Protect the Rohingya is a South African based awareness organisation which began in 2012 with a handful of members as a response to the 2012 Rakhine massacres. We now work with international Rohingya groups and activists.
In 2014 we published a legal report, Hear Our Screams, to the UN office for the prevention of genocide on which we collaborated with the Muslim Lawyers Association in Johannesburg. We have had a speaking tour around the country with members of the European Rohingya Council in 2013 and they met with DIRCO officials to brief them about their plight. Another speaking tour ran during the start of 2018 and was countrywide. We also have an e-book in our name which we published in 2015.
Our legal project sent 3 South African lawyers and a UK journalist to Cox’s Bazar in December of 2017 to take statements from Rohingya refugees to be used in international legal matters. The report back for that project is entitled: They Ran for Their Lives and has been submitted to the UN.
Our Winter school project in November of 2018 we collaborated with members of the Rohingya Community Development Campaign (RCDC) to organise a winter school for 100 Rohingya adults, men and women, based in Balukhali 10, Ukhiya, Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh. The Winter School project curriculum was compiled specifically for adult learners. The project sought to recreate a campus environment as well as impart social media, interviewing and reporting skills to participants. The classes included poetry from the global south, oral history and comparative genocide studies. We have briefed trade unions as well as various organisations, organised protests and screenings, written articles and assisted with talks for those addressing groups including parliaments on the issue.
We are periodically interviewed by students doing their thesis on the issue and have advised 2 authors for their books prior to publishing. We also assist Rohingya activists from various countries on their projects.
Protect The Rohingya 