A/HRC/37/26 14. The protection of minorities in Myanmar has been addressed numerous times, including in reports by the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar, 1 by the High Commissioner for Human Rights, in press releases drafted by human rights experts2 and in the report of the OHCHR mission to Bangladesh issued in February 2017. 3 In March 2017, the Human Rights Council decided to dispatch an independent international fact-finding mission to establish the facts and circumstances of the alleged human rights violations in Myanmar, in particular in Rakhine State. In its resolution 34/22, the Council also called upon the Government of Myanmar to continue its efforts to eliminate statelessness and systematic and institutionalized discrimination against members of ethnic and religious minorities, including the root causes of discrimination, in particular relating to the Rohingya minority. According to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), in less than three weeks in September 2017 over 270,000 people fled from Myanmar to Bangladesh. Many more people reportedly remained trapped between Myanmar and Bangladesh. The High Commissioner has said that the situation seemed to be a textbook example of ethnic cleansing.4 The Independent International Fact-finding Mission on Myanmar went to Bangladesh in October 2017. The experts stated that they were “deeply disturbed” by accounts of killings, torture, rape, arson and aerial attacks reportedly perpetrated against the Rohingya community in Myanmar. In December 2017, the High Commissioner condemned “widespread, systematic and shockingly brutal” attacks against the Rohingya, as well as decades of discrimination and persecution. He urged a special session of the Human Rights Council on the current situation of the minority Rohingya Muslim population in northern Rakhine State “to take the appropriate action to stop this madness now”. The High Commissioner also urged the Council to consider making a recommendation to the General Assembly that it establish a new impartial and independent mechanism, complementary to the enquiries of the Factfinding mission into the latest wave of violence and abuses, to assist individual criminal investigations of those responsible. 15. In May 2017, the report of the mapping project documenting serious violations of international human rights law and international humanitarian law committed within the territory of the Central African Republic between January 2003 and December 2015 was issued, highlighting the religious and ethnic dimensions of many of the crimes committed in the country. 5 The report contained recommendations on some priority areas for investigation, including attacks targeting persons because of their religion or ethnicity, by investigating emblematic cases of forcible transfers of population and violations of the freedom of movement, notably of people confined in enclaves. Since persecution on the basis of religious affiliation was an extreme form of violation associated with the conflict and left a major scar on society, it would be important to identify the planners and organizers of such acts. 16. In June 2017, the High Commissioner for Human Rights, in an oral update to the Human Rights Council on the situation of human rights in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, stated that the humanitarian and human rights situation had deteriorated dramatically and that a number of actors were fuelling ethnic hatred, resulting in extremely grave, widespread and, supposedly, planned attacks against the civilian population in Kasai province. Some 1.3 million internally displaced persons had fled. 6 As a result, in its resolution 35/33, adopted on 22 June 2017, the Human Rights Council requested the creation of a team of experts to collect information and determine the facts and circumstances in Kasai province, in accordance with international standards. 1 2 3 4 5 6 6 See, for example, A/HRC/34/67. See, for example, www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?News ID=22148&LangID=E. “Interviews with Rohingyas fleeing from Myanmar since 9 October 2016”, available at www.ohchr.org/Documents/Countries/MM/FlashReport3Feb2017.pdf. See www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=22041&LangID=E. Available at www.ohchr.org/Documents/Countries/CF/Mapping2003-2015/2017 CAR_Mapping_Report_EN.pdf. See www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=21782&LangID=E.