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Organization: Lawyers’ Rights Watch Canada
Item 4: Interactive Dialogue with the Special Rapporteur on Myanmar
Date: 11 March 2019
Speaker: Ms. Salma El Hosseiny (ISHR)
Oral Statement to the 40th Session of the UN Human Rights Council from Lawyers’ Rights Watch Canada (LRWC) and International Service for Human Rights (ISHR), NGOs in special consultative status
Thank you Madam Vice President.
I am here with Hamida Khatun, and I am reading this statement on her behalf.
Salam alaikum. My name is Hamida Khatun, I come from Buthidaung in Burma. I am Rohingya. I had to memorise my speech today because, like many Rohingya women, I cannot read or write. I was denied an education.
In August 2017 I fled Burma to Bangladesh when my village was attacked. My Rohingya brothers and sisters were killed. My husband and mother were killed.
I am the only Rohingya woman that could leave Bangladesh to tell you what happened to hundreds of thousands of us.
I am here on behalf of Shanti Mohila,[1] a group of Rohingya women who also fled the violence who have come together to raise our voices. The name Shanti Mohila means peace women and we want peace in Myanmar.
I have three requests of the international community:
First: Justice including compensation;
Second: To return home in safety and security including citizenship;
Third: Access to education.
Thank you, Madam Vice President.
[1] Shanti Mohila (“Peace Women”) are a Rohingya survivor’s group. Established in December 2017 the women banded together following their displacement as a result of the August 2017 clearance operations perpetrated by the Tatmadaw (Myanmar military) that led to the displacement of over 700 000 Rohingya. The women range from adolescents to elderly women. Many of the women in Shanti Mohila are widows having lost their husbands in the violence. Most of the women have children or grandchildren they are responsible for. The Shanti Mohila are supported by Legal Action Worldwide (LAW), London, UK.
