Our Correspondent . Cox’s Bazar 28 September, 2026, 00:00
Recognition of the ‘genocide’ committed against Myanmar’s Rohingya community goes beyond legal criteria and evidence, with interstate relations and geopolitical considerations heavily influencing international decisions, according to a new book.
Titled ‘Politics of Denial and Non-Recognition of Genocide: The Case of the Rohingya’, the book was launched Sunday at an event organised by the Refugee and Migration Lab at the office of the Refugee Relief and Repatriation Commissioner in Cox’s Bazar.
Published by Palgrave Macmillan, the book is jointly edited by Professor Nasir Uddin of the Department of Anthropology at Chittagong University, Professor Palash Kamruzzaman of the University of South Wales, UK, and Associate Professor Bayes Ahmed of University College London.
The 17-chapter book, divided into three sections, places survivors’ testimonies and lived experiences at the centre of its analysis, including a dedicated chapter based on accounts from 70 Rohingya survivors.
The event featured a keynote presentation and a roundtable discussion under the theme ‘The Rohingya Genocide’. Professor Imtiaz Ahmed presented the keynote address.
Prominent participants included BIISS director general Major General ASM Ridwanur Rahman, Action Aid Bangladesh country director Farah Kabir, alongside academics from various universities, representatives of law enforcement agencies, humanitarian organisations, civil society, and the Rohingya community.
A central theme of the book investigates why the official recognition of the Rohingya genocide remains contested or delayed despite extensive evidence, survivor testimonies, and documentation of mass atrocities.
The chapters explore key dimensions of the crisis, including the erasure of Rohingya identity, denial of citizenship, gender-based violence, child rights, water security, forced displacement, media representation, and the Gambia versus Myanmar case at the International Court of Justice.
Speaking at the event, Rohingya youth representative Sahat Zia Hiru and survivor Enamul Hasan, who is community mobiliser in the Rohingya camp, noted that the book accurately reflects their lived reality of rights deprivation and their struggle for justice.
They emphasised that humanitarian assistance alone cannot offer a permanent solution, reiterating their demands for basic rights, access to education, justice and accountability, and a safe, voluntary, and dignified repatriation to their homeland in Myanmar.
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