Crimes against Humanity in Western Burma: The Situation of the Rohingyas is published by the Irish Centre for Human Rights.
The report was supervised by Prof Schabas, an expert on international human rights law, who served as one of the seven commissioners on the Sierra Leone Truth and Reconciliation Commission. The report was funded by the Irish government.
The hard-hitting report exposes how the Rohingya ethnic minority in Burma are subject to a range of different human rights abuses which constitute, or may constitute, crimes against humanity as defined by the Rome Statute. These include:
- Forced labour
- Deportation and forcible transfer
- Rape and sexual violence
- Persecution
The report states that; “there is a reliable body of evidence pointing to acts constituting a widespread or systematic attack against the Rohingya civilian population….These appear to satisfy the requirements under international criminal law for the perpetration of crimes against humanity.”
The report recommends that the United Nations Security Council establish a commission of inquiry into the crimes exposed in the report, and into potential crimes being committed in other parts of Burma.