The 8th anniversary of Rohingya Genocide commemorated in New York

Today, on August 25, 2025, the Rohingya Student Network (RSN) joined ARU, Justice for all, and some other organizations to commemorate the 8th anniversary of Rohingya Genocide Day.

The founder and executive director of RSN delivered the following statement.

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Your excellencies, distinguished friends, brothers and sisters, 

Today, on this solemn 25th of August, we mark eight years since the Rohingya Genocide.

Eight years ago on this day, I was in my home in Myanmar where our people were slaughtered. Villages were burned to ashes. Women were raped and gang-raped. Children were thrown into fires. Families were destroyed. Lives were uprooted.

We remember not only the horror, but also the cost of silence, the price of the world’s failure to act decisively.

Excellencies, the genocide did not begin in 2017. The root is deep. In 1982, the Rohingya were stripped of citizenship. For decades, we were denied education, healthcare, freedom of movement, freedom of expression, the right to work. We were caged in our ancestral homeland, treated as if we did not belong.

And then came the waves of military campaigns. In 2017, the Myanmar military launched its largest and deadliest attack. We have documented 10566 Rohingya were brutally killed where 1358 were executed. 1836 Rohingya girls and women were raped and gang raped. Entire villages were wiped out in a matter of days. Within weeks, over 700,000 fled to Bangladesh.

Today, nearly one million Rohingya remain in Cox’s Bazar, stateless, confined, surviving but not living. Children grow up without education. Families live on food rations that are cut year after year. People have no right to work, no right to mobility, and no hope of return in safety and dignity.

But the tragedy did not end in 2017.

Today, a second wave of atrocities is unfolding in Rakhine State, this time at the hands of Rakhine Rebel group [Arakan Army].

We have documented beheadings, arbitrary detentions, forced labor, and massacres of Rohingya by the terrorist Rakhine Rebel group (Arakan Army).

We have documented arbitrary detentions, forced labor, beheadings, and mass killings by the Arakan Army. On May 2, 2024, in Htan Shauk Kan (Hoyasiri), more than 600 Rohingya civilians were massacred. On August 5, 2024, another 200 were killed near the Naf River. These are not isolated cases—they are part of a systematic campaign.

The Rakhine Rebel Group [Arakan Army] presents itself as a liberation force. But its actions show otherwise. It is not liberating, it is exterminating. It is finishing the unfinished business of the Myanmar military.

Excellencies, we cannot allow the world to close its eyes a second time.

Justice must be delivered. Both the Myanmar military and the Rakhine Rebel Group  must be held accountable for genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes.

The world has mechanisms:

• The International Court of Justice.

• The International Criminal Court.

• Universal jurisdiction in member states.

But these mechanisms without political will are meaningless. Condemnations alone are not enough.

We call on world leaders to:

• Ensure independent international investigations in Rakhine (Arakan).

• Provide the political support necessary to bring perpetrators, the military junta, and Rakhine Rebel group before international courts.

We also need to know that justice must not stand alone. It must be paired with rebuilding.

The Rohingya must have the right to return to their homeland in safety and dignity. They must have citizenship, access to education, to work, to healthcare, and to freedom of movement.

Education, in particular, is our most powerful tool. Without access to higher education, Rohingya youth remain trapped in cycles of statelessness and poverty. To invest in Rohingya education is to invest in peace, stability, and human dignity.

Excellencies, eight years ago, the world said: “Never Again.”

Yet today, it is happening again.

We cannot mark this anniversary with silence. We cannot commemorate with empty promises.

On this day of remembrance, let us commit to three things: Justice, Rebuilding, and Education.

Justice — to hold perpetrators accountable.

Rebuilding — to restore the dignity and rights of the Rohingya.

Education — to ensure that our future is not one of survival, but of leadership.

History will judge us not only for what was done to us, but for what the world chose to do in response.

The Rohingya will not be erased. We will resist. We will rebuild. And we will reclaim our rightful place in history.

Thank you.