A/HRC/42/CRP.5
154. The continued movement restrictions also have a detrimental impact on the health of
the Rohingya. For instance, people are unable to access life-saving treatment in areas of
northern Rakhine in particular, where there is a lack of functioning health facilities at the
village level, forcing residents to rely on traditional healers or to self-medicate.304 Pregnant
women are forced to deliver babies with traditional birth attendees, often in unsafe and
unhygienic places, due to movement restrictions and high hospital charges, leaving infants
and mothers at risk of death and at times unable to have births registered. 305 Newborns are
at risk of being excluded from household lists and so of statelessness. This has exacerbated
the already precarious health situation for Rohingya, where the maternal mortality rate is
higher than in the rest of the country.306
155. Fear of attack by members of the ethnic Rakhine community also drives Rohingya to
restrict their own movement, opting not to move out of their villages or beyond a certain
radius from their village.307 The fear arises from the involvement of members of the ethnic
Rakhine community in the violence in 2012 and in the Tatmadaw’s “clearance operations”
against the Rohingya in 2016 and 2017,308 the Government’s failure to hold those
individuals accountable, and new instances of attacks and hostilities. 309 Rohingya live in
constant fear and do not know when or where they will be attacked and what will happen to
them. An interviewee, who arrived in Malaysia in January 2019, told the Mission:
Residents from the village were afraid of ethnic Rakhine. They were scared to go
outside for fear of attacks by ethnic Rakhine following the August 2017 events. They
feared that, if they go out, the ethnic Rakhine were going to kill them. The ethnic
Rakhine attacked and beat my uncle and cousin when they went for fishing. Their
faces were bleeding.310
2.
Access to livelihoods
156. Since the “clearance operations” began on 25 August 2017, the Government has
severely restricted access to food for Rohingya in Rakhine State, triggering heightened risk
of food insecurity with related consequences on health.311 This lack of access is another
major factor Rohingya cite for fleeing from northern Rakhine State to Bangladesh. 312 Food
insecurity is being caused by Government laws and policies, including stringent restrictions
on movement313 and the Tatmadaw’s use of Rohingya land that prevents them from farming
and related activities, both discussed above. This has resulted in significantly higher food
prices. The Government’s restrictions on access for humanitarian actors are exacerbating
the situation.
157. Food insecurity is particularly threatening to Rohingya. The Rohingya community
has traditionally provided food for themselves and their families, including farming,
especially rice, fishing, livestock rearing and collecting firewood and bamboo from the
forest.
158. The 2017 “clearance operations” had such a devastating impact on the food security
in Rakhine State that the United Nations human rights mechanisms had to intervene on
304
305
306
307
308
309
310
311
312
313
52
FI-008.
FI-050, LI-226: Such deliveries have also left many children without official birth certificate,
The 2018 FAO/WFP agriculture and food security mission to Rakhine State, Myanmar, 12 July 2019,
available from http://www.fao.org/3/ca5330en/ca5330en.pdf.
FI-007, FI-010, FI-024, FI-025, FI-026, FI-027, FI-029, FI-031, FI-035, FI-046, FI-048, CI-229, CI240, CI-263, CI-270, CI-273, CI-305, CI-310, LI-226, FFFGEN-1-84224.
FI-001, FI-002, FI-003, FI-005, FI-008, FI-009, FI-010, FI-012, FI-013, FI-014, FI-022, FI-029, FI033, FI-043, FI-044, FI-051.
CI-261, CI-263, CI-293, FI-007, FI-010, FI-046, FI-048.
CI-049.
CI-261, FI-007, FI-010, FI-018, FI-029, FI-035, FI-046, V-047, The 2018 FAO/WFP agriculture and
food security mission to Rakhine State, Myanmar, 12 July 2019, available from
http://www.fao.org/3/ca5330en/ca5330en.pdf.
CI-261, FI-007, FI-010, FI-018, FI-029, FI-035, FI-046.
See Chapter IV, section C.1:The situation of the Rohingya; restrictions on movement.
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