25 August 2026
Today, the European Rohingya Council (ERC) joins Rohingya communities worldwide in commemorating Rohingya Genocide Remembrance Day. We honour the victims of genocidal violence and remember all those who were killed, subjected to sexual violence, forcibly displaced, or separated from their families.
We also remember our people who continue to languish in overcrowded refugee camps in Bangladesh, those living in precarious conditions across neighboring countries, and Rohingya communities displaced throughout the world. Their prolonged suffering is a continuing consequence of the persecution and forced expulsion of our people from their ancestral homeland.
On 25 August 2017, the Myanmar military launched so-called “clearance operations” across northern Arakan State. Rohingya villages were burned, civilians were massacred, women and girls were subjected to widespread sexual violence, about one million Rohingya were forced to flee to Bangladesh. These atrocities did not begin in 2017. They formed part of a decades-long campaign of persecution, in every form and manifestation.
Today, nine years later, justice remains elusive, and the situation in Arakan continues to deteriorate. New strategies and forms of persecution continue to be devised and employed against our people. These include efforts to divide the Rohingya, silence their representatives, distort their history, deny their ethnic identity, confiscate their lands, and create conditions intended to make their permanent return impossible. Such actions must be recognized as part of the continuing attempt to erase the Rohingya from their ancestral homeland.
The Rohingya population remaining in Arakan has now shrunk to less than ten per cent of its historical size when internally displaced persons are excluded from the calculation. Despite this devastating demographic decline, the Arakan Army continues its campaign to drive the remaining Rohingya from the soil of Arakan. The international community must not allow the final stage of this ethnic cleansing to unfold in silence.
On this solemn occasion, ERC calls upon the international community to:
1. Ensure accountability for all perpetrators of genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes committed against the Rohingya.
2. Strengthen international legal proceedings, including cases before the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court.
3. Protect the Rohingya civilians presently living in Arakan and guarantee unrestricted humanitarian access to all affected communities.
4. Investigate and hold the Arakan Army accountable for violations committed against Rohingya civilians.
5. Reject any repatriation process that lacks safety, citizenship, international protection, and the informed consent of the Rohingya.
6. Guarantee the Rohingya’s right to return voluntarily, safely, and with dignity to their original homes and lands.
7. Restore full citizenship and Rohingya`s indigenous.
8. Ensure the meaningful participation of Rohingya representatives in every political process and decision concerning their future.
9. Continue supporting Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh and other countries until a just, sustainable, and rights-based solution is achieved.
We will continue to remember our victims, preserve their stories, and pursue justice on their behalf. We will remember those who remain trapped in camps, those who are scattered across foreign lands, and those who continue to survive under persecution in Arakan. We will not allow the world to forget what happened, and we will not abandon our legitimate struggle for rights, dignity, justice, and a secure future in our homeland.
We remember. We demand justice. We will never surrender our right to return home.
European Rohingya Council (ERC)
Rohingya need not to wait any longer to return to their ancestral homeland. AA must be hold accountable for any further delay
Rohingya need not to wait any longer to return to their ancestral homeland. AA must be hold accountable for any further delay