Detained Sen. Leila de Lima has asked Senate President Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III to support the draft resolution submitted to the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) expressing serious concerns over the Rohingya crisis in Myanmar.

In her letter to Pimentel last Dec. 11, De Lima reminded the Senate leadership that the Senate should uphold the country’s commitment to promote human rights and the international humanitarian law.

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Last Oct. 17, the IPU received a draft resolution submitted by its Emergency Item Committee condemning what it called gross human rights violations committed against Rohingya people.

The IPU Draft Resolution was entitled “Ending the grave human crisis, persecution and violent attacks on the Rohingya as a threat to international peace and security and ensuring their unconditional and safe return to their homeland in Myanmar.”

The senators received a copy of the draft resolution last Nov. 27.

“Every day more and more members of the Rohingya people are suffering abuse and dying,” De Lima said in her letter. “It is never right to stand by while people, including women, children, the elderly and the otherwise helpless, are being oppressed and decimated.”

“Human rights protection is one of those public goods that requires the aggregate effort of all stakeholders in order to ensure its continued enjoyment by each and all of us,” she added.

Around 620,000 Rohingya Muslims have sought refuge in Bangladesh to escape a military crackdown in Rakhine state in Myanmar, which critics labeled as a “brutal ethnic cleansing.” /atm

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