UN endorses anti-Myanmar resolution

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Sheikh Shahariar Zaman
Published : 23:27, Nov 16, 2018 | Updated : 23:34, Nov 16, 2018

FILE PHOTO: An exhausted Rohingya refugee woman touches the shore after crossing the Bangladesh-Myanmar border by boat through the Bay of Bengal, in Shah Porir Dwip, Bangladesh September 11, 2017. REUTERSThe United Nations Third Committee has adopted a resolution Friday with a call to expedite the process to set up the independent mechanism to investigate the gross human rights violation in Myanmar.
The resolution was put on the vote and 142 countries voted in favour, 10 opposed while 26 restrained from voting.
The resolution is co-sponsored by 99 countries.
Last year on Nov 16, a similar resolution expressing grave concern about human rights situation in Myanmar was adopted at the third committee. That time 97 countries co-sponsored the resolution.
The result was more or less similar in the last year’s resolution when 135 countries supported it, 10 countries including China and Russia opposed it and 26 countries including India and Indonesia neither supported nor opposed it.
Ten Rohingya Muslim men with their hands bound kneel in Inn Din village September 1, 2017. Handout via REUTERS/File PhotoExpressing deep concern, this year’s resolution stipulates that Rohingya population have been living in Rakhine for generations even before Myanmar got its independence, but they were made stateless by the 1982 citizenship laws.
It reaffirmed that denial of citizenship is a serious human rights violation.
The 22-para resolution urged the Myanmar government to sustain democratic transition by bringing all national institutions including military under the civilian government.
Expressing grave concern about different human rights crimes including murder, rape, disappearance, torture, sexual slavery and violence, the resolution concluded that Myanmar military consistently fails to respect international human rights laws.
It also urged the Myanmar authorities to hold the perpetrators accountable and remove them from power.
The resolution acknowledges that 7,23,000 Rohingyas fled to Bangladesh due to systematic oppression and discrimination and asks to create conducive environment expeditiously for repatriation.
Meanwhile, in 2015 a resolution titled ‘Human Rights Situation in Myanmar’ was adopted and in that 19-paratext, only one paragraph was dedicated to Rohingyas. But, this time and last year, the entire texts are centring around Rohingya crisis.
Bangladesh is home to 1.1 million Rohingyas who fled here to save themselves from the persecution they have been facing for years.

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