UN criticizes Myanmar's lack of action on Rohingyas

The United Nations (UN) human rights chief on Monday raised concerns about the human rights situation in Myanmar, during a catch-all speech to open the latest session of the UN-backed Human Rights Council in Geneva.

Michelle Bachelet, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, said the plight of  hundreds of thousands of Rohingya refugees and internally displaced people "remains unresolved."

Despite an Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar (IIFFMM) which concluded that Myanmar incurred state responsibility for acts committed during military operations in Rakhine state, "regrettably, no concrete measures have been taken," she said.

Highlighted that upcoming elections will be held without the Rohingya's participation, since, she said "they effectively been stripped of their previously recognised rights to vote and stand for office," Bachelet said the situation was "disappointing".

Voters in the November election will choose members of the upper and lower houses of the national parliament as well as the official state and region parliaments.

"The November elections are an important opportunity for all parties to demonstrate their commitment to democratic norms," Bachelet said, but expressed alarm at the government's continuing crackdowns on human rights activists, journalists, and critics of the government and Army.

There are almost 7,000 candidates from 94 political parties.

Myanmar was under military rule from 1962 until a nominally civilian government took over in 2011.

Aung San Suu Kyi is by far the country's most popular politician, even as she has been scorned internationally for Myanmar's oppression of the Rohingya Muslim ethnic group.

More than 700,000 Rohingya fled to neighbouring Bangladesh to escape the army's brutal counterinsurgency campaign in 2017.