Comprised of speakers from different disciplines and institutions, the panel will seek to raise awareness about continued violence against the Rohingya.

Wednesday, May 2, 2018
2:00 PM - 4:00 PM
Powell Library Rotunda
UCLA Campus
Los Angeles, CA 90095

The Rohingya are considered stateless people from Arakan (Rakhine) State in Myanmar, formerly known as Burma. Since the end of British colonization, the Rohingya have been systematically targeted and killed by the Burmese military with the support of an extremist group. The Burmese government regards them as illegal immigrants and has purposely not created an ethnic citizen category to identify the group. 

Today, of the approximately two million Rohingya, more than half are living as refugees in countries scattered around the world. Close to 700,000 have been driven from Myanmar into Bangladesh over the past year. The UN has described this situation as the world’s “fastest-growing refugee crisis,” and the Myanmar military offensive as “a textbook example of ethnic cleaning” and “bearing the hallmarks of genocide.”

The UCLA panel, comprised of speakers from different disciplines and institutions, seeks to raise awareness about continued violence against the Rohingya in Myanmar. The public event will shed light on the historical background of the ethnic conflict and violence, issues of international and refugee law, the extent of human rights violations and activism within and beyond the country.

Panelists:

Professor Aliza Luft is assistant professor in the department of sociology at UCLA and conducts research on the ethnic and religious components of mass violence, especially in the cases of genocide.

Professor Amjad Mahmood Khan teaches at the UCLA Law School and is partner at Brown, Neri, Smith & Khan LLP and has expertise in asylum and refugee law, as well as the human rights of religious minorities in the Near East and South Asia.

Ko Ko Naing is a founding member of the Los Angeles Rohingya Society and serves as its community and public relations manager.

Moderator:

Professor Geoff Robinson teaches human rights in Southeast Asia in the department of history at UCLA. He previously worked for Amnesty International in London and for the UN in East Timor.

Nguyet Tong
(310) 206-9163
ntong@international.ucla.edu

Sponsor(s): Center for Southeast Asian Studies, Center for India and South Asia, Burkle Center for International Relations