Shabnam Mayet is a South African Advocate, based at the Johannesburg Bar. Her professional experience covers a range of legal matters. She advises both organisations and individuals on international human rights related issues. As co-founder of Protect the Rohingya, she is often invited by the media to provide comment or write articles about the Rohingya genocide in Myanmar.

(Interview published 1 August 2019)

What do you think are the main tasks facing Rohingya living in the diaspora?

Not just the Rohingya but peace and justice loving people the world over should pressure their governments to act in the face genocide. It is clear that civil society has to take the lead on this issue.

Since August 2017, we have seen and heard many statements, resolutions, reports, documentaries, speeches, analyses etc. about the crisis. Care to mention any as noteworthy?

I think movements by the International Criminal Court to find jurisdiction and hopefully investigate the Rohingya issue have made an impact internationally, and given the issue importance (although it is a slow process). The main thing for me, however, is to witness how many individuals and small organisations have and continue to put so much effort and passion into working for Rohingya rights.

Which politicians in your country have been positive about the Rohingya issue? Is your government supportive?

The South African government and ruling party, the African National Congress, have done little for the Rohingya apart from issuing some statements in 2017. However, after abstaining from earlier votes related to the Rohingya genocide at the UN , South Africa voted in support of the resolution on the human rights situation in Myanmar at the UN General Assembly at the end of 2018. This was hailed as a demonstration of a new dawn in South African foreign policy, and a return to its founding principles of standing against human rights violations.

How do people perceive Aung San Suu Kyi in your country?

Many are confused and disappointed by her silence on the Rohingya issue, especially after she was lauded as a human rights icon along with our late President Nelson Mandela and Archbishop Desmond Tutu.

What kinds of campaigns are needed to bring greater focus on the Rohingya issue?

I think as South Africans we have seen that when dealing with an apartheid state, a powerful international solidarity movement with sanctions and trade, academic, cultural and sport boycotts are most effective.

Do you envisage much change to take place in the next 5 years?

I sincerely hope that in 5 years time, with much solidarity action and international community intervention, the Rohingya will be afforded their right to citizenship and everything that goes with it - including a safe, dignified and protected return home and reparations for the atrocities suffered.

Please briefly describe how you have been involved in Rohingya issues.

I am one of the co-founders of Protect the Rohingya. It is a South Africa-based awareness organisation which began in 2012 with a handful of members as a response to the 2012 Rakhine massacres. We now work with international Rohingya groups and activists. In 2014 we jointly published a legal report, "Hear Our Screams, Making A Case For The Rohingya Genocide", with the Muslim Lawyers Association, Johannesburg. We also have an e-book in our name which we published in 2015. We have had a speaking tour around the country with members of the European Rohingya Council in 2013 and they met with Dirco officials to brief them about their plight. Another speaking tour ran during the start of 2018 and was countrywide.

Our legal project sent three South African lawyers to Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh in December of 2017 to take statements from Rohingya refugees to be used in international legal matters. The report from that project is entitled "They Ran For Their Lives." It has been submitted to the United Nations. In November of 2018, we collaborated with members of the Rohingya Community Development Campaign (RCDC) to organise a winter school for 100 Rohingya adults, men and women, in Balukhali refugee camp.