UN Official: World Failed to Protect Rohingya Women
“I think the world has failed…Their [Myanmar] country has failed them in a massive way. Everybody [women] has been trying to rescue [them from] the situation because it has been a tussle. It has not been easy and possible for all those involved, including the UN system to be as effective as possible,” she said at a media briefing at a Dhaka hotel wrapping up her five-day visit to Bangladesh on Saturday.
Country Representative of UN Women Bangladesh Shoko Ishikawa was also present at the briefing.
Stressing the need for collective responsibility to address the challenges of Rohingya women, the UN Women official said: “We continue to do our best. Sometimes our best is not good enough because the situation is so bad. So, this is a collective responsibility.”
Noting that the UN Women faces problem in conducting its operation in Myanmar, she said it is interested in assisting the Rohingya women with microcredit. “We’re also interested in helping them with microcredit.”
During her five-day visit, she had met with Bangladeshi Prime Minister Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, along with other dignitaries, civil society leaders, and visited the Rohingya camps in Cox’s Bazar.
The UN Women executive director praised the government of Bangladesh, as well as its people, for its generosity in welcoming the Rohingya despite its own priorities and its efforts to address needs of women and girls and protection of their rights and dignity during this world’s worst humanitarian crisis.
She extended her appreciation to Sheikh Hasina for generously opening the border and sheltering the Rohingya refugees and agreed with the prime minister that the host communities impacted by the refugee influx as much support as the refugees.
Mlambo-Ngcuka stressed the need for preparing the Rohingyas for the upcoming monsoon season and relocating the vulnerable households, many of them female-headed, to safer places away from the areas where landslide and flooding are predicted.
Source: The Dhaka Tribune
