ROBERT KENNEDY HUMANRIGHT
Alexis Capati
Catherine Cooper
October 3, 2025
“You already have the evidence. You already have the power. What is missing is the political will.” Rohingya Activist Wai Wai Nu at the U.N. High-level Conference on Tuesday, September 30, 2025. As the Rohingya community faces compounding crises, this week’s U.N. High-level Conference on the Situation of Rohingya Muslims and Other Minorities in Myanmar was held at a critical moment. The Rohingya, who are one of the most persecuted communities in the world, face existential threats, including international crimes by the Myanmar military and the Arakan Army, an ethnic armed group. Outside of Myanmar, the Rohingya who live in refugee camps in Bangladesh face drastic cuts to essential aid.
The High-level Conference was proposed by Bangladesh, which hosts more than 1 million Rohingya refugees, to serve as a platform to provide a “concrete plan for a sustainable resolution of the crisis,” including the eventual repatriation of the Rohingya to Myanmar. As expected, participating Member States shared statements of support, but very few commitments to concrete action. The most notable actions were aid announcements from states, including the U.S. and U.K., but due to extensive prior aid cuts, the U.N. will still need to slash essential services in the refugee camps without further aid commitments.
Rather than serving as a box ticked, the High-level Conference must be a first step, driving decisive commitments and interventions.
Ongoing Persecution of the Rohingya
For decades, the Rohingya community in Myanmar has been persecuted, including through violence, discrimination, and systematic efforts to strip the Rohingya of citizenship. In August 2017, Myanmar’s military perpetrated a genocidal campaign against the Rohingya in Myanmar’s Rakhine State, killing thousands and forcing hundreds of thousands to flee to Bangladesh. Rohingya have also fled by boat throughout the region, while some have remained internally displaced in Myanmar. Following the 2021 coup that overthrew Myanmar’s democratically-elected government, the military junta has committed international crimes and other serious abuses against the Rohingya, other ethnic minorities, and members of the pro-democracy movement.
The Rohingya who remain in Rakhine State have been caught in the middle of a deadly conflict between the Myanmar military and the Arakan Army, an ethnic armed group. As the Arakan Army has taken control of much of Rakhine State over the past two years, it has perpetrated human rights abuses against the Rohingya, including forced recruitment, arson, and extrajudicial killings.
To date, no one has been held accountable for these grave and continuing crimes. The International Criminal Court and the Federal Court of Argentina (under the principle of universal jurisdiction) are pursuing investigations into individual crimes, including by Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, the head of the Myanmar military, and other top leaders. In 2020, the International Court of Justice, in a case brought by The Gambia on Myanmar’s state responsibility under the Genocide Convention, ordered Myanmar to take provisional measures to prevent the commission of genocide. Myanmar has not complied with these measures.
As violence continues in Myanmar, the more than 1 million Rohingya who live in the world’s largest refugee camp in Bangladesh face increasingly dire conditions. Due to drastic aid cuts by the Trump administration and other governments, the Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh are at risk of a dramatic reduction in access to critical health care, food rations, education, and other assistance. As of August 31, 2025, the Joint Response Plan, which aims to assess and support the Bangladesh government’s response to the needs of Rohingya refugees, had only been 37% funded for 2025, leaving a funding shortfall of $592.6 million.
Rohingya in the camps live in dire conditions. They currently survive on food rations of only $12 per month, and face restrictions imposed by the Bangladesh government on freedom of movement and access to livelihoods and education. Rohingya also face ongoing threats to their safety within the camps, including harassment by Bangladeshi security forces, forced recruitment and violence by Rohingya armed groups, trafficking, and gender based violence.
The High-level Conference as a Critical Moment for the Rohingya
The U.N. High-level Conference came at a critical time for the Rohingya community, who face ongoing, violent repression of rights in Rakhine State and further deteriorating conditions in Bangladesh’s refugee camps. It was imperative that the High-level Conference fulfill its stated purpose to propose a “concrete plan” with sustainable solutions and provide a platform where Rohingya voices were heard.
