Education crucial if Rohingya are to avoid ‘lost generation’

ARAB NEWS

Dr. Azeem Ibrahim
January 10, 2021

Noor and Aziz will be part of new educational content to support children and families affected by the Rohingya refugee crisis. (@sesamestreet)

A heartwarming initiative from the creators of “Sesame Street” shows that the international community is finally beginning to understand how to effectively approach the perennial issue of education for refugees. Sesame Workshop, the nonprofit that creates the early education TV show, has unveiled Aziz and Noor, two new Muppet characters who are twin brother and sister Rohingya children.

This will be the first time that Rohingya children will have seen anyone like them in a mainstream media production. What is more, the two characters will appear alongside Elmo and other beloved characters in shows in the Rohingya language that are dedicated to topics in math, science and health, among others. This is all part of a curriculum developed by Sesame Workshop, alongside a number of other high-profile charities, specifically for Rohingya children.

The UK should join the ICJ case against the Myanmar genocide

ARAB NEWS

Dr. Azeem Ibrahim
December 31, 2020

Rohingya refugees fleeing genocide in Myanmar cross into Bangladesh on September 10, 2017. (Shutterstock image)

The ongoing case on behalf of the Rohingya people at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) against Myanmar for genocide has been initiated and championed by the small nation of The Gambia and has broken new ground in international law for being the first case of its kind brought by one UN country against another. In truth, all signatories to the UN Genocide Convention have the ability, and indeed the moral responsibility, to prosecute the crime of genocide wherever it may occur. And the UK should lend its full backing to the action by The Gambia.

This step seems to have become more likely with over 100 members of parliament signing a letter addressed to the government that the UK should be joining the legal action led by The Gambia. Among the signatories is the former UK Foreign Secretary, Rt Hon Jeremy Hunt MP, which lends further weight to this initiative.

The world must hold ‘democratic’ Myanmar to account

ARAB NEWS
Dr. Azeem Ibrahim
November 23, 2020

An exhausted Rohingya refugee woman touches the shore after crossing the Bay of Bengal, in Shah Porir Dwip, Bangladesh, Sept. 11, 2017. (Reuters)

The Rohingya people have faced sustained persecution in Burma/Myanmar since it gained independence in 1948. At the core of this discrimination lies the false narrative that they have no place in the ethnic mix of the country because, it is alleged, they migrated from what is now Bangladesh in the 19th century.

At its most benign, this falsity resulted in them being denied full citizenship in 1948 (though they were granted conventional civic rights). By the 1970s, the country’s military dictatorship began taking a series of steps to strip them of even this limited status and, as a result of several campaigns of violence, expelled many to Bangladesh.