28, Sep 2018

The United Nations Human Rights Council has voted to establish a body to ready evidence of human rights violations in Myanmar for possible future prosecution, Reuters reported. All 28 member nations of the European Union and all 57 countries in the Organization of Islamic Cooperation collaborated on the resolution, which was co-sponsored by more than 100 countries around the world, the New York Times reported. 35 of the Council’s 47 member countries voted for the resolution, with Burundi, China, and the Philippines voting against it. The resolution creates a body to “collect, consolidate, preserve and analyse evidence of the most serious international crimes and violations of international law committed in Myanmar since 2011, and to prepare files in order to facilitate and expedite fair and independent criminal proceedings,” Reuters noted. The body will work with the International Criminal Court (ICC), which has previously ruled that it has jurisdiction over the Rohingya’s expulsion from Myanmar. More than 700,000 Rohingya fled after a military crackdown in late August 2017, prompted by attacks on army posts. Most of them are currently in refugee camps in neighbouring Bangladesh.