Fortify Rights, Rohingya groups press ICC for arrest warrant against ARSA leader

Mizzima

On 22 May, Members of the Fortify Rights Leadership Council and seven Rohingya-led organizations issued parallel statements urging the International Criminal Court (ICC) Office of the Prosecutor to seek an arrest warrant for Ata Ullah abu Ammar Jununi, leader of the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA), for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity committed against Rohingya civilians in Myanmar and Bangladesh.

The text of the statement continues as follows.

The parallel statements underscore growing calls for justice from both international leaders and Rohingya communities directly affected by violence and abuses linked to ARSA.

The statements come amid concern that Ata Ullah—arrested by authorities in Bangladesh on March 18, 2025—could eventually be released without facing prosecution for the full scope of alleged international crimes attributed to him and ARSA.

“The victims of ARSA abuses deserve justice no less than the victims of state crimes,” said members of the Fortify Rights Leadership Council in the statement. “Failure to act risks emboldening perpetrators, deepening cycles of violence, and denying victims their fundamental right to justice.”

The Leadership Council at Fortify Rights comprises prominent leaders from law, diplomacy, academia, government, the arts, and frontline human rights advocacy, combining decades of global experience addressing atrocity crimes, democracy, and international justice.

Several signatories to this statement bring decades of direct experience prosecuting, adjudicating, documenting, or advancing accountability for genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes at the highest levels of international law. Their support underscores the legal seriousness and credibility of the call for ICC action.

Among them is Sir Geoffrey Nice KC, who led the prosecution of former Serbian President Slobodan Milošević before the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia—one of the most significant international criminal prosecutions since Nuremberg.

Other signatories include internationally recognized legal scholars and practitioners such as Beth Van Schaack, former United States Ambassador-at-Large for Global Criminal Justice, Yale Law School Professor Jim Silk, and the President of Robert and Ethel Kennedy Human Rights, Kerry Kennedy, all of whom have extensive experience in international human rights litigation and accountability efforts related to mass atrocities. Lord Alton of Liverpool, Chair of the Joint Committee on Human Rights in the United Kingdom Parliament, who has spoken and written widely as a Parliamentarian on accountability for mass atrocities, is also a signatory.

The statement is also endorsed by the actor and activist Thomas Sadoski, contemporary artist Linda Karshan, and award-winning Bangladeshi photographer Saiful Huq Omi, as well as business leaders such as Leela Cosgrove and Stephen Smyk—reflecting a broader recognition that accountability for atrocity crimes is a global moral and societal concern that demands attention across sectors.

For more than a dozen years, Fortify Rights has worked to advance justice and accountability for atrocities committed against Rohingya and other civilians in Myanmar, including by documenting crimes by the Myanmar military, supporting international accountability mechanisms, and sharing evidence with investigators, prosecutors, and United Nations bodies. Fortify Rights said its call for accountability for ARSA leadership is rooted in the principle that all perpetrators of grave international crimes should face justice, regardless of affiliation, ethnicity, religion, or status.

Rohingya communities have endured decades of atrocity crimes, systematic persecution, and denial of citizenship by the Myanmar military and successive Myanmar authorities. The Arakan Army, which has achieved de facto control over much of Rakhine State since renewed offensives against the Myanmar military in November 2023, has also massacred Rohingya civilians, committed arson attacks, forcibly displaced civilians, arbitrarily arrested and detained civilians, used Rohingya forced labor, and imposed severe movement restrictions against Rohingya. In this context, ARSA and other armed groups have compounded the suffering of Rohingya civilians already facing atrocity crimes and denial of their rights by the Myanmar military and the Arakan Army.

The statement from 18 members of the Leadership Council calls on the ICC Prosecutor to pursue accountability for alleged crimes committed by ARSA under Ata Ullah’s command, including killings, torture, abductions, and attacks on Rohingya civilians and human rights defenders. The Leadership Council emphasized that international accountability efforts in the context of Myanmar and Bangladesh must apply to all perpetrators, regardless of affiliation.

The Rohingya-led organizations echoed this call in their own statement, urging the ICC to work closely with the Government of Bangladesh to facilitate Ata Ullah’s transfer to the Court should an arrest warrant be issued. The groups stressed that accountability is critical to achieving a durable solution to the Rohingya crisis. They warned that failure to act risks further violence, instability, and continued denial of justice for victims and survivors.

In 2018, the OTP gained jurisdiction to investigate mass atrocity crimes against the Rohingya when the ICC Pre-Trial Chamber I ruled that the Court could exercise jurisdiction over the alleged forced deportation of Rohingya from Myanmar into Bangladesh. Myanmar is not a state party to the ICC. Still, Bangladesh is, and the Court found that because an essential element of the crime—the cross-border deportation of Rohingya into Bangladeshi territory—occurred in Bangladesh, the ICC could exercise territorial jurisdiction over the crime.

The ICC’s jurisdiction in the Bangladesh/Myanmar situation is not limited to state actors or members of the Myanmar military. The Court may investigate crimes committed by any actor, including non-state armed groups such as ARSA, where the alleged conduct falls within the Court’s jurisdiction and has a sufficient territorial nexus to Bangladesh.

Numerous other Rohingya-led organizations support efforts to ensure justice for ARSA’s victims; however, they refrained from signing the Rohingya-led statement, even anonymously, out of fear of violent reprisals against them or their families and networks. This self-censorship reflects the deep, pernicious seeds of fear sown by ARSA among the Rohingya community over several years, said Fortify Rights.

On the same day Bangladeshi authorities arrested Ata Ullah in 2025, Fortify Rights published a 78-page report documenting abuses by ARSA and other Rohingya armed groups in Myanmar and Bangladesh, including evidence indicating responsibility for acts that the organization believes constitute war crimes. The report detailed killings, torture, abductions, and reprisals against Rohingya civilians perceived as opposing ARSA.

The Fortify Rights Leadership Council noted that the ICC has already recognized jurisdiction over certain crimes linked to the Myanmar-Bangladesh situation because elements of those crimes occurred in Bangladesh. The statement urges the OTP to assess whether crimes attributed to Ata Ullah similarly fall within the Court’s jurisdiction.

The statement also calls on the Government of Bangladesh to cooperate with the Court should the ICC issue an arrest warrant.

“Bangladesh has played a critical humanitarian role in hosting Rohingya refugees and cooperating with international justice mechanisms,” the statement said. “We believe the Government of Bangladesh would further demonstrate its commitment to justice and the rule of law by cooperating with the Court in this matter.”