The UN Human Rights Council on Tuesday appointed [press release] an Indian human rights lawyer and two fact-finding experts to investigate Myanmar security forces’ alleged crimes against Rohingya Muslims. Indira Jaising, an advocate of the Supreme Court of India [official website], will be the lead investigator [Reuters report]. The other two members are Sri Lankan lawyer Radhika Coomaraswamy and Australian consultant Christopher Dominic. In February [JURIST report], the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights [official website] said that Myanmar security forces’ treatment of the Rohingya Muslims likely constitutes crimes against humanity and possibly ethnic cleansing. The investigation’s findings are to be presented at the UN Human Rights Council [official website] in September, with a full report to be reported in March 2018.

Human rights violations have been on the forefront of Myanmar’s new democratic government since ending a decades-old military rule. In June of last year a UN expert presented [JURIST report] a report on religious, free market, political, and nationalist or cultural fundamentalism, stating that fundamentalist intolerance is growing throughout the globe and is directly contributing to infringements of the rights to association and peaceful assembly. In November of 2016, a member of the UN High Commission for Refugees stated [JURIST report] that the violence is an attempt at “ethnic cleansing” from the government. In May Human Rights Watch urged [JURIST report] the Myanmar Parliament to reconsider a proposed law that the advocacy organization says has the potential to limit free expression and peaceful assembly.