UN CONDEMNS HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSES AGAINST ROHINGYA

UNITED NATIONS: The UN General Assembly approved a resolution on Friday strongly condemning human rights abuses against Myanmar’s Rohingya Muslims and other minorities, including arbitrary arrests, torture, rape and deaths in detention.

The 193-member world body voted 134-9 with 28 abstentions in favour of the resolution which also calls on Myanmar’s government to take urgent measures to combat incitement of hatred against the Rohingya and other minorities in Rakhine, Kachin and Shan states.

General Assembly resolutions are not legally binding but they do reflect world opinion.

Buddhist-majority Myanmar has long considered the Rohingya to be “Bengalis” from Bangladesh even though their families have lived in the country for generations. Nearly all have been denied citizenship since 1982, effectively rendering them stateless, and they are also denied freedom of movement and other basic rights.

Myanmar’s UN ambassador Hau Do Suan called the resolution “another classic example of double standards and selective and discriminatory application of human rights norms” designed “to exert unwanted political pressure on Myanmar”.

UN BUDGET TO INCLUDE PROBES ON WAR CRIMES

The UNGA adopted a $3.07 billion operating budget which for the first time includes funding for the investigation of war crimes in Syria and Myanmar.

The budget represents a rise from 2019’s figure of $2.9 billion. The increase is due to additional missions assigned to the UN Secretariat, inflation and exchange rate adjustments, according to diplomats. These include an observer mission in Yemen and a political mission in Haiti.