Statement by Displaced International on Rohingya Genocide Remembrance Day
This week, as Rohingya communities worldwide marked Rohingya Genocide Remembrance Day, Displaced International (DI) stands in solidarity with Rohingya survivors, families, community leaders, and advocates in Myanmar, Bangladesh, across the region, and throughout the global diaspora. Nine years after the Myanmar military launched its devastating campaign in northern Rakhine State on 25 August 2017, remembrance must mean more than honoring those killed. It must compel the international community to protect those still at risk, restore the rights taken from them, and deliver justice for crimes whose consequences remain painfully alive.
More than 740,000 Rohingya fled to Bangladesh following the August 2017 military operations. Médecins Sans Frontières estimated that, during the first month alone, at least 6,700 Rohingya were violently killed, including at least 730 children under five. The United Nations documented the partial or total destruction of at least 392 Rohingya villages, alongside widespread killings, forced displacement, and systematic sexual and gender-based violence. These figures can never convey the full human cost: families separated, children orphaned, homes and places of worship erased, and generations deprived of security, citizenship, and belonging.
A Crisis That Continues to Grow
The Rohingya crisis did not end with the 2017 exodus. As of 31 July 2026, Bangladesh was hosting 1,202,034 Rohingya refugees—1,168,375 in Cox’s Bazar and 33,659 on Bhasan Char. This population includes approximately 150,000 people who fled renewed violence in Rakhine State beginning in early 2024. Bangladesh and its local host communities deserve sustained recognition and international support for carrying a responsibility that must be shared globally.
The 2026 Myanmar humanitarian plan estimates that approximately 550,000 Rohingya remain in Rakhine State, including some 235,000 internally displaced people. Many remain stateless and face severe restrictions on movement, livelihoods, education, health care, and humanitarian assistance. Renewed conflict has placed them between the Myanmar military and the Arakan Army, with the UN Human Rights Office reporting widespread and systematic violations and abuses against Rohingya civilians. No armed actor should be permitted to exploit Rohingya vulnerability or commit new atrocities under the cover of Myanmar’s wider conflict.
Declining Aid, Deepening Desperation
Humanitarian assistance in Bangladesh is shrinking just as needs are growing. The 2026 Joint Response Plan seeks $710.5 million to assist as many as 1.56 million refugees and members of affected host communities—26% less than the 2025 appeal and only the minimum considered necessary to maintain essential services. In June, UNHCR reported that the appeal was approximately 60% funded.
All Rohingya households assessed under the World Food Programme’s assistance system are food insecure. Under the approach introduced in April 2026, monthly food assistance ranges from $7 to $12 per person in Cox’s Bazar, depending on assessed need. Reduced aid, limited livelihood opportunities, insecurity, trafficking, and interrupted education are placing women, children, older people, and persons with disabilities at even greater risk. Desperation is also driving dangerous maritime movements: nearly 900 Rohingya were reported dead or missing at sea in 2025, the deadliest year recorded for such journeys.
Return Must Be Voluntary, Safe, and Rights-Based
Rohingya refugees have repeatedly expressed their desire to return home. But return cannot be reduced to physically moving people across a border. It must be voluntary, informed, safe, dignified, and sustainable, with independent international monitoring.
No repatriation should proceed until Rohingya people are recognized by their chosen identity; guaranteed citizenship and equal protection under the law; permitted to move freely; protected from violence, detention, and forced recruitment; and able to reclaim or receive restitution for their homes, land, and property. Rohingya women, young people, community representatives, and persons with disabilities must participate meaningfully in every decision affecting their future. Policies made about the Rohingya without the Rohingya will neither build trust nor produce a durable solution.
Justice Delayed Must Not Become Justice Denied
There has been movement toward accountability, but no senior perpetrator has yet faced justice for the 2017 atrocities. In January 2026, the International Court of Justice concluded public hearings on the merits in The Gambia v. Myanmar, and its judges are now deliberating whether Myanmar violated the Genocide Convention. The International Criminal Court Prosecutor has also filed an application for an arrest warrant for Senior General Min Aung Hlaing for alleged crimes against humanity involving the deportation and persecution of the Rohingya.
The Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar continues to preserve evidence and support international accountability proceedings. States must provide these mechanisms with political, financial, and legal support; protect survivors and witnesses; pursue appropriate cases under universal jurisdiction; and prevent weapons, financing, or other assistance from enabling further atrocity crimes.
DI’s Call to Action
As an organization led, operated, and managed by people with lived experience of displacement, DI calls for:
- Immediate civilian protection and humanitarian access inside Myanmar, including an end to attacks, forced recruitment, arbitrary detention, and restrictions on life-saving assistance.
- Full and predictable humanitarian funding for Rohingya refugees and Bangladeshi host communities, including food, health care, education, shelter, protection, and livelihood programs that strengthen self-reliance.
- Strict respect for non-refoulement, with no forced, coerced, or premature return to Myanmar.
- Restoration of citizenship and fundamental rights, including recognition of Rohingya identity, freedom of movement, equal access to public services, and restitution of land and property.
- Coordinated regional responsibility-sharing, including ASEAN diplomacy, maritime search and rescue, safe disembarkation, protection against trafficking, and expanded resettlement and complementary pathways for those most at risk.
- Accountability without further delay through the ICJ, ICC, IIMM, and competent national courts.
“Rohingya families survived a campaign intended to drive them from their homeland and erase their identity. Their survival must not now become a sentence to permanent statelessness, dependence, and exile. Nine years of remembrance without effective protection and justice is not enough,” said Ambassador Ashraf Haidari, DI Founder and President.
“The world must fully support Bangladesh and other host communities while working directly with Rohingya people to restore their citizenship, rights, security, and ability to return home. Remembrance becomes meaningful only when it prevents renewed atrocities, holds perpetrators accountable, and enables survivors to rebuild their lives in freedom and dignity.”
Displaced International reaffirms its solidarity with the Rohingya people and its commitment to amplifying their voices. On this ninth remembrance, the international community must replace fatigue with responsibility, impunity with justice, and indefinite displacement with a rights-based path toward a secure future.
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