New York – Members of the Rohingya community who fled violence in Myanmar have addressed a United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) conference seeking to bring attention to the suffering of the persecuted Muslim minority, as fighting continues in Myanmar’s Rakhine state.
Maung Sawyeddollah, the founder of the Rohingya Student Network, addressed his fellow Rohingya in a livestreamed speech in the vast UNGA hall in New York City on Tuesday, telling them: “Dear brothers and sisters, you are not forgotten. You might feel that the world doesn’t see your suffering. Rohingya see you.”
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“Now this message is for the world leaders and the United Nations: It has already been more than eight years since the Rohingya genocide was exposed. Where is justice for the Rohingya? Where?” Sawyeddollah asked.
He then held up a photograph of the bodies of several people lying in a river, who he said had been killed in a drone attack by Myanmar’s rebel Arakan Army in August 2024.
“These are not isolated cases; they are part of a systematic campaign,” said Sawyeddollah, a student who spent seven years in Cox’s Bazar refugee camp in southeastern Bangladesh after fleeing Myanmar in 2017.
“Why is there no prevention of these inhumane atrocities by Arakan Army?” he asked.
Wai Wai Nu, the executive director of the Women’s Peace Network-Myanmar, who also addressed the high-level UNGA meeting, told Al Jazeera that the event was a “historic moment”, which she hoped would “draw the attention back to the UN on the issue of Rohingya”.
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Wai Wai Nu used her speech to highlight several pressing priorities, including that humanitarian aid has been blocked from flowing to Rakhine State, where Rohingya communities are located, an issue she said was discussed on the sidelines of the conference.
“If we get this, the conference is worth it,” she said.
“We need to save Rohingya inside Rakhine state.”
Nu also told Al Jazeera that “many member states also emphasised or highlighted addressing the root causes, and advancing justice and accountability”, in their speeches.
However, she added, the UN event also illustrated that a “coherent and cohesive approach” to finding a solution to the Rohingya crisis is “lacking leadership and coordination, including in the ASEAN region“, a grouping of states in Southeast Asia.
She also told Al Jazeera that it was important for countries to implement targeted sanctions on Myanmar and “all the perpetrators, including military and other armed sectors, including Arakan Army”, as well as a “global arms embargo” to protect the Rohingya.
Speaking on behalf of the UN secretary-general, Chef de Cabinet Earle Courtenay Rattray, told the meeting of UN member states that “massive aid cuts” have further worsened conditions for the Rohingya, including more than 1 million who fled ethnic cleansing by the military in Myanmar and who have sought refuge in neighbouring Bangladesh.
“In the past 18 months alone, 150,000 Rohingya have fled to Bangladesh, which has generously kept its borders open and given them refuge,” Rattray said.
Yet, while Rattray said Bangladesh has shown “remarkable hospitality and generosity”, the chief adviser of Bangladesh, Muhammad Yunus, said his country is struggling to continue assisting Rohingya refugees, eight years into the crisis.
“Eight years since the genocide began, the plight of the Rohingya continues,” said Yunus, who jointly convened the meeting as well as another similar summit in Cox’s Bazar last month, to try to bring attention back to the plight of the Rohingya in Myanmar and Bangladesh.
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“Bangladesh is a victim of the crisis,” said Yunus.
“We are forced to bear huge financial, social and environmental costs,” he said.
“As funding declines, the only peaceful option is to begin their repatriation.”
“The Rohingya have consistently pronounced their desire to go back home”, he said, adding that “as an immediate step, those who recently crossed into Bangladesh escaping conflict must be allowed to repatriate”.
Yunus also told the meeting that, unlike Thailand, Bangladesh could not offer work rights to Rohingya, given his own country’s “developmental challenges, including unemployment and poverty”.
Charles Harder, the United States special envoy for best future generations, was among several speakers to thank Bangladesh and Thailand for hosting Rohingya refugees.
He also announced that the US would “provide more than $60m in assistance for Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh”, which he said would be tied to Bangladesh making “meaningful” changes to allow access to work.
But funding refugees in Bangladesh was “not a burden the United States will bear indefinitely”, he said.
“It is long past time for other governments and actors in the region to develop sustainable solutions for Rohingya,” Harder said.
About 50 other UN member states also addressed the meeting on Tuesday, although few announced specific measures they were taking, aside from the United Kingdom, which announced $36m in aid for Rohingya refugees.
Dawda Jallow, The Gambia’s minister of justice, also addressed the meeting, saying that his country hopes to see a judgement from the International Court of Justice (ICJ) “soon after” an oral hearing scheduled for January next year on its case accusing Myanmar of perpetrating genocide against its Rohingya population.
“We filed our case in November 2019, almost six years ago. Now, we are preparing for the oral hearing on the merits in this case, which the court has scheduled for mid-January 2026,” Jallow said.
“The Gambia will present its case as to why Myanmar is responsible for the Rohingya genocide and must make reparations to its victims,” he added.
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