Mediation and Crisis resolution

The Advisory Commission on Rakhine State (September 2016 – September 2017) was established as a joint initiative between the Government of Myanmar and the Kofi Annan Foundation. Its mandate was to propose concrete measures for improving the welfare of all people in Myanmar’s eastern Rakhine State, home of a Buddhist majority and a Muslim minority including those self-identifying as Rohingya. The Advisory Commission was composed of six local and three international experts, and was chaired by Kofi Annan.

The BBC described its establishment as a “glimmer of hope” after recurring cycles of violence and decades of chronic underdevelopment in Rakhine State.

A threat to peace:

  • Violence, social and ethnic tensions are endemic in Rakhine State.
  • 10 percent of the world’s stateless people live in Myanmar. The Muslims in Rakhine constitute the biggest stateless community in the world.
  • All communities in Rakhine suffer from poverty, poor social services and a scarcity of livelihood opportunities. The state’s poverty rate is 78 percent, double the national rate.

What we did in 2017:

  • The Commission published its final report “Towards a Peaceful, Fair and Prosperous Future for the People of Rakhine” in August 2017 after having released an interim report in March 2017.
  • In its work, the Commission considered humanitarian and developmental issues, access to basic services, legal questions including citizenship and the assurance of basic rights and security for all people in all communities.
  • The report is widely considered as the only viable roadmap to stability and development in Rakhine State, which in 2017 (and beyond) experienced very high levels of violence with hundreds of thousands displaced. Read the advisory commission’s final report at: www.RakhineCommission.org.
  • The report and its recommendations were endorsed by the Government of Myanmar, which has since established a body responsible for the implementation of the Advisory Commission’s recommendations.

What we are doing now:

  • The Foundation has produced a report on the lessons it learned in Rakhine State to help guide efforts to prevent and resolve conflict in the region and elsewhere. The Foundation’s formal role has ended, but it continues to share the experiences and recommendations of the Rakhine Commission with other actors working for peace and development in Rakhine State.
  • The Foundation receives regular requests to mediate and/or resolve crises around the world and considers them individually. Some of these interventions may require a sustained intervention, as in Myanmar. Others may consist of a limited number of conversations.

Donate