Canada's response to Rohingya crisis gets middling grade

An Ottawa human rights organization has given Canada a "C" grade for its efforts in 2018 addressing the Rohingya crisis.

The Rohingya Human Rights Network worked alongside the University of Ottawa's Human Rights Education Centreand the Montreal Institute for Genocide Studies at Concordia University to produce the year-end "report card".

"We think that the government can do obviously much better and needs to do much better if lives are to be saved," saidFareedKhan, director of advocacy and media relations.

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According to the United Nations, since late August 2017, more than 700,000Rohingya have fled "widespread and systematic ethnic violence" in Myanmar for Bangladesh.

Khan says Canada needs to work more closely with international partnersto bring all parties responsiblefor the violencetojustice not just military leaders.

"There's been no action taken against civilian leaders, includingAungSanSuuKyi, who were involved and complicit in the atrocities committed," said Khan.

AlexNeve, secretary general of Amnesty International Canada, said he agrees with the general assessment of thereport card, pointing toCanada's performanceas"reflective of a lack ofconcerted, meaningful action from the international community as a whole."

"The refugee situation right now is very worrying," he said.

"There are signals all the time that the Bangladesh government is intending to movetowardsending [the Rohingya]back to Myanmar as soon as possible. And the international community has simply not done enough."

Prosecuting Myanmar leaders for genocide

Khan said Canadian officials shouldinvoke the UN genocide convention to hold Myanmar's civilian and military leaders to account.

"This is a treaty specifically created to address the exact thing that Myanmar is doing to theRohingya. It is no different than what happened to Jews in Nazi Germany,"Khan said.

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He saidthetreaty doesn't require cooperation with other countries.

"All it requires is one country to begin the process," he said.

More action in 2019

Khan said while hisreport is critical of Canada, it doesacknowledgethe positive work the country has done to address the crisis.

He saidthe House of Commons' decision to officially recognize the Rohingya genocide the "first parliament in the world to do so" and to revoke Suu Kyi'shonoraryCanadian citizenship both senda clear message.

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Even so, Khan said more needs to be done by Canada in the new year.

"We have to move forward and use the international institutions that are at our disposal and that we have access to."

Neve saidAmnesty International would also like to see Canada play a greater leadership role around Rohingya refugees in 2019.

"This is not a crisis that has been solved by any means," he said.