UN Special Rapporteur Tom Andrews left his post last week with this specific rallying call to the global community

Benedict Rogers for UCA News

With the world’s attention focused on the Middle East and Ukraine — for understandable reasons, given the geostrategic dangers those conflicts pose to the rest of us — too many of the other humanitarian tragedies, all involving mass atrocity crimes, do not receive the attention they need or deserve.

This is especially true of the civil war in Sudan, which has led to thousands of killings and the displacement of 14 million people, and Myanmar, where at least four million are displaced, mostly due to indiscriminate junta aerial attacks, and 16 million — almost a third of the population — are in need of humanitarian assistance.

The United Nations has described Myanmar as “an almost invisible crisis.”

Last week, Myanmar’s democratically elected leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, was reportedly moved from jail to house arrest, more than five years after her elected civilian government was overthrown in a military coup. This was presented by the country’s dictator, Min Aung Hlaing — who was recently inaugurated president after a sham election — as a step forward.

In reality, it is meaningless.

Suu Kyi’s prison sentence, originally 33 years, later reduced to 27, has reportedly been reduced further — but as she turns 81 next month, any sentence of any significant length remains a life sentence, and is completely unjust. Anything short of her immediate and unconditional release is unacceptable.

Indeed, her son Kim Aris is still demanding proof that his mother is alive — and he is right to do so. “I just want to see her again,” he said last week.

That same week, the outgoing UN Special Rapporteur on Myanmar, former United States Congressman Tom Andrews, published his final report in an attempt to shine a spotlight on this forgotten crisis. With it, he completed his mandate after six years in the role and handed over the baton to his fellow American, former US representative to the UN Economic and Social Council, Kelley Currie, who brings decades of experience in Southeast Asia to the job.

But Andrews left his post with a specific rallying call to the international community to step up efforts for accountability for mass atrocity crimes in Myanmar.

“Impunity lies at the heart of the human rights crisis in Myanmar and has enabled decades of grave violations by the military with devastating consequences for the country’s people,” the final report begins.

It continues:

Since the 2021 coup, the military has intensified its campaign of violence and repression, killing thousands of civilians, arbitrarily detaining tens of thousands, displacing millions, and systematically employing airstrikes, arson, torture, and sexual violence to crush resistance and dissent. These abuses are not aberrations but the predictable result of a long-entrenched culture of impunity in which senior military leaders have remained above the law.

In an unambiguous message to policy makers around the world, Andrews says that “ending the crisis will require not only dismantling the military’s capacity to attack and oppress the people of Myanmar,” but action to hold those responsible for grave human rights violations to account.

“The international community has done far too little to support those seeking justice and accountability,” he argues.

Andrews’ 67-page report — titled “From Impunity to Justice: accountability for grave human rights violations in Myanmar” — examines different options for justice.

It draws on years of painstaking and painful documentation, and the first-hand testimonies of survivors and the families of victims.

It issues a clarion call to the idea that justice, truth, and accountability are essential steps if the extraordinary suffering endured by survivors in Myanmar is to be addressed, and in order to prevent recurring cycles of atrocities devastating the lives of future generations.

In Andrews’ powerful words, “for the people of Myanmar, justice delayed is justice denied.”

The report assesses steps already taken and proposes specific recommendations for further action to advance accountability and dismantle the culture of impunity that has long protected the perpetrators of atrocities in Myanmar.

In particular, Andrews calls on the United Kingdom — as the penholder on Myanmar at the Security Council — to step up, along with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), to shape the international community’s response to the crisis in Myanmar and specifically to the pending ruling by the International Court of Justice, expected later this year, on charges that the junta committed genocide against the Rohingya.

He calls on the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court to expand the scope of its ongoing investigation into atrocity crimes in Myanmar, and for the application of universal jurisdiction to be expanded too.

Already, Argentina has issued arrest warrants for Myanmar’s dictator Min Aung Hlaing and other senior military officials following a universal jurisdiction case, and similar cases are being attempted in the Philippines, Indonesia, and Timor-Leste.

“The champions of accountability deserve the full backing of the international community,” argues Andrews.

Andrews’ report is the culmination of years of work on his part — supported by many civil society groups, ethnic organizations, and courageous human rights defenders from Myanmar and by the tireless investigative efforts of organisations like Fortify Rights, which has documented massacres, airstrikes, grave violations, and atrocity crimes in Myanmar over the last decade or more.

It provides a roadmap and an action plan for how to break the cycle of impunity that has wreaked such horrific suffering on the people of Myanmar for so long.

“Opportunities to break the cycle of impunity that has gripped Myanmar are available. What is missing is the political will to seize them,” Andrews argues.

One of the recommendations is that state parties to the International Criminal Court should refer the situation to the chief prosecutor by invoking Article 14 of the Rome Statute, which allows them to request an investigation in a particular situation where mass atrocity crimes are occurring.

Unfortunately, until now, not a single member state to the Rome Statute has invoked Article 14 to press for an expanded investigation into the almost daily atrocities being committed in Myanmar.

If policy makers in Washington, DC, London, Brussels, Paris, Berlin, Rome, Canberra, Ottawa, Tokyo, Seoul, Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur, Singapore and beyond study Andrews’ report, they may discover within themselves the political will. And if they do, and act upon it, we can break the cycle of impunity that has held the people of Myanmar hostage — and subjected them to a reign of bloody terror — for far too long.

Benedict Rogers is a human rights activist and writer, senior director at Fortify Rights, and author of three books on Myanmar, including “Burma: A Nation at the Crossroads.” The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official editorial position of UCA News.