Senior Advocate Indira Jaising To Head U.N. Investigation Into Atrocities Against Rohingya Muslims

Senior Advocate and Human Rights lawyer Indira Jaising has been appointed by United Nations to head a fact-finding mission to investigate the alleged killings, rape and torture by security forces against Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar, reports Reuters

According to this report, the mission will be led by Indira Jaising, an advocate of the Supreme Court of India, a U.N. statement said. The other two members are Harvard-trained Sri Lankan lawyer Radhika Coomaraswamy and Australian consultant Christopher Dominic.

“Some 75,000 Rohingya fled northwestern Rakhine state to Bangladesh after the Myanmar army carried out a security operation last October in response to attacks by Rohingya insurgents on border posts in which nine police officers were killed.

A U.N. report from February, based on interviews with some of the Rohingya refugees, said Myanmar's security forces have committed mass killings and gang rapes of Rohingya in a campaign that "very likely" amounts to crimes against humanity and possibly ethnic cleansing.

The U.N. Human Rights Council adopted a resolution to set up the mission in March. It was brought by the European Union and supported by countries including the United States that called for "ensuring full accountability for perpetrators and justice for victims", sates the report.

Jaising is a senior human rights lawyer and the founder of ‘Lawyers Collective’ an NGO primarily devoted to issues relating to woman and children.

She was the first woman to be appointed as the Additional Solicitor General of India. She was the first woman designated as a Senior Advocate by Bombay High Court