UN Human Rights Council – 51st session
Item 2: Interactive Dialogue on the report of the Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar (IIMM)
12 September 2022
Mister President, Mister Koumjian,
FIDH and its member organisations ALTSEAN-Burma and Women’s Peace Network welcome the IIMM’s report and praise the mechanism’s painstaking efforts to collect, consolidate, preserve, and analyze evidence of the most serious international crimes committed in Myanmar.
We take note of the IIMM’s important preliminary findings related to post-coup events, according to which crimes against humanity have been committed against the civilian population since the military takeover.
We encourage UN member states to recognise and exercise universal jurisdiction within their own domestic systems to promote accountability for serious international crimes committed by Myanmar’s military against the Burmese people, including Rohingya and other ethnic and religious communities.
We call on Myanmar’s military junta to extend its full cooperation to the IIMM and we urge the governments of Myanmar’s regional neighbors - Bangladesh, China, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand – to do the same by ensuring the IIMM has access to their territories to interview victims and witnesses. We also urge these governments to take all the necessary measures to guarantees the safety and security of victims and witnesses.
Lastly, we reiterate our call for a UN Security Council referral of the situation in Myanmar to the International Criminal Court.
Thank you.