[Forwarded by Habib Siddiqui, a participant to the conference in Germany]

Preamble:

1.  Humans’ right to life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness are inalienable rights. These rights cannot be usurped nor can they be violated by any government, people, or community.

2.  Perpetrators of genocide and crimes against humanity – whether state or non-state actors, and those who lend them aid, and support - must be held accountable. Those directly responsible and those who are complicit must face justice individually and collectively.

3.  Those who have taken the responsibility to support and protect the persecuted women, men and children, for mitigating the harm or trying their best to make it right, should be recognized for their role and for the example they set for others.

4.  We resolutely restate the determination to prevent torture, atrocities, acts of genocide and mass violence and restore, protect, promote and respect human rights for all.

We the participants of the international Arakan Conference on the ‘The Rohingya Crisis and Solution’ hereby,

1. Welcome the convening of the International Arakan Conference on The Rohingya Crisis and Solution, organized by Hasane International, Cologne, Germany.

2.  Demand from the international community an unequivocal commitment to resolve the Rohingya refugee crisis in a speedy and satisfactory manner.

3.   Recognize the concept of “Responsibility to Protect” (R2P) that obliges the international community to protect refugees through multi-pronged interventions aimed inter alia at deterring occurrences of egregious international crimes like genocide, war crimes, ethnic-cleansing and crimes against humanity.

4.  Call upon the United Nations and other members of the international community to use diplomatic channels to provide sufficient humanitarian assistance and other support to ensure protection and rights of Rohingya women, children and other vulnerable groups.

5. Recognize that all Rohingya have a right to return to their homeland. We call upon the international community to ensure their voluntary, dignified, informed, and protected return to their ancestral land in Myanmar with full citizenship rights along with Ethnic identity and insist upon Myanmar to enact legislation upholding the socio-cultural, political, and economic rights of the Rohingya population.

6.  Call upon the international community to comprehensively investigate the ongoing acts of genocide, mass atrocities, crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing in Myanmar, and demand the prosecution and punishment of those offenders responsible for such violations, and protect the Rohingya from further harm.

7.    Emphasize the importance of and the need for strengthening co- operation at various levels - community, civil society, regional, national, and international – in order to prevent the continuing mass violence against the Rohingya population.

8.  Extend solidarity and support to the Government of Bangladesh in their efforts to provide for and protect the persecuted Rohingya community and in their efforts to find durable solutions to the Rohingya refugee crisis, upholding the rule of law principles and international norms and practices.

9.  Emphasize the need to constructively build on the strengths of the Rohingya population, particularly women, and engage them as leaders in the design of any future sustainable development solutions in line with the SDGs.

10.   Call upon countries, individually and collectively, including regional and international bodies, to impose comprehensive sanction on Myanmar until it ends genocide, restores citizenship to the Rohingya population, rescinds apartheid type laws and returns properties and land to the displaced Rohingya population.

11.  Support the UN Special Rapporteur on Myanmar’s recommendation “to establish a documentation structure to collect, map and preserve evidence of human rights violations and abuses, and testimony from refugees in Cox’s Bazar,” and call upon the UNGA to implement the recommendation with the objective of prosecuting perpetrators of international crimes, including genocide and crimes against humanity, before any judicial mechanism with the jurisdiction to prosecute these crimes.

12.Commit to a review mechanism on the content and implementation of the “Cologne Declaration” on a regular basis.

Endorsed by the International Conference on “The Rohingya Refugee Crisis and Solution,” at the Maritim Hotel, Cologne, on 3 May 2018.