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GJC in the News

Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi says genocide claims are 'misleading'

Excerpt of CNN article that features GJC President Akila Radhakrishnan.

Following the presentation, the Global Justice Center said the picture Suu Kyi built up of an "internal military conflict with no genocidal intent" was "completely false."

"Multiple independent agencies and experts, as well as Rohingya themselves, have documented mass killings, widespread rape, and wholesale destruction of land and property intentionally inflicted on innocent civilians. The government has discriminated against the Rohingya for decades. This is genocide and it's precisely what the Genocide Convention set out to prevent," Akila Radhakrishnan, Global Justice Center President, said in a statement.

Many in the international community have questioned how a Nobel laureate renowned for fighting for democracy and human rights is now justifying her government's persecution of the Muslim minority.

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Rohingya refugees reject Aung San Suu Kyi's 'lies on genocide'

Excerpt of Al Jazeera article that features GJC President Akila Radhakrishnan.

Critics describe the army's actions by the army as a deliberate campaign of ethnic cleansing and genocide that forced more than 700,000 Rohingya to flee.

“Aung San Suu Kyi’s picture of an internal military conflict with no genocidal intent against the Rohingya is completely false," Akila Radhakrishnan, president of the Global Justice Center in New York, said in a statement to Al Jazeera.

"Multiple independent agencies and experts, as well as Rohingya themselves, have documented mass killings, widespread rape, and wholesale destruction of land and property intentionally inflicted on innocent civilians.

"The government has discriminated against the Rohingya for decades. This is genocide and it’s precisely what the Genocide Convention set out to prevent.”

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U.N. high court begins 3-day hearing over Rohingya 'genocide' in Myanmar

Excerpt of UPI article that features GJC President Akila Radhakrishnan.

Along with Suu Kyi, several Rohingya members attended the first day, supported by human rights group Legal Action Worldwide. They arrived from a Rohingya refugee camp in Kutupalong, Bangladesh.

Human rights groups say Rohingya were targeted with random killings, sexual violence, arbitrary detention and torture from Myanmar forces and supporters.

"The international community is many years too late on taking action in Myanmar, but this case represents the first hope in decades for the Rohingya and other persecuted ethnic groups in the country," Akila Radhakrishnan, of the Global Justice Center in New York, said before Tuesday's hearing.

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The Story Behind The Gambia’s Lawsuit against Myanmar over the Rohingya Genocide

Excerpt of Inter Press Service article that features GJC President Akila Radhakrishnan.

“No one has been held accountable,” Akila Radhakrishnan, President of Global Justice Center (GJC), told IPS. “It’s the same forces [that] remain in Rakhine state, they remain kind of [as a] part of the military with no punishment. There’s no feeling that there’s safety and security to go back to Myanmar.”

Radhakrishnan pointed out that even though the lawsuit may be “far away” from when the crisis began, the continued fear of Rohingyas to return to their home shows how deeply the crisis persists. 

“I think there’s a recognition of the impossibility of the return of the Rohingya, a solution to the humanitarian crisis,” she said, adding that the lawsuit will push for the Myanmar government to take actions that focus on changing the laws and policies that enabled the genocide. 

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How the International Criminal Court Has Failed LGBTQ Survivors

Excerpt of Ms. Magazine op-ed by former GJC intern Claire McLeod.

Gender has long been used as a tool to carry out mass atrocity crimes. These persecutions include not only discrimination based on gender identity, but also sexual orientation. Members of targeted groups, by the perpetrators’ own design, experience violent crimes in distinct ways by reason of their sexuality and gender. Further, the enactment of violent crimes can vary based on cultural beliefs and prejudice against the targeted group held by the perpetrator and society. And yet, despite the inextricable role played by gender and sexuality, the ICC and international criminal law at large have generally failed to apply either in analyzing mass atrocity crimes. 

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