Major Rohingya conference in New York this week

The Free Rohingya Coalition, a leading global activist group led by members of the Rohingya community, is hosting a two-day international conference at Barnard College, New York City on February 8-9, demanding accountability and protection for the minorities in Myanmar.

Academics and activists with expertise on Myanmar, humanitarians and international criminal law practitioners will be joining the event, said the coalition (FRC) in a statement on February 1.

It is being held after more than 17 months since some 750,000 Rohingya fled Rakhine state as Myanmar military conducted a brutal campaign.

In September last year, the UN Independent Fact-Finding Mission found "overwhelming evidence" that Myanmar is committing "gravest crimes in international law."

The most serious of these include genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes against national minorities like the Rohingya, Karen, Kachin, Shan, and others – some of whom have fled to the United States as refugees.

Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, one of the conference hosts and University Professor in Humanities at Columbia University, said, "As engaged scholars and intellectuals of conscience, we cannot ignore this ongoing genocide.  We urge the global community to raise their voices to end the atrocities."

Internationally renowned activist and scholar Angela Davis said, "I will boycott Burma [Myanmar] until and unless it stops repression and atrocities against its own national minorities including Rohingyas, Kachins, Karens, and Rakhine."

UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Situation in Myanmar Yanghee Lee; Daniel Taylor, the plaintiff in Australia's Crimes Against Humanity Case against Aung San Suu Kyi; Professor Radhika Coomaraswamy, lead author, Global Study on the implementation of UNSC Resolution 1325, on Women, Peace & Security; Professor Gregory Stanton, Founding President, Genocide Watch are some of the 35-speakers at the conference.