The Dallas Holocaust and Human Rights Museum (DHHRM) strongly supports the recent action of the International Court of Justice at The Hague (ICJ) to protect the Rohingya Muslims of Myanmar.

The Rohingya have been the targets of genocidal acts by the government of Myanmar. These acts, as listed by the court, have included: “mass killings, widespread rape and other forms of sexual violence, as well as beatings, the destruction of villages and homes, denial of access to food, shelter and other essentials of life.”

The ICJ is the United Nations’ judicial arm. It has provisionally required that Myanmar’s government enact measures to ensure the cessation of genocidal acts against the Rohingya. Further, the government must prevent its military from continuing to act against the Rohingya and must take steps to insure that evidence of acts that meet the definition of genocide against the Rohingya, as established in the Genocide Convention, be preserved.

Our Museum is dedicated to teaching the history of the Holocaust and advancing human rights. We teach the history of the adoption of the Genocide Convention in the wake of the Holocaust, as well as the Ten Stages of Genocide so every man, woman, and child understands the signs and ongoing process of genocide. It is our duty to speak out against Myanmar’s treatment of its Rohingya minority. No minority group, no human being, should ever be subjected to persecution or extermination, as they were during the Holocaust, and the genocides in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia, and many other regions around the world. We cannot stand by and watch history repeat itself. We must all do our part to bring awareness to this brutal treatment of a minority group at the hands of its own government.

To learn more about the mission of the Dallas Holocaust and Human Rights Museum please visit DHHRM.org.

– Dallas Holocaust and Human Rights Museum, Mary Pat Higgins and Frank Risch