In March 2017, the United Nations Human Rights Council decided to urgently dispatch an Independent International Fact-Finding Mission to establish the facts and circumstances of the alleged human rights violations by military and security forces, and abuses, in Myanmar, in particular in Rakhine State, with a view to ensuring full accountability for perpetrators and justice for victims.

In March this year, the team, including Australian human rights expert Chris Sidoti, said in its interim report to the Human Rights Council that it had collected “concrete and overwhelming” evidence of “human rights violations of the most serious kind in all likelihood amounting to crimes under international law”.

Chris Sidoti will discuss the evidence gathered in the series of missions to Bangladesh, Malaysia and Thailand, the responses of the UN system to the crisis, the urgent need in the refugee camps as monsoon season approaches - and the way forward from here. The Fact-Finding Mission will present its final report to the Human Rights Council in September.

Venue: UNSW Law Staff Common Room, Level 2, Law Building UNSW (F8) Venue map
 

Photo: © UNHCR/Roger Arnold