rae earlier this year and the report he issued two weeks ago sets out recommendations on accountability and impunity that I fully support.

When I visited Bangladesh and Myanmar at the end of last year, I had the opportunity to meet many women and girls. I spoke with many survivors and they all have expressed a thirst for justice as urgent as their needs for psycho-social and livelihood support. They want to see the perpetrators punished.

On Monday, as I briefed the Security Council during the Open Debate on Sexual Violence in Conflict, I was joined by Ms. Razia Sultana. She was the first Rohingya woman, born in Northern Rakhine State in Myanmar, to brief the Security Council on the plight of her people. Her presence was a historic opportunity to give a face and a voice to a community that has been denied a nationality, denied an identity, and even denied a name

How can the United Nations and the Security Council be more instrumental in taking accountability measures against perpetrators of sexual violence crimes against the Rohingya people?

This week, the Myanmar Armed Forces, the ‘Tatmadaw’, were listed for the very first time by the Secretary General in the annexes of his annual report on sexual violence in conflict. I have engaged directly with the Myanmar Government and asked them to develop a Joint Communiqué with the United Nations to address conflict-related sexual violence (CRSV) in Myanmar. Joint Communiqués with listed parties systematically include provisions on accountability. They usually involve direct technical support on national legislation reform, training to national justice and security sectors.

During the Open Debate on Monday, I asked the Security Council to systematically and immediately incorporate sexual violence as a stand-alone criterion when adopting a new sanction regime. The UN Security Council should use sanctions – specifically the designation criteria and the subsequent listing of sanctioned individuals – to prevent and curb sexual violence in armed conflict. The sanction tools offer significant – and yet largely unexploited – potential to advance women’s protection from sexual violence. Canada’s report lists ways that Canada can sanction those responsible for sexual violence unilaterally, as well as other countries such as the United States, the United Kingdom and the European Union. These coercive measures shall be used against perpetrators of sexual violence in the Myanmar military. US Senators have also sought to slap sanctions back on Myanmar through legislation sponsored by Senator Markey of Massachusetts and Senator McCain of Arizona and their efforts should be supported. These actions should also include asset freezes and travel bans.

More generally, and although we must be careful not to punish the people of Myanmar, foreign assistance should a have human rights conditionality especially as it pertains to sexual violence. Member States that provide significant amounts of economic aid to Myanmar (such as Japan) should be pushed to link economic aid to progress on human rights and accountability. Part of the human rights conditionality should be unhindered access to Rakhine for service providers and access to OHCHR’s fact finding mission. All military assistance to the Myanmar Army should be stopped.

I would also like to note that although the General Assembly has requested that a Special Envoy be appointed for Myanmar, the selection has not been made by the Secretary-General. It is essential that the Special Envoy make human rights a priority and Member States must make their views on this issue known to the Secretary-General.

The visit of the Security Council at the end of the month is very timely for such advocacy.

Earlier this year when I briefed the security Council upon my return from Myanmar, I called on a Security Council resolution to refer the situation of Myanmar to the International Criminal Court (ICC). While a Security Council referral of Myanmar to the ICC seems highly unlikely, there may still be value in having a proposed resolution to raise awareness of the issue and of the obligation of Member States with respect to international crimes.

As we know, last week the ICC requested jurisdiction from the Pre-Trial Chamber over the forcible deportation of the Rohingya from Myanmar. Even if the ICC has jurisdiction over deportation, this would not capture the full range, nature and extent of the crimes committed. Although not dealing with sexual violence per se, sexual violence was one of the drivers of the deportation of Rohingya from Myanmar, and Rohingya are at risk for human trafficking as a result.

Rome Statute States and interested organizations may be requested by the Pre-Trial Chamber to submit amicus curiae briefs, and we shall do so to support their work.

If the ICC cannot exercise jurisdiction, and in the absence of Security Council agreement, the General Assembly shall act to create an Independent, Impartial and International Mechanism (IIIM) for Myanmar following the example of what was established for the Syrian Arab Republic to prepare prosecution ready case files for all parties committing violations in the Syrian Civil War.

But what is important is that before another IIIM-type mechanism is proposed for Myanmar, there should be an analysis of the IIIM to assess its suitability for the Myanmar context.  A coordinated effort should begin to assess and identify possible criminal justice options with the eventual aim of building consensus on the most suitable mechanism(s) and I am quite sure that Ambassador Rapp would have even more extensive views on this matter.

In addition, there is the question of what Bangladesh can do. Bangladesh is in a difficult position to collect evidence on a neighbour and would require significant technical and financial capacity support in order to do so.

My office is currently developing a Framework of Cooperation with the Bangladesh Government to address CRSV. One of the measures is the provision of direct and coordinated support to the Bangladeshi National Human Rights Commission on documentation of cases of sexual violence as per internationally recognized standards such as the International Protocol on Documentation and Investigation of sexual violence in conflict (SVC). Currently, there are numerous documentation efforts being carried out, and serious concerns have been raised about the quantity, quality and coordination of such efforts, including:

  • issues related to documentation methodology;
  • repeated traumatization of victims and lack of psycho-social support associated with documentation;
  • security and maintenance of information/ confidentiality;
  • lack of clarity about the purpose of documentation, etc.

While challenging, universal jurisdiction cases should be pursued, particularly by countries which have accepted Rohingya refugees. This has led me to compare the situation of women and girl survivors of Daesh with Rohingya women and girls.  Germany is a good example of the use of Universal Jurisdiction to brief accountability for crimes of sexual violence by Daesh. More broadly, the special quota project established by Germany for survivors, and mainly for Yazidi women and girls, should be duplicated for the Rohingya women survivors of atrocity crimes. Learning also from our experience with survivors of Daesh crimes or of other similar situations in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Nigeria, or Colombia, reparative justice is what survivors want most, yet receive least.

Let me end by saying that there should be no return of the Rohingyas to Myanmar without accountability.

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