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Thank you for giving me this opportunity.

Your Excellency, Mr. Tarique Rahman, Prime Minister of Bangladesh,
Your Excellency Mr. Mohammed B.S. Jallow, Vice President of The Gambia,
Excellencies,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

Nearly a year ago, here at the United Nations, we gathered for the High-level Conference on the Situation of Rohingya Muslims and Other minorities in Myanmar.

In the prior year, the Assembly adopted resolution 79/278, which recognized the sharp rise in human rights violations and the need to sustain international attention.

At the Conference, which helped put the Rohingya issue high on the international agenda, Member States of the United Nations agreed on what needs to change:
Addressing the root cause of the conflict,
Creating a conducive environment for the safe, dignified, voluntary and sustainable return of the Rohingya,
And responding to immediate humanitarian needs.

The message was clear: The Rohingya crisis requires an early and durable solution.

Nearly a decade after the mass displacement of the Rohingya, their suffering endures. The atrocities committed against the Rohingya in 2017 – killings, sexual and gender-based violence, the burning and destruction of villages, forced displacement and the systematic denial of fundamental rights – remain an open wound.

The same patterns of violence and persecution continue to cast a long shadow.

In Rakhine State and across Myanmar, civilians face indiscriminate attacks, airstrikes, arbitrary arrest and detention, torture, enforced disappearances, forced recruitment, destruction of homes and civilian infrastructure, and the denial of humanitarian assistance.

The Myanmar military has been widely documented as carrying out attacks that have inflicted grave harm on civilians, including Rohingya and other minorities, deepening humanitarian needs.

I have seen this with my own eyes, up close in the Rohingya camps, as the High Representative of the Rohingya issue of my Government. And I’ve also appreciated how urgently international solidarity is needed, and how difficult it is to sustain attention when a crisis becomes protracted.

I offer four practical priorities.

First, sustained political attention. We must keep the Rohingya crisis high on the international agenda, and we are doing this right now, here in this room. And we should do this not only when violence escalates or funding gaps become acute. This should be something we should do constantly.

We must identify where commitments are falling short and ensure that political engagement leads to collective support – both for refugees, and importantly, for the countries and communities hosting them.

The Secretary-General’s visit to Bangladesh in March 2025 was an important demonstration of that solidarity. In Cox’s Bazar, where the camps are located, he joined an Iftar with some 100,000 Rohingya refugees. Their message was unequivocal: they wish to return to their country of origin, but they want to do so in a safe, voluntary, dignified and sustainable manner.

The second priority, protection and resilience. We must ensure humanitarian assistance is predictable, sustained and increasingly linked to resilience.

The priority requirement is predictable financing. And here I recognize the continued efforts by the international community to support the Rohingya and the work done by the UN and the UN Country Team in Bangladesh.

Yet, the 2025-2026 Joint Response Plan falls short of the need.

However, I should recognize the Plan reflects an holistic approach, placing emphasis on life-saving support alongside income generation, skills building and disaster risk reduction measures, including for host communities.

This is particularly important for the Rohingya refugees.

Their prolonged statelessness makes them more vulnerable to human trafficking, child labour, gender-based violence, recruitment by armed groups and other forms of exploitation and transnational crime.

The consequences of doing anything less are stark:

In 2025, an estimated 890 people lost their lives or were reported missing while undertaking maritime journeys from Myanmar to Bangladesh – the deadliest year on record. 280 more have been lost in the first four months of 2026.

To be sure: These are parents, grandparents, children, and young people making desperate choices that no family should ever have to face. Anywhere.

We need a strong regional approach linking humanitarian assistance with protection, education, livelihoods, and action against exploitation and transnational organized crime.

This brings me to the third priority, justice and accountability. And this must be an integral part of a durable solution.

The International Court of Justice has reached the merits stage in the case of Gambia v. Myanmar, following a public hearing in January.

We must ensure momentum towards accountability is not lost.

Victims deserve to see that we – as an international community – are doing our utmost to avoid a repeat of past horrors. And I appeal to all to ensure that there is full funding in pursuing this case.

Fourth and finally, we must bring the Rohingya home and focus relentlessly on the conditions for safe, voluntary and dignified return.

We are talking about safety from violence. Protection from discrimination. Access to services and livelihoods. Freedom of movement. Legal status. And the ability to reclaim homes, land and property.

And there is one essential test: The Rohingya themselves must have a meaningful voice in determining whether the conditions for return exist.

Excellencies,

Political attention, humanitarian assistance, accountability and return are not separate agendas. They are four parts of the same pathway.

The Rohingya have made their aspiration clear again, and again, and again: they want to return home.

Our responsibility is to ensure that their return is not merely possible, but safe, voluntary, dignified and sustainable – and that the atrocities that forced them from their homes are never repeated. Never again.

I thank you.