New York – Members of the Rohingya group who fled violence in Myanmar have addressed a United Nations Normal Meeting (UNGA) convention looking for to convey consideration to the struggling of the persecuted Muslim minority, as combating continues in Myanmar’s Rakhine state.
Maung Sawyeddollah, the founding father of the Rohingya Scholar Community, addressed his fellow Rohingya in a livestreamed speech within the huge UNGA corridor in New York Metropolis on Tuesday, telling them: “Pricey brothers and sisters, you aren’t forgotten. You would possibly really feel that the world doesn’t see your struggling. Rohingya see you.”
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“Now this message is for the world leaders and the United Nations: It has already been greater than eight years because the Rohingya genocide was uncovered. The place is justice for the Rohingya? The place?” Sawyeddollah requested.
He then held up {a photograph} of the our bodies of a number of individuals mendacity in a river, who he mentioned had been killed in a drone assault by Myanmar’s insurgent Arakan Military in August 2024.
“These will not be remoted circumstances; they’re a part of a scientific marketing campaign,” mentioned Sawyeddollah, a scholar who spent seven years in Cox’s Bazar refugee camp in southeastern Bangladesh after fleeing Myanmar in 2017.
“Why is there no prevention of those inhumane atrocities by Arakan Military?” he requested.
Wai Wai Nu, the chief director of the Girls’s Peace Community-Myanmar, who additionally addressed the high-level UNGA assembly, advised Al Jazeera that the occasion was a “historic second”, which she hoped would “draw the eye again to the UN on the difficulty of Rohingya”.
Wai Wai Nu used her speech to spotlight a number of urgent priorities, together with that humanitarian support has been blocked from flowing to Rakhine State, the place Rohingya communities are situated, a problem she mentioned was mentioned on the sidelines of the convention.
“If we get this, the convention is price it,” she mentioned.
“We have to save Rohingya inside Rakhine state.”
I delivered opening remarks on the #UN Normal Meeting convention on the Rohingya and different minorities in Myanmar this morning.
I urged ending impunity, fast motion to guard the #Rohingya, advancing justice,& addressing root causes for lasting options.#UNGA80 #Myanmar pic.twitter.com/PtSqCf2afM
— Wai Wai Nu (@waiwainu) September 30, 2025
Nu additionally advised Al Jazeera that “many member states additionally emphasised or highlighted addressing the basis causes, and advancing justice and accountability”, of their speeches.
Nonetheless, she added, the UN occasion additionally illustrated {that a} “coherent and cohesive method” to discovering an answer to the Rohingya disaster is “missing management and coordination, together with within the ASEAN area“, a grouping of states in Southeast Asia.
She additionally advised Al Jazeera that it was vital for nations to implement focused sanctions on Myanmar and “all of the perpetrators, together with army and different armed sectors, together with Arakan Military”, in addition to a “world arms embargo” to guard the Rohingya.
‘Huge support cuts’
Talking on behalf of the UN secretary-general, Chef de Cupboard Earle Courtenay Rattray, advised the assembly of UN member states that “huge support cuts” have additional worsened situations for the Rohingya, together with greater than 1 million who fled ethnic cleaning by the army in Myanmar and who’ve sought refuge in neighbouring Bangladesh.
“Previously 18 months alone, 150,000 Rohingya have fled to Bangladesh, which has generously saved its borders open and given them refuge,” Rattray mentioned.
But, whereas Rattray mentioned Bangladesh has proven “outstanding hospitality and generosity”, the chief adviser of Bangladesh, Muhammad Yunus, mentioned his nation is struggling to proceed helping Rohingya refugees, eight years into the disaster.
“Eight years because the genocide started, the plight of the Rohingya continues,” mentioned Yunus, who collectively convened the assembly in addition to one other comparable summit in Cox’s Bazar final month, to attempt to convey consideration again to the plight of the Rohingya in Myanmar and Bangladesh.
“Bangladesh is a sufferer of the disaster,” mentioned Yunus.
“We’re pressured to bear enormous monetary, social and environmental prices,” he mentioned.
“As funding declines, the one peaceable choice is to start their repatriation.”
“The Rohingya have persistently pronounced their want to return dwelling”, he mentioned, including that “as an instantaneous step, those that not too long ago crossed into Bangladesh escaping battle have to be allowed to repatriate”.
Yunus additionally advised the assembly that, in contrast to Thailand, Bangladesh couldn’t provide work rights to Rohingya, given his personal nation’s “developmental challenges, together with unemployment and poverty”.
Charles Tougher, the US particular envoy for finest future generations, was amongst a number of audio system to thank Bangladesh and Thailand for internet hosting Rohingya refugees.
He additionally introduced that the US would “present greater than $60m in help for Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh”, which he mentioned can be tied to Bangladesh making “significant” adjustments to permit entry to work.
However funding refugees in Bangladesh was “not a burden the US will bear indefinitely”, he mentioned.
“It’s gone time for different governments and actors within the area to develop sustainable options for Rohingya,” Tougher mentioned.
About 50 different UN member states additionally addressed the assembly on Tuesday, though few introduced particular measures they had been taking, other than the UK, which introduced $36m in support for Rohingya refugees.
Dawda Jallow, The Gambia’s minister of justice, additionally addressed the assembly, saying that his nation hopes to see a judgement from the Worldwide Court docket of Justice (ICJ) “quickly after” an oral listening to scheduled for January subsequent yr on its case accusing Myanmar of perpetrating genocide in opposition to its Rohingya inhabitants.
“We filed our case in November 2019, virtually six years in the past. Now, we’re making ready for the oral listening to on the deserves on this case, which the courtroom has scheduled for mid-January 2026,” Jallow mentioned.
“The Gambia will current its case as to why Myanmar is chargeable for the Rohingya genocide and should make reparations to its victims,” he added.
