International panel event
Thursday 19 March 2026
6:00–7:30 pm
Hosted by the Diplomacy Society of University College London (UCL), in collaboration with United Against Inhumanity (UAI)

United Against Inhumanity (UAI) and the UCL Diplomacy Society are pleased to invite students, researchers, activists and all those interested in international affairs and human rights to a timely panel discussion on the crisis in Myanmar, including the situation of the Rohingya.

This event builds on earlier collaborations between UAI and the UCL Diplomacy Society, including a joint panel in January 2023 and a workshop held in September 2025 with the support of the United Nations Association UK. Since then, important political, diplomatic and humanitarian developments have made this conversation even more urgent.

Why this event matters

Myanmar remains at the centre of one of the most serious and neglected crises in the world. The armed conflict continues, the Rohingya remain displaced and denied justice, and humanitarian needs are deepening both inside Myanmar and across the region.

At the same time, the international context is shifting rapidly. Aid budgets are being cut. New regional and global political alignments are taking shape. Hearings at the International Court of Justice have continued. Elections in Myanmar and Bangladesh have raised new questions about legitimacy, power and regional responsibility. Meanwhile, international actors including ASEAN, the UN and neighbouring states are under growing pressure to respond more effectively.

This event offers a space to reflect on these developments and to discuss what they mean in practice — diplomatically, politically and humanitarily.

What we will discuss

The panel will explore questions including:

• What is the likely trajectory of the armed conflict in Myanmar?
• What role can the UN, ASEAN and other international actors play?
• Is there any realistic prospect of ending military rule and moving towards democratic accountability?
• How far can the international humanitarian system respond to the crisis?
• What changes may emerge in refugee policy in Bangladesh and other host countries?
• Can cooperation between IOM and UNHCR be improved in support of Rohingya refugees?
• Is Rohingya repatriation a viable objective, or should other strategies be prioritised?
• What advocacy opportunities exist at this moment?

Panelists

The discussion will feature:

Laetitia van den Assum
Former Ambassador of the Netherlands and member of the Advisory Commission on Rakhine State, chaired by Kofi Annan (2016–2017)

Lucky Karim
Advocate with