Prior to the High-level Conference, a dialogue on Rohingya was held in Cox’s Bazar in August 2025, purporting to allow Rohingya leaders and community members to be heard alongside U.N. agencies, humanitarian organizations, Bangladeshi leadership, and other governments in the region. However, some Rohingya community members have expressed criticism that the Cox’s Bazar dialogue did not provide an inclusive platform for Rohingya voices from the camps. A few weeks earlier, individuals reportedly close to Bangladeshi authorities were selected as Rohingya representatives in camp “elections”, which allowed only 0.32% of the population to vote and largely excluded women.
For months leading up to September’s conference, Rohingya activists and rights groups raised the importance of inclusive, meaningful participation of a diverse range of Rohingya community members, including women and youth, and those from not only the diaspora but also Myanmar and Bangladesh. However, Rohingya leaders in Cox’s Bazar and Myanmar faced numerous challenges in attending the conference. Rohingya refugees are not permitted by Bangladesh to travel outside of the camps, are de facto stateless and lack travel documents, and many fear speaking out due to risks from Rohingya armed groups and Bangladeshi security forces. Only four Rohingya were selected to speak at the High-level Conference, all of whom are currently based in the U.S.
Highlights and Shortfalls of the U.N. Rohingya Conference
As expected, the High-level Conference fell short of its objective for States to propose a “concrete plan for a sustainable resolution of the crisis.” Instead, the most powerful moments of the Conference were the call to action by the four Rohingya activists, who underscored that the future of their community is at stake.
“The genocide did not end in 2017. It has worsened.” said Wai Wai Nu, Founder and Executive Director of Women’s Peace Network. “Ending impunity is the only way to end atrocities.”
Lucky Karim, who lived in the Bangladesh camps and founded Refugee Women for Peace and Justice, emphasized that Rohingya “are best placed to find sustainable solutions for our future with support from the international community.” She continued, “How can Rohingya build [] political power without a strong representative civil society when we have little authority to make decisions? . . . How do we do any of these things if we do not have food to eat or shelters over our head?”
For refugee youth like Maung Sawyeddollah, Founder of the Rohingya Students Network, access to higher education–which is out of reach for nearly all youth in the camps–could give hope for a better future. “There are thousands of Rohingya students like me in the refugee camps forced to destroy their lives with no access to higher education,” he said. “I request member states to . . . open their doors to higher education for Rohingya students.”
While many States noted the importance of the Rohingya’s safe, voluntary, and dignified return to Myanmar, Rofik Husson, Founder of the Arakan Youth Peace Network, underscored that repatriation is not possible without international support and pressure. “Our deepest wish as Rohingyas is to live peacefully . . . in our ancestral homeland with safety and security,” Husson emphasized. “Repatriation will only be possible with genuine international protection.”
Aside from a handful of aid commitments, Member State interventions offered well-crafted statements on justice, accountability, safety, and Rohingyas’ rights, but stopped short of concrete commitments. Notably, some States announced critical financial contributions for aid for Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh, including over $60 million from the U.S. and $36 million from the U.K. Despite these commitments, the Joint Response Plan continues to face a funding shortfall of hundreds of millions of dollars. Without further aid contributions, the U.N. will be forced to slash access to basic necessities in the camps.
The U.S., in announcing its funding commitment, stated that in response it “expect[s] meaningful policy changes” from Bangladesh to enable Rohingya refugees to have “livelihood opportunities”—a change that Rohingya activists and rights groups have long called for since refugees are not officially allowed to work. The U.S.’s strong call to Bangladesh followed Bangladeshi Chief Adviser Dr. Muhammad Yunus’s reiteration that “we do not afford to allow employment of Rohingyas inside Bangladesh” due to the country’s ongoing challenges of “unemployment and poverty.”
Dr. Yunus also outlined seven points towards a “sustainable resolution of the crisis,” including to “devise a practical roadmap for safe and dignified repatriation.” However, other key points were overshadowed by his strong call for states to work towards “expeditious repatriation to Rakhine.” Despite overwhelming evidence that Rakhine State remains unsafe, Dr. Yunus proposed, “As an immediate step, those who recently crossed into Bangladesh escaping conflict must be allowed to repatriate.”
