III 

113TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION S. RES. 586 

Calling on the Government of Burma to develop a non-discriminatory and 

comprehensive solution that addresses Rakhine State’s needs for peace, 

security, harmony, and development under equitable and just application 

of the rule of law, and for other purposes. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

NOVEMBER 20, 2014 

Mr. MENENDEZ (for himself, Mr. KIRK, Mr. DURBIN, Mr. CARDIN, Mr. 

RUBIO, Mr. MARKEY, Mrs. BOXER, Mr. BOOKER, Mr. COONS, and Mrs. 

SHAHEEN) submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the 

Committee on Foreign Relations 

RESOLUTION 

Calling on the Government of Burma to develop a nondiscriminatory and comprehensive solution that addresses 

Rakhine State’s needs for peace, security, harmony, and 

development under equitable and just application of the 

rule of law, and for other purposes. 

Whereas, of the 1,500,000 members of the Rohingya ethnic 

minority community worldwide, over 1,200,000 stateless 

Rohingya live in Burma, mostly in northern Rakhine 

State, including 140,000 internally displaced persons 

(IDPs); 

Whereas the security, stability, and development of Rakhine 

State is dependent on the rule of law and non-discriminaVerDate Sep 11 2014 03:12 Nov 21, 2014 Jkt 049200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6300 E:\BILLS\SR586.IS SR586

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•SRES 586 IS 

tory access to citizenship, livelihoods and services, and 

protection for all residents; 

Whereas, on November 12, 2014, President Barack Obama 

traveled to Burma, where he ‘‘stressed the need to find 

durable and effective solutions for the terrible violence in 

Rakhine state, solutions that end discrimination, provide 

greater security and economic opportunities, protect all 

citizens, and promote greater tolerance and understanding,’’ while noting that legitimate government is a 

government based on ‘‘the recognition that all people are 

equal under the law’’; 

Whereas the Department of State has, since 1999, regularly 

expressed its particular concern for severe legal, economic, and social discrimination against Burma’s 

Rohingya population in its Country Report for Human 

Rights Practices; 

Whereas the United Nations Special Rapporteur for Human 

Rights in Burma reported a ‘‘long history of discrimination and persecution against the Rohingya Muslim community which could amount to crimes against humanity’’; 

Whereas the current Government of Burma, like its predecessors, continues to use the Burma Citizenship Law of 

1982 to exclude Rohingya from a list of legally recognized ethnic groups, despite many having lived in 

Rakhine State for generations, thereby rendering 

Rohingya stateless and vulnerable to exploitation and 

abuse; 

Whereas, in its March 2014 census, the first in over 30 

years, the Government of Burma reneged on its commitment to allow all people in Burma to self-identify and ordered the Rohingya to ethnically identify as ‘‘Bengali’’, 


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•SRES 586 IS 

resulting in their exclusion from census data and thereby 

severely undermining the validity of the data for Rakhine 

State and creating the potential for further discrimination and conflict; 

Whereas local and national policies and practices discriminate 

against Rohingya by denying them freedom of movement 

outside their villages and camps, restricting access to 

livelihood, education, and health care; 

Whereas authorities have required Rohingya to obtain official 

permission for marriages, with reportedly onerous, 

humiliating, and financially prohibitive requirements for 

approval; 

Whereas a two-child policy sanctioned solely upon the 

Rohingya population in two townships in northern 

Rakhine State hinders the ability of additional children 

to access basic government services, marry, or acquire 

property and restricts the rights of women, sometimes resulting in serious health consequences due to illegal and 

unsafe abortions; 

Whereas persecution, including arbitrary arrest, detention, 

and extortion of Rohingya and other Muslim communities, continues to be widespread; 

Whereas violence targeting Rohingya in Maungdaw, 

Buthidaung, and Sittwe in June and July 2012 resulted 

in the deaths of at least 57 Muslims and the destruction 

of 1,336 Rohingya homes and left thousands displaced; 

Whereas, between October 21–30, 2012, numerous people 

were killed, and a village in Mrauk-U township was destroyed during deadly ethnic violence between the 

Rakhine and Rohingya communities; 


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Whereas the lack of a credible independent investigation has 

resulted in persistent questions about violence that may 

have resulted in the death of Rohingya in a village in 

Maungdaw township in January 2014, and human rights 

groups reported mass arrests and arbitrary detention of 

Rohingya in the aftermath of this violence; 

Whereas local, state, and national security police and border 

officers have failed to protect those vulnerable to attack 

and, in some cases, participated in violence against 

Rohingya and other Muslims; 

Whereas the Government of Burma has relocated displaced 

Rohingya into displacement camps where they have limited access to adequate shelter, clean water, food, sanitation, health care, livelihoods, or basic education for their 

children; 

Whereas thousands of Rohingya are entirely reliant on international assistance for food, clean water, and health care 

because they are not permitted to move for work and 

therefore cannot provide for their families; 

