Why Hasn't the Biden Administration Declared the Treatment of the Rohingya a Genocide?

In a recent article in Politico, Nahal Toosi explores the Biden’s administration’s decision not to label the atrocities against the Rohingya in Myanmar a genocide, even though the administration retroactively declared that the Ottoman Empire committed a genocide against the Armenian people in the early 20th century and concurred with the Trump administration that China is currently committing genocide against the Uyghur Muslims.

In 2017, the Myanmar military and civilians killed thousands of Rohingya and forced 700,000 Rohingya to flee their homes for refugee camps in neighboring Bangladesh. Despite the systematic nature of how the Myanmar government targeted the Rohingya for extermination based on their ethnicity and religion, the US government has not called this a genocide. Toosi’s inside look at State Department deliberations reveals how politics affect human rights, similar to how the prominence effect causes countries not to intervene to prevent mass atrocities.

Read Toosi’s article here: ‘If it’s a genocide, declare it a genocide’: Inside the Biden administration’s vexing Myanmar debate

Photograph of displaced Rohingya by Tasnim News Agency, CC BY 4.0