A Turning Point: States Must Take Concrete Action
Rohingya community members have long emphasized that their ultimate goal is repatriation to Myanmar. However, as Rohingya activists, High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk, and others emphasized during the High-level Conference, all parts of Myanmar are currently unsafe, including Rakhine State. Rohingya must be protected from forced repatriations to Myanmar and returns in violation of the principle of non-refoulement until the situation allows for voluntary, safe, dignified, and sustainable returns. As repatriation options are explored, dialogue regarding future repatriation must provide opportunities for meaningful and inclusive participation from members of the Rohingya community.
While voluntary, safe, and dignified returns to Myanmar remain impossible, and acknowledging the pressures that hosting over 1 million refugees places on Bangladesh, the Interim Government of Bangladesh should ensure that any new refugees fleeing Myanmar may enter Bangladesh and ensure they receive humanitarian assistance in collaboration with the UN.
In order to facilitate the continued provision of critical humanitarian assistance to Rohingya refugees, the international community must go beyond the funding commitments announced at the High-level Conference and continue to increase aid to meet the funding shortfalls of the Joint Response Plan. With the mounting aid crisis, Rohingya refugees face cuts to food rations and health care, decreased access to education, and continued restrictions on freedom of movement and livelihood opportunities. The Interim Government of Bangladesh should reduce camp restrictions impeding movement and access to livelihood opportunities and formal education following the Burmese curriculum. Such opportunities are crucial to improving conditions in the camps, reducing aid dependency, empowering Rohingya to find means to better support their families, and reducing the risk of criminal activity.
States across the region should recognize the Rohingya as refugees, provide them with legal status and the right to work, end detentions, and respect the principle of non-refoulement. The international community should also facilitate third-country resettlement for Rohingya in coordination with receiving countries and the UNHRC, the U.N. refugee agency, to expand opportunities for refugees to voluntarily resettle.
The international community must continue pursuing avenues to hold both the Myanmar military and the Arakan Army accountable for the atrocity crimes committed against the Rohingya. The U.N. Security Council should refer the Myanmar situation to the International Criminal Court, and U.N. Member States should exercise universal jurisdiction to support criminal prosecutions of perpetrators in national courts. U.N. Member States should stop the transfer of and impose an embargo on jet fuel, arms, dual-use equipment, and surveillance technologies to the Myanmar military, as repeatedly called for by the U.N. Office of the High Commissioner on Human Rights and rights groups.
States must isolate the military junta and refrain from giving it political legitimacy. In particular, states should reject the junta’s plans to hold national elections in December as illegitimate. Opposition parties have been banned and jailed, and the military controls only a fraction of the country’s territory.
Following the High-level Conference, it is vital that diverse voices from across the Rohingya community are not only included in but lead discussions about sustainable approaches to accountability, protection, aid, repatriation, and other issues that impact their future.
“Let this conference be a historic turning point,” Wai Wai Nu urged those gathered at the Conference. “The end of missed opportunities, and the beginning of lasting solutions.”
Rather than serving as a box ticked, the High-level Conference must be a first step, driving decisive commitments and interventions.
Ongoing Persecution of the Rohingya
For decades, the Rohingya community in Myanmar has been persecuted, including through violence, discrimination, and systematic efforts to strip the Rohingya of citizenship. In August 2017, Myanmar’s military perpetrated a genocidal campaign against the Rohingya in Myanmar’s Rakhine State, killing thousands and forcing hundreds of thousands to flee to Bangladesh. Rohingya have also fled by boat throughout the region, while some have remained internally displaced in Myanmar. Following the 2021 coup that overthrew Myanmar’s democratically-elected government, the military junta has committed international crimes and other serious abuses against the Rohingya, other ethnic minorities, and members of the pro-democracy movement.
The Rohingya who remain in Rakhine State have been caught in the middle of a deadly conflict between the Myanmar military and the Arakan Army, an ethnic armed group. As the Arakan Army has taken control of much of Rakhine State over the past two years, it has perpetrated human rights abuses against the Rohingya, including forced recruitment, arson, and extrajudicial killings.
To date, no one has been held accountable for these grave and continuing crimes. The International Criminal Court and the Federal Court of Argentina (under the principle of universal jurisdiction) are pursuing investigations into individual crimes, including by Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, the head of the Myanmar military, and other top leaders. In 2020, the International Court of Justice, in a case brought by The Gambia on Myanmar’s state responsibility under the Genocide Convention, ordered Myanmar to take provisional measures to prevent the commission of genocide. Myanmar has not complied with these measures.
