Small steps to justice: Why recent assessments of Sudan’s warring parties are significant, and how the international community must respond

On 19 February the United Nations Independent Fact-Finding Mission (FFM) on the Sudan published a report that found that the Rapid Support Forces (RSF)’s siege and actions in the aftermath of the capture of the city of El Fasher in October 2025 bore the ‘hallmarks of genocide’.

Highlighting the militia’s systematic targeting of the non-Arab Darfuri Fur and Zaghawa communities the Chair of the FFM, Mohamed Chande Othman, said: ‘The scale, coordination, and public endorsement of the operation by senior RSF leadership demonstrate that the crimes committed in and around El-Fasher were not random excesses of war. They formed part of a planned and organised operation that bears the defining characteristics of genocide.’

Two weeks later the United States Commission for International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) recommended that the US State Department designate the RSF as an Entity of Particular Concern (EPC) in light of the ‘harmful effects to religious freedom and Sudan’s diverse religious and ethnic communities’ caused by the RSF’s campaign of mass atrocities and widespread human rights violations.

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Whether as president or army chief, Myanmar’s Min Aung Hlaing isn’t going anywhere. What are his credentials?

Earlier this month reports emerged that Myanmar’s military ruler, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, may step down as army chief within a matter of weeks. Given the atrocities he has presided over since his military seized power in a coup in February 2021, and indeed for many years before then, on the surface one may consider that a positive development.

But Min Aung Hlaing isn’t going anywhere.

Myanmar’s 2008 constitution requires the posts of president and army chief to be held by different people, and it is only with his eyes on the former that Min Aung Hlaing would ever let go of the latter. Since July 2024 he has officially held the title of Acting President, exercising presidential duties through the National Defence and Security Council (NDSC), and at present continuing to use this to bypass the constitutional restrictions.

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Ciudadanía y conflicto: Los ejércitos de Israel y Myanmar se están aprovechando de las personas desplazadas

Actualmente hay alrededor de 30,000 solicitantes de asilo en Israel. La mayoría han huido de la severa represión, incluida la persecución religiosa, bajo un gobierno responsable de décadas de crímenes de lesa humanidad generalizados  en Eritrea, o procedentes de Sudán, donde un agotador conflicto de mas de 18 meses entre las Fuerzas de Apoyo Rápido y las Fuerzas Armadas de Sudán es la última de una serie de calamidades que han causado una grave crisis humanitaria.

La mayoría ha viajado a través de Egipto antes de llegar allí, por lo general con la ayuda de traficantes de personas, y corren un gran riesgo de agresión, extorsión, violencia de género o arresto y posible deportación . La mayoría de los que completan este viaje son hombres jóvenes, junto con algunas mujeres jóvenes que probablemente han soportado atrocidades inimaginables en el camino.

A su llegada, estos solicitantes de asilo se encuentran en un limbo legal; según la Línea Directa para Refugiados y Migrantes, la principal organización de defensa de los refugiados de Israel, Israel aprueba menos del 1% de las solicitudes de asilo que recibe, con muchos casos pendientes desde hace más de cinco o incluso diez años.

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Citizenship and conflict: How the militaries of Israel and Myanmar are taking advantage of displaced persons

There are currently around 30,000 asylum seekers in Israel. Most have fled severe repression, including religious persecution, under a government responsible for decades of widespread crimes against humanity in Eritrea, or come from Sudan, where a gruelling 18-month conflict between the Rapid Support Forces and Sudan Armed Forces is the latest in a series of calamities to cause a severe humanitarian crisis.

Most will have travelled through Egypt before arriving there, typically with the help of people smugglers, and at great risk of assault, extortion, gender-based violence, or arrest and possible refoulement. The majority of those who complete this journey are young men, together with some young women who have likely endured unimaginable atrocities en route.

Upon their arrival, these asylum seekers find themselves in legal limbo; according to the Hotline for Refugees and Migrants, Israel’s leading refugee advocacy organisation, Israel approves less than 1% of the asylum claims it receives, with many cases pending for over five or even ten years.

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Rohingya Muslims displaced from Myanmar/Burma.

We must not let the Rohingya people slip to the bottom of the international agenda

On 2 December 2022 a group of approximately 180 Rohingya refugees boarded a boat in Cox’s Bazar in Bangladesh. Their intended destination was Malaysia, where many hoped to be reunited with family and loved ones, or to build a better life than the one available to them in the overcrowded, unsanitary and increasingly dangerous camps in Bangladesh.

They never made it.

In a statement issued on 25 December, the United Nations expressed concern that the boat had sank after it went missing in the Andaman Sea. Relatives of those onboard told the Guardian that they had little hope that their family members were still alive, and if confirmed it would bring the number of Rohingya refugees who have died on sea crossings to Malaysia in 2022 close to 400.

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