The Security Council is heading to Asia for a firsthand look at the plight of 700,000 Rohingya Muslims who fled a military crackdown in Myanmar and the several hundred thousand who remain in the country's northern Rakhine State.
Britain's UN ambassador, Karen Pierce, said the most important thing is that the body charged with maintaining international peace and security "can see for itself the situation on the ground in a very desperate case of alleged human rights violations and abuses and crimes against humanity."
The United Nations has a major effort under way to help the refugees in Bangladesh, and Pierce said the council will be able to see it in operation and "take a view on the extent to which that impacts on regional security and stability."
She said the council will also be able "to draw attention to what it considers are the most flagrant human rights abuses and violations, and what needs to be done next to help Myanmar develop as a modern political and economic entity, and to help create the conditions where the refugees can go home in safety and security and dignity."
Lord Nazir Ahmed, the United Kingdom's minister of state for the Commonwealth and the United Nations, told reporters earlier this week that Myanmar's agreement to the council visit and a previous visit by the UN special envoy for sexual violence in conflict "demonstrates the glimmer of hope in what has been a very dark chapter in human history in that part of the region."
Disclaimer: No Business Standard Journalist was involved in creation of this content