The ‘NEVER AGAIN’ Association has welcomed the International Court of Justice ruling on the case concerning genocide against the Rohingya minority committed in Myanmar (Burma).
The
ICJ, based in The Hague (Netherlands), ruled on 23 January that
Myanmar must protect the Rohingya population. The court ordered
Myanmar to take emergency measures to prevent genocide against the
Rohingya.
Co-founder
of ‘NEVER AGAIN’ Rafal Pankowski was present in The Hague on the
day of the ruling. He said: - ‘We welcome the ICJ
decision and hope justice for the Rohingya will be delivered.
Myanmar’s greatness is to be found in her diversity and the
Rohingya must be treated with respect, their rights as citizens must
be fully restored, their suffering must be recognized and
compensated. Symbolically, the ICJ
ruling was announced just days before the 75th anniversary of the
liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau on 27th January, the International
Holocaust Remembrance Day. Genocide and genocide denial must
not be ignored by the international
community.’
The Rohingya have been described by the United Nations as the world’s most persecuted ethnic minority.
Members
of the ‘NEVER AGAIN’ Association had visited Myanmar in
solidarity with the local human rights activists in August 2018. In
November 2019, representatives of ‘NEVER AGAIN’ Rafal
Pankowski and Natalia Sineaeva visited the
Rohingya refugee camp in Cox’s Bazaar (Bangladesh). During the
visit, representatives of ‘NEVER AGAIN’ met with refugees as well
as medical personnel and civil society representatives.
Also
on 23 January, in the run up to the International Holocaust
Remembrance Day, the ‘NEVER AGAIN’ Association’s representative
Anna Tatar delivered a keynote speech at a conference on ‘The Rise
of Hate Crimes and the Role of Youth in Countering Them’,
co-organized with Warsaw’s Collegium Civitas university and the
Youth for Peace student group under the heading ‘Varsovians against
Violence’. Students coming from numerous countries and continents
demonstrated their solidarity with the victims of hate crimes and
hate speech in Poland and elsewhere.
The ‘NEVER AGAIN’
Association is an independent organization established in Warsaw in
1996. It has
campaigned against racism, antisemitism and xenophobia, for peace,
intercultural dialogue and human rights both in Poland and
internationally.
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