Background 32 In 2012, a series of violent incidents between Buddhist and Muslim residents in Rakhine State escalated into state-sanctioned, coordinated attacks on Rohingya and other Muslims in 13 of 17 townships in Rakhine State. At the time of writing, the Government of Myanmar continues to confine more than 128,000 Rohingya displaced by the 2012 violence to 24 internment camps located in five townships of Rakhine State.6 In 2016 and 2017, following two coordinated attacks against security forces in Rakhine State by previously unknown Rohingya militants, the Myanmar Army, police, and civilian perpetrators committed massacres, mass rape, and mass arson attacks against Rohingya men, women, and children in the three townships of northern Rakhine State, forcing nearly 800,000 Rohingya into Bangladesh, where more than one million Rohingya remain confined to ill-equipped refugee camps at the time of writing.7 Fortify Rights published a 160-page report in July 2018 detailing how Myanmar authorities made “extensive and systematic preparations” for attacks against Rohingya civilians in Rakhine State in 2017 that constituted genocide and crimes against humanity.8 The report named 22 military and police officials involved in the attacks, whom should be investigated and possibly prosecuted for genocide and crimes against humanity.9 At the time of writing, the Government of Myanmar is implementing and further pursuing policies that violate the human rights of Rohingya in Rakhine State. The government continues to deny Rohingya equal access to citizenship and rights to freedom of movement and livelihoods.10 The Myanmar authorities have also spread or failed to counter dangerous speech, suggesting Rohingya do not exist, do not belong in Myanmar, and that the people claiming to be Rohingya pose an existential threat to the country.11 6 U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), “Myanmar: IDP Sites in Rakhine State (as of January 31, 2019),” February 18, 2019, https://themimu.info/sites/themimu.info/files/documents/Affected_Map_ IDP_Rakhine_OCHA_Jan2019_A4.pdf (accessed August 23, 2019). See also, “Myanmar Government in Talks to Close Four More Rohingya IDP Camps in Rakhine State,” Radio Free Asia, July 6, 2018, https://www.rfa.org/english/news/ myanmar/myanmar-government-in-talks-to-close-more-rohingya-idp-camps-07062018162910.html/ (accessed August 23, 2019). 7 Attacks in October 2016 displaced at least 94,000 Rohingya and attacks in August 2017 displaced more than 700,000. See, Fortify Rights, “They Gave Them Long Swords”: Preparations for Genocide and Crimes Against Humanity Against Rohingya Muslims in Rakhine State, Myanmar, July 2018, https://www.fortifyrights.org/downloads/Fortify_Rights_ Long_Swords_July_2018.pdf (accessed August 23, 2019). See also, Fortify Rights and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, “They Tried to Kill Us All”: Atrocity Crimes against Rohingya Muslims in Rakhine State, Myanmar, November 2017, http://www.fortifyrights.org/downloads/THEY_TRIED_TO_KILL_US_ALL_Atrocity_Crimes_ against_Rohingya_Muslims_Nov_2017.pdf (accessed August 23, 2019); Human Rights Council, Report of the Detailed Findings of the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar, U.N. Doc. A/HRC/39/CRP.2, September 17, 2018, https://www.ohchr.org/Documents/HRBodies/HRCouncil/FFM-Myanmar/A_HRC_39_CRP.2.pdf (accessed August 23, 2019); The Public International Law and Policy Group, Documenting Atrocity Crimes Committed Against the Rohingya in Myanmar’s Rakhine State, December 2018, https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5900b58e1b631bffa367167e/t/5 c058268c2241b5f71a0535e/1543864941782/PILPG+-+ROHINGYA+REPORT+-+Factual+Findings+and+Legal+Analys is+-+3+Dec+2018+%281%29.pdf (accessed on August 23, 2019); Burmese Rohingya Organization U.K., “I Thought I Would Die”: Physical Evidence of Atrocities Against the Rohingya, November 2017 https://burmacampaign.org.uk/media/ I-THOUGHT-I-WOULD-DIE-BROUK-Report.pdf (August 23, 2019); Azeem Ibrahim, The Rohingyas: Inside Myanmar’s Hidden Genocide, (London: Hurst, 2016). 8 9 Fortify Rights, “They Gave Them Long Swords.” The list of 22 names of police and military officials includes Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, Commander-in-Chief of the Myanmar military. Id. at p. 134. In 2015, in partnership with the Lowenstein International Human Rights Clinic at Yale Law School, Fortify Rights published one of the first reports focusing on the crime of genocide against Rohingya, also documenting the decades-long denial of citizenship. Fortify Rights and the Lowenstein International Human Rights Law Clinic, Yale Law School, Persecution of the Rohingya Muslims: Is Genocide Occurring in Myanmar’s Rakhine State? A Legal Analysis, October 2015, https://www.fortifyrights.org/downloads/Yale_Persecution_of_the_ Rohingya_October_2015.pdf (accessed August 23, 2019). 10 Fortify Rights, “Myanmar: Protect Civilians Trapped in Armed Conflict in Rakhine State, Ensure Humanitarian Access,” June 4, 2019, https://www.fortifyrights.org/publication-20190604.html (accessed August 23, 2019). 11 Francis Wade, Myanmar’s Enemy Within: Buddhist Violence and the Making of a Muslim “Other,” (London: Zed Books, 2017); Christian Solidarity Worldwide, “Burma’s Identity Crisis: How Ethno-Religious Nationalism has Led to