65 Fortify Rights also spoke to Rohingya aid workers who had previously worked for international humanitarian organizations in Rakhine State, who said their respective organizations did not allow the use of the term “Rohingya” within the organization.237 One Rohingya aid worker said: “Talking about being a Rohingya was not practiced. We did not feel comfortable to call each other Rohingya.”238 Another Rohingya aid worker, 37, told Fortify Rights: “I was not able to say I was Rohingya in my place of work. I was unable to say it at meetings or to people I would work with. As Rohingya staff, we could talk to each other, but it was not allowed normally.”239 An international aid worker working with the same organization in northern Rakhine State in 2017 said that the policy extended to international staff members as well: “It was very sensitive to even identify as Rohingya within [the organization]. There was a policy that was from the very top where we could not use the term Rohingya.”240 An internal assessment of an international humanitarian organization working in northern Rakhine State conducted before military-led attacks in northern Rakhine State in 2017 found that “67.6 percent of Rohingya staff did not feel free to use their preferred ethnic name in [name of organization redacted].”241 In contrast, 100 percent of non-Rohingya staff felt free to use their preferred ethnic name in the organization.242 The report concluded that the organization caused mental stress for Rohingya staff.243 The assessment also said that the “discrepancy between Rohingya and NonRohingya staff seems to contradict the [organization’s] core principle of Non-Discrimination.”244 Current senior staff of three humanitarian organizations operational in northern Rakhine State spoke to Fortify Rights about an ongoing “culture of silence” and “an environment of self-censoring.”245 A June 2018 report by FieldView Solutions—an independent organization that analyzes and advances best practices for organizations working in conflict areas and regions with significant human rights violations—found that the practice among Myanmar-based international humanitarian organizations in “avoiding the word ‘Rohingya’ [is] assisting in the destruction of ethnic identity.”246 The report continues: “The label shift became so ingrained that international actors in Myanmar go so far as to avoid the word even when talking only among each other about the Rohingya, and when talking to the Rohingya themselves.”247 From at least 2012 to the time of writing, the U.N. response to the citizenship verification process, including the NVCs, has been mixed. Some senior U.N. officials, including the U.N. Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the experts appointed to the FFM, and U.N. Special Rapporteurs, have been outspoken about problems with the NVC process and attendant human rights violations. However, other U.N. officials publicly and privately endorsed the NVC process and 237 Fortify Rights interviews with Z.A., E.F., E.I., F.E., and G.E. in 2018 and 2019. See also, three communications with senior management of humanitarian organizations operational in northern Rakhine State, August 15, 16, and 19, 2019; Liam Mahony, Fieldview Solutions, Time to Break Old Habits: Shifting from Complicity to Protection of the Rohingya in Myanmar, June 2018, http://www.fieldviewsolutions.org/fv-publications/Time_to_break_old_habits.pdf (accessed August 23, 2019). 238 Fortify Rights interview with F.F., Cox’s Bazar District, Bangladesh, June 17, 2019. 239 Fortify Rights interview with E.I., Cox’s Bazar District, Bangladesh, June 16, 2019. 240 Fortify Rights interview with A.W.H., undisclosed location, July 3, 2019. 241 International humanitarian organization [name redacted], Ethnic Names Preferences Assessment: Myanmar North Ratkhin State (Maungdaw & Buthidaung), August 2017, on file with Fortify Rights. 242 Ibid. One Rohingya respondents in the internal assessment was quoted in the report saying, “I feel that we are not free and cannot have our rights as no one uses our ethnic name in [organization name withheld].” 243 Ibid. 244 Ibid. 245 Fortify Rights communications with senior management of humanitarian organizations operational in northern Rakhine State, August 2019. 246 Fieldview Solutions, Time to Break Old Habits, p. 27. 247 Ibid.