The Arakan Rohingya National Organisation (ARNO) welcomes the adoption of the resolution “Situation of human rights of Rohingya Muslims and other minorities in Myanmar” (A/HRC/62/L.20) by the sixty-second session of the UN Human Rights Council on 6 July 2026.
This resolution keeps the plight of our people firmly on the international agenda. It rightly calls for international, independent, and transparent investigations to hold perpetrators to account, and it recognises a fact our community knows painfully well: more than six years after the International Court of Justice ordered provisional measures on 23 January 2020, Rohingya in Arakan continue to suffer targeted killings, indiscriminate violence, airstrikes, shelling, burning, landmines and unexploded ordnance. The resolution also highlights another sad reality, not a single Rohingya has returned through the bilateral repatriation mechanism between Bangladesh and Myanmar, because the conditions for safe, voluntary, dignified and sustainable return simply do not exist.
ARNO extends its sincere gratitude to the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) for leading this resolution, and in particular to Pakistan for tabling it on behalf of the OIC Group in Geneva. We thank the United Kingdom and the member states of the European Union for joining consensus and for their clear insistence on accountability, and we express our deep appreciation to the People’s Republic of Bangladesh, which continues to shelter more than one million of our people with remarkable generosity despite immense pressure on its own resources. We also pay tribute to The Gambia for continuing to pursue the genocide case against Myanmar at the International Court of Justice, and to Saudi Arabia, Türkiye, Qatar, Malaysia and all OIC member states that have sustained diplomatic, legal and humanitarian support for the Rohingya cause over many years.
But the situation on the ground has not changed
While we welcome this resolution, ARNO must state plainly that high level discussions in Geneva have not yet translated into safety or peace in Arakan. The resolution’s language remains focused on the Myanmar military, yet the reality today is that most of Arakan (Rakhine State) is no longer under military control — it is under the control of the Arakan Army. For the Rohingya who remain, the change of duty bearer has brought zero relief. Our people continue to face arbitrary arrests, extortion, forced displacement, restrictions on movement, denial of identity, and violence at the hands of the Arakan Army, alongside continued airstrikes by the Myanmar military. Villages have been burned, youths have fled conscription, and families returning from Bangladesh have been detained or turned back.
Accountability must therefore apply to all perpetrators – the Myanmar military, which bears primary responsibility for decades of institutionalised persecution and the ongoing genocide and the Arakan Army, whose ongoing abuses against Rohingya civilians must be documented, condemned and prosecuted with equal rigour.
ARNO calls on the international community to:
- Ensure that all accountability mechanisms, including the Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar and the ICJ proceedings, address violations committed by the Arakan Army as well as the Myanmar military;
- Press the Arakan Army to end all abuses against Rohingya civilians, recognise the Rohingya identity, and guarantee our people’s safety, freedom of movement and access to humanitarian aid in the territories it controls;
- Sustain and increase humanitarian funding for the Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh, and other third countries, whose rations and services have been repeatedly cut;
- Make clear that any future of Arakan — under whatever administration — must include the recognition of Rohingya identity and the full restoration of citizenship, rights and dignity in our ancestral homeland.
The Rohingya do not ask for charity. We ask for justice, citizenship and a safe return home. This resolution is a step; it must not become a substitute for action.
For more information, please contact:
Arakan Rohingya National Organisation (ARNO)
Email: arno@rohingya.org | info@rohingya.org