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<p>The United Kingdom continues to encourage a wider UN leadership role to help bring
peace and reconciliation to all communities in Rakhine State. We welcome the firm
personal stand the UN Secretary General has already taken on the Rohingya. During
his visit to Burma in November 2014, he publicly expressed his concern about the discrimination
and violence they face, and called for the human rights and dignity of all the people
in Rakhine to be respected. During the recent crisis in the Andaman Sea, he called
President Thein Sein on 20 May to make clear his concerns. The UN Secretary General
also presided over a meeting of the International Partnership Group on Burma on 24
April. <br><br>More widely, the UK is actively keeping Rakhine and the situation of
the Rohingya high on the international agenda and within the UN system. With UK support,
the situation in Rakhine was discussed at a UN Security Council briefing on 28 May,
and the UK was instrumental in securing strong UN Resolutions on Burma at the UN General
Assembly in November and the Human Rights Council in March. The latter resolution
extended the mandate of the Special Rapporteur for Human Rights. In Burma, Professor
Yanghee Lee, who has highlighted the plight of the Rohingya in her reports. The Government
invited Professor Lee to the UK in March, where she discussed the situation in Rakhine
with the Minister of State, my noble Friend the right hon. Baroness Anelay of St Johns.
<br><br>We will continue to engage closely with the UN system to maintain a focus
on this important issue.</p>
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