A Crisis and a Crossroads: Human Rights and Myanmar

Lunch provided for those attending in person.

Register here for the webinar. 

Two and a half years after the launch of a military coup that has killed thousands, junta military forces in Myanmar have escalated devastating airstrikes on civilian targets, arson attacks on homes and villages, mass killings, torture, sexual and gender-based violence, forced labor and other gross violations of human rights. Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of Rohingya refugees who fled genocidal attacks more than six years ago are now confronting intolerable conditions in sprawling refugee camps in Bangladesh. Prohibited from working and with very limited educational opportunities for their children, Rohingya families are now facing drastic cuts in food rations, a rise in violence in the camps, and an effort to force their repatriation back into the hands of the very military forces who attacked them.

The people of Myanmar have responded to this deepening crisis with remarkable courage, tenacity and resourcefulness. But they believe, with ample reason, that they have been forsaken and forgotten by the international community.

In this talk, Tom Andrews, the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar, and an Associate of the Asia Center, will review the role the United Nations and its member states have played in this crisis, preview findings of an upcoming UN General Assembly report that he will present in October and discuss options for how the international community can work with and for the people of Myanmar to help end this nightmare.