Whereas, in February 2014, the Government of Burma suspended the activities of Nobel Laureate Me ́decins Sans 

Frontie`res, the primary provider of health care to hundreds of thousands in Rakhine State; 

Whereas the Government of Burma entered into a Memorandum of Agreement with the Me ́decins Sans Frontie`res 

in September 2014 but all services have not resumed; 

Whereas attacks on organizations and their property in 

Sittwe, the capital of Rakhine State, in March 2014 

caused over 300 international aid workers to evacuate the 

area, and while many of these aid workers have now returned, they have not yet been able to resume full operVerDate Sep 11 2014 03:12 Nov 21, 2014 Jkt 049200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6300 E:\BILLS\SR586.IS SR586

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ations, leaving many more people vulnerable, particularly 

in the area of health care; 

Whereas the denial of unhindered humanitarian assistance 

when populations are in need of such services is a severe 

breach of a government’s responsibility to protect and 

support its residents and suggests disregard for individuals who suffer the effects of disease and 

malnourishment as a result of a lack of assistance; 

Whereas hundreds of thousands of Rohingya have fled to 

neighboring countries, including 34,000 that have registered in official camps in Bangladesh, plus another 

300,000 to 500,000 that are unregistered in Bangladesh, 

and at least 35,000 in Malaysia, plus many thousands 

more in Thailand and Indonesia; 

Whereas, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, approximately 100,000 Rohingya 

have fled from Rakhine State, and up to 2,000 Rohingya 

who fled Burma by boat are presumed dead or are missing at sea since 2012; 

Whereas up to 200,000 Rohingya, who fled persecution from 

Burma up to 20 years ago and sought refugee protection 

in Bangladesh, continue to face discrimination, statelessness, and other hurdles to accessing necessary services in 

their country of refuge; 

Whereas, according to the Department of State’s 2014 Trafficking in Persons Report, the Rohingya community in 

Bangladesh is especially vulnerable to human trafficking, 

and unregistered Rohingya who were trafficking victims 

may have been detained indefinitely in Bangladesh due to 

lack of documentation; 


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Whereas the Government of Bangladesh has banned marriage 

registrars from officiating marriages involving Rohingyas 

attempting to wed one another and those seeking unions 

with Bangladeshi nationals; and 

Whereas, in Thailand, according to the United States Department of State’s 2014 Trafficking in Persons Report, 

corrupt civilian and military officials are alleged to have 

profited from the smuggling of Rohingya asylum seekers 

from Burma and Bangladesh and allegedly have been 

complicit in their sale into forced labor on commercial 

fishing vessels: Now, therefore, be it 

1 Resolved, That the Senate— 

2 (1) calls on the Government of Burma to de3 velop a non-discriminatory and comprehensive solu4 tion that addresses Rakhine State’s needs for peace, 

5 security, harmony, and development under equitable 

6 and just application of the rule of law; 

7 (2) welcomes the Government of Burma’s an8 nouncement that Me ́decins Sans Frontie`res has been 

9 invited back to work in Rakhine State and encour10 ages the Government of Burma to ensure that the 

11 organization is able to resume operations alongside 

12 other humanitarian organizations without undue re13 strictions on their humanitarian operations; 

14 (3) calls on the Government of Burma to end 

15 all forms of persecution and discrimination, includ16 ing freedom of movement restrictions, of the 

17 Rohingya people and ensure respect for internationVerDate Sep 11 2014 03:12 Nov 21, 2014 Jkt 049200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\SR586.IS SR586

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1 ally recognized human rights for all ethnic and reli2 gious minority groups within Burma; 

3 (4) calls on the Government of Burma to re4 spect the Rohingya’s right to self-identification, re5 draft the Citizenship Law of 1982 so that it con6 forms to internationally recognized legal standards, 

7 and include both Rakhine and Rohingya leaders and 

8 community members in the redrafting process; 

9 (5) calls on the Government of Burma to sup10 port an international and independent investigation 

11 into the violence that has occurred in Rakhine State 

12 since June 2012, implement the recommendations 

13 put forth, and prosecute the perpetrators of violence 

14 consistent with due process; 

15 (6) calls on the Government of Burma to con16 form to international norms on the provision of un17 restricted humanitarian access by international orga18 nizations to all in need, without discrimination based 

19 on nationality, race, ethnicity, gender, religious be20 lief, or political opinion; 

21 (7) calls on the regional governments to protect 

22 the rights of Rohingya asylum seekers and refugees, 

23 as well as respect the international legal principle of 

24 non-refoulement; and 


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1 (8) calls on the United States Government and 

2 the international community to call on the Govern3 ment of Burma to take all necessary measures to 

4 end the persecution and discrimination of the 

5 Rohingya population and to protect the fundamental 

6 rights of all ethnic and religious minority groups in 

7 Burma. 

Æ 


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