The Dhaka Declaration calls on all nations to implement the recommended actions to move the relevant agenda forward regarding these two alarming genocides in Asia.
The closing ceremony featured foreign delegates Timo Leimester (Germany), Natalia Sineova (Poland) and Dr Minati Kalo (India) and Kornelis Spaans, ex-ambassador of the Netherlands in Bangladesh. The Dhaka Declaration on Rohingya Persecution was presented by Dr Melanie O'Brien of the University of Western Australia, while the part on Bangladesh Genocide and its Recognition was presented by Naureen Rahim of the Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights.
Mofidul Hoque, trustee of the Liberation War Museum and Director of the Centre for the Study of Genocide and Justice (CSGJ) presented the vote of thanks.
In his closing remarks, Mofidul Hoque said the conference is helping to establish a global alliance against genocide.
“We were able to arrange this international conference on genocide for the 6th time, which shared successful initiatives from all over the world to help government representatives and other key stakeholders formulate new goals and objectives against genocide. We know how Bangladesh is dealing with the Rohingya crisis, and this international conference has successfully established a global connection between our local scholars with those from abroad working against genocide,” Hoque said.
He particularly thanked Foreign Minister A.K. Abdul Momen and his ministry’s officials for their cooperation in arranging the conference on what he said was ‘very short notice’. He also thanked Liberation War Affairs Minister A.K.M. Mozammel Huq and his ministry, saying they were “always with us”.
Hoque expressed his gratitude to Enayetullah Khan, the founder and managing director of Cosmos Group (full disclosure: parent company of UNB) who donated copies of the book 'Art against Genocide' (Cosmos Books, 2019) for the delegates and participants.
A photo exhibition on the plight of the Rohingyas featuring the work of UNB and Dhaka Courier photographers ran concurrently at the Museum premises during the 3-day conference.
The Dhaka Declaration applauded the steps taken by the Gambia that filed a complaint in the International Court of Justice and insisted other countries join in the effort to support the filing.
It called for the recognition of the long history of discrimination against the Rohingya by the state of Myanmar. Global community was called upon to provide humanitarian aid to the refugees in Bangladesh and ensure the ‘important matter of repatriation’ of the Rohingya to their homeland, with full recognition of their rights as citizens of Myanmar – to that end, it called upon the Myanmar state to revisit its discriminatory Citizenship Law (1982), seen as central to the suffering of the Rohingya.
The participants reached common ground on realizing the need for collaboration in providing elective and rapid justice to the victims, clarification of facts and punishment for the perpetrators. Thus it is reflected in the Dhaka Declaration.
The Declaration on Bangladesh Genocide and its Recognition by Naureen Rahim calls on all parties to take note of the forthcoming birth centenary of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in 2020, as well as the 50th anniversary of the Bangladesh Genocide in 2021, as occasions to commemorate with due importance.
It also said that the 50th anniversary of Bangladesh genocide offers an opportunity for all to memorialize, analyse and study this genocide from different perspectives in order to make 'Never Again' – the now infamous sentiment seemingly uttered after every genocide, only to be repeatedly breached – “sustainable and permanent”.
The conference featured 12 plenary sessions on various subjects including Ethnicity and Statelessness, Accountability and Criminal Justice, Denialism and much else conducted during the three days where notable genocide scholars, jurists and academics from home and abroad – representing 18 countries in total- led each session.