As violence continues in Myanmar, the more than 1 million Rohingya who live in the world’s largest refugee camp in Bangladesh face increasingly dire conditions. Due to drastic aid cuts by the Trump administration and other governments, the Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh are at risk of a dramatic reduction in access to critical health care, food rations, education, and other assistance. As of August 31, 2025, the Joint Response Plan, which aims to assess and support the Bangladesh government’s response to the needs of Rohingya refugees, had only been 37% funded for 2025, leaving a funding shortfall of $592.6 million.
Rohingya in the camps live in dire conditions. They currently survive on food rations of only $12 per month, and face restrictions imposed by the Bangladesh government on freedom of movement and access to livelihoods and education. Rohingya also face ongoing threats to their safety within the camps, including harassment by Bangladeshi security forces, forced recruitment and violence by Rohingya armed groups, trafficking, and gender based violence.
The High-level Conference as a Critical Moment for the Rohingya
The U.N. High-level Conference came at a critical time for the Rohingya community, who face ongoing, violent repression of rights in Rakhine State and further deteriorating conditions in Bangladesh’s refugee camps. It was imperative that the High-level Conference fulfill its stated purpose to propose a “concrete plan” with sustainable solutions and provide a platform where Rohingya voices were heard.
Prior to the High-level Conference, a dialogue on Rohingya was held in Cox’s Bazar in August 2025, purporting to allow Rohingya leaders and community members to be heard alongside U.N. agencies, humanitarian organizations, Bangladeshi leadership, and other governments in the region. However, some Rohingya community members have expressed criticism that the Cox’s Bazar dialogue did not provide an inclusive platform for Rohingya voices from the camps. A few weeks earlier, individuals reportedly close to Bangladeshi authorities were selected as Rohingya representatives in camp “elections”, which allowed only 0.32% of the population to vote and largely excluded women.
For months leading up to September’s conference, Rohingya activists and rights groups raised the importance of inclusive, meaningful participation of a diverse range of Rohingya community members, including women and youth, and those from not only the diaspora but also Myanmar and Bangladesh. However, Rohingya leaders in Cox’s Bazar and Myanmar faced numerous challenges in attending the conference. Rohingya refugees are not permitted by Bangladesh to travel outside of the camps, are de facto stateless and lack travel documents, and many fear speaking out due to risks from Rohingya armed groups and Bangladeshi security forces. Only four Rohingya were selected to speak at the High-level Conference, all of whom are currently based in the U.S.
Highlights and Shortfalls of the U.N. Rohingya Conference
As expected, the High-level Conference fell short of its objective for States to propose a “concrete plan for a sustainable resolution of the crisis.” Instead, the most powerful moments of the Conference were the call to action by the four Rohingya activists, who underscored that the future of their community is at stake.
“The genocide did not end in 2017. It has worsened.” said Wai Wai Nu, Founder and Executive Director of Women’s Peace Network. “Ending impunity is the only way to end atrocities.”
Lucky Karim, who lived in the Bangladesh camps and founded Refugee Women for Peace and Justice, emphasized that Rohingya “are best placed to find sustainable solutions for our future with support from the international community.” She continued, “How can Rohingya build [] political power without a strong representative civil society when we have little authority to make decisions? . . . How do we do any of these things if we do not have food to eat or shelters over our head?”
For refugee youth like Maung Sawyeddollah, Founder of the Rohingya Students Network, access to higher education–which is out of reach for nearly all youth in the camps–could give hope for a better future. “There are thousands of Rohingya students like me in the refugee camps forced to destroy their lives with no access to higher education,” he said. “I request member states to . . . open their doors to higher education for Rohingya students.”
While many States noted the importance of the Rohingya’s safe, voluntary, and dignified return to Myanmar, Rofik Husson, Founder of the Arakan Youth Peace Network, underscored that repatriation is not possible without international support and pressure. “Our deepest wish as Rohingyas is to live peacefully . . . in our ancestral homeland with safety and security,” Husson emphasized. “Repatriation will only be possible with genuine international protection.”
Aside from a handful of aid commitments, Member State interventions offered well-crafted statements on justice, accountability, safety, and Rohingyas’ rights, but stopped short of concrete commitments. Notably, some States announced critical financial contributions for aid for Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh, including over $60 million from the U.S. and $36 million from the U.K. Despite these commitments, the Joint Response Plan continues to face a funding shortfall of hundreds of millions of dollars. Without further aid contributions, the U.N. will be forced to slash access to basic necessities in the camps.
The U.S., in announcing its funding commitment, stated that in response it “expect[s] meaningful policy changes” from Bangladesh to enable Rohingya refugees to have “livelihood opportunities”—a change that Rohingya activists and rights groups have long called for since refugees are not officially allowed to work. The U.S.’s strong call to Bangladesh followed Bangladeshi Chief Adviser Dr. Muhammad Yunus’s reiteration that “we do not afford to allow employment of Rohingyas inside Bangladesh” due to the country’s ongoing challenges of “unemployment and poverty.”
Dr. Yunus also outlined seven points towards a “sustainable resolution of the crisis,” including to “devise a practical roadmap for safe and dignified repatriation.” However, other key points were overshadowed by his strong call for states to work towards “expeditious repatriation to Rakhine.” Despite overwhelming evidence that Rakhine State remains unsafe, Dr. Yunus proposed, “As an immediate step, those who recently crossed into Bangladesh escaping conflict must be allowed to repatriate.”
A Turning Point: States Must Take Concrete Action
Rohingya community members have long emphasized that their ultimate goal is repatriation to Myanmar. However, as Rohingya activists, High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk, and others emphasized during the High-level Conference, all parts of Myanmar are currently unsafe, including Rakhine State. Rohingya must be protected from forced repatriations to Myanmar and returns in violation of the principle of non-refoulement until the situation allows for voluntary, safe, dignified, and sustainable returns. As repatriation options are explored, dialogue regarding future repatriation must provide opportunities for meaningful and inclusive participation from members of the Rohingya community.
While voluntary, safe, and dignified returns to Myanmar remain impossible, and acknowledging the pressures that hosting over 1 million refugees places on Bangladesh, the Interim Government of Bangladesh should ensure that any new refugees fleeing Myanmar may enter Bangladesh and ensure they receive humanitarian assistance in collaboration with the UN.
In order to facilitate the continued provision of critical humanitarian assistance to Rohingya refugees, the international community must go beyond the funding commitments announced at the High-level Conference and continue to increase aid to meet the funding shortfalls of the Joint Response Plan. With the mounting aid crisis, Rohingya refugees face cuts to food rations and health care, decreased access to education, and continued restrictions on freedom of movement and livelihood opportunities. The Interim Government of Bangladesh should reduce camp restrictions impeding movement and access to livelihood opportunities and formal education following the Burmese curriculum. Such opportunities are crucial to improving conditions in the camps, reducing aid dependency, empowering Rohingya to find means to better support their families, and reducing the risk of criminal activity.
States across the region should recognize the Rohingya as refugees, provide them with legal status and the right to work, end detentions, and respect the principle of non-refoulement. The international community should also facilitate third-country resettlement for Rohingya in coordination with receiving countries and the UNHRC, the U.N. refugee agency, to expand opportunities for refugees to voluntarily resettle.
The international community must continue pursuing avenues to hold both the Myanmar military and the Arakan Army accountable for the atrocity crimes committed against the Rohingya. The U.N. Security Council should refer the Myanmar situation to the International Criminal Court, and U.N. Member States should exercise universal jurisdiction to support criminal prosecutions of perpetrators in national courts. U.N. Member States should stop the transfer of and impose an embargo on jet fuel, arms, dual-use equipment, and surveillance technologies to the Myanmar military, as repeatedly called for by the U.N. Office of the High Commissioner on Human Rights and rights groups.
States must isolate the military junta and refrain from giving it political legitimacy. In particular, states should reject the junta’s plans to hold national elections in December as illegitimate. Opposition parties have been banned and jailed, and the military controls only a fraction of the country’s territory.
Following the High-level Conference, it is vital that diverse voices from across the Rohingya community are not only included in but lead discussions about sustainable approaches to accountability, protection, aid, repatriation, and other issues that impact their future.
“Let this conference be a historic turning point,” Wai Wai Nu urged those gathered at the Conference. “The end of missed opportunities, and the beginning of lasting solutions.”
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