NEW YORK: At a high-level conference held at the UN General Assembly in New York, world leaders and top UN officials warned on Tuesday that the plight of Rohingya Muslims and other minorities in Myanmar has reached a critical tipping point.
With Myanmar’s military pushing forward with elections scheduled for December 2025 amid widespread violence, disenfranchisement and systemic persecution, the UN declared the process illegitimate and destabilizing.
Julie Bishop, the UN secretary-general’s special envoy on Myanmar, cautioned that the elections under current conditions “will increase resistance, protest and violence, and further undermine the fragile state of the country.”
She said more than four and a half years after the 2021 military coup, there is still “no agreed ceasefire, no agreed pathway to peace, no agreed political solution.”
Bishop, who recently completed her third mission to Myanmar, reported ongoing polarization, deepening military control and growing international complacency.
“The initial international condemnation of the military takeover has subsided,” she warned, citing the country’s senior general’s recent participation in high-level regional meetings and “instances of the lifting of sanctions.”
The High-Level Conference on the Situation of Rohingya Muslims and Other Minorities in Myanmar was convened under a UNGA resolution to mobilize global action and propose a time-bound, coordinated plan for resolving the Rohingya crisis.
It brought together member states, UN agencies, civil society and regional actors, and was marked by urgent calls to reject normalization of military rule and to ensure justice, dignity, and a future of full citizenship for the Rohingya people and all of Myanmar’s communities.
Bishop stressed that a sustainable solution to the Rohingya crisis is inseparable from resolving the country’s broader political and humanitarian emergency.
She lamented that the return of displaced Rohingya remains a distant prospect. “The worsening conflict poses a seemingly insurmountable barrier to their return,” she told the conference.
In discussions with Rohingya refugees in Cox’s Bazar in Bangladesh, she heard direct appeals for peace, rights and self-reliance.
“They called for an end to violence by all sides and the beginning of a journey toward peace,” she said, adding that many Rohingya offered constructive proposals for dialogue and reconciliation provided that “accountability for all actors” is upheld.
Bishop also warned about collapsing humanitarian assistance. The 2025 Joint Response Plan for the country is only 37 percent funded, she said, warning that food aid to Rohingya refugees could halt entirely within two months.
UNICEF has already suspended major parts of its education programs due to financial shortfalls.
“Time isn’t on our side,” Bishop warned. “We’re yet to find the common ground or willingness to compromise that will bring the myriad parties to the negotiating table.”
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, in remarks delivered on his behalf by Chef de Cabinet Courtenay Rattray, called the Rohingya crisis a “deepening tragedy” that undermines regional stability and violates the basic dignity of millions.
“Myanmar is (Rohingya refugees’) homeland,” Guterres said. “But conditions in Myanmar’s Rakhine State impede the possibility of their safe, voluntary, dignified and sustainable return.”
He called for the protection of civilians, ensuring full and unhindered humanitarian access, and revitalizing global support for the crisis response.
Guterres said deteriorating conditions in refugee camps are putting women and girls at heightened risk of violence, trafficking and child marriage.
“The solution to this crisis lies ultimately in Myanmar,” he said. “It lies in ending persecution and discrimination, ensuring accountability, and restoring and upholding rights.”
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk echoed these warnings. “Today, life in Myanmar — especially in Rakhine State — may be the worst it has ever been for the Rohingya and other minorities,” he said. “It marks another grim chapter in a long history of persecution.”
Turk accused both the Myanmar military and the Arakan Army — one of the most powerful insurgent ethnic armed groups based in Rakhine State — of atrocity crimes and gross human rights violations against civilians.
The military, he said, is using airstrikes and artillery to kill civilians, destroy homes, and forcibly conscript men and boys.
“Some of the images and videos from the second half of 2024 are reminiscent of the atrocities of 2017,” he added.
Meanwhile, the Arakan Army has engaged in widespread abductions, forced recruitment — including of children as young as 14 — torture and extortion. “Many of those arrested have been missing for months,” Turk said.
Rohingya face growing surveillance, restricted movement, Internet shutdowns and mass displacement, he added.
Over 3.5 million people are displaced across Myanmar, and 15.2 million are facing acute food insecurity. Since January 2024, another 150,000 Rohingya have fled to Bangladesh.
In light of all this, Turk condemned the planned elections. “Frankly, how can such elections be supported?” he asked.
“They neither reflect the legitimate aspirations of the Myanmar people, nor create a foundation for lasting peace.”
He said the Rohingya will be barred from voting due to their arbitrary exclusion from citizenship, while ethnic Rakhine parties have been disqualified altogether.
Turk called for the violence to end, and on states to halt the flow of arms, jet fuel and dual-use goods into Myanmar.
He also emphasized the need for full accountability for crimes committed by the military, the Arakan Army and all other parties.
He also reiterated his call to the UN Security Council to refer the Myanmar situation to the International Criminal Court.
UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi said: “We can’t keep going down the path of inertia and somehow expect a resolution while an entire population continues to waste away.”
He had recently returned from Myanmar and described a devastated country, already reeling from a major earthquake, now facing multiple overlapping crises.
Grandi said that “5.1 million are displaced, of whom 1.6 million have taken refuge in neighboring countries.”
The Rohingya, he added, suffer not only from systemic persecution but are also trapped in a war between two actors, the military and the Arakan Army, that do not represent them.
They face arbitrary arrest, forced labor, recruitment, and a near-total denial of identity and rights. “Their lives are defined by fear,” he said.
Grandi praised the generosity of regional countries, especially Bangladesh, for continuing to host nearly 1.2 million Rohingya despite growing pressures.
“Compassion is still possible,” he said, but warned that the humanitarian response is critically underfunded, including for food and cooking fuel.
Without new funding, “we’ll be forced to make more cuts while striving to minimize the risk of losing lives — children dying of malnutrition or people dying at sea.”
He called for increased support through funding and durable solutions, including refugee resettlement, education and labor mobility.
He also welcomed contributions from the World Bank and Asian Development Bank, which have invested over $1.25 billion into refugee and host community resilience programs.
However, Grandi emphasized, “the most important is not to forget that this crisis originates in Myanmar, and that… is where the solution lies.”
He urged countries with influence to intensify engagement not only with the de facto authorities, but also with the Arakan Army and other conflict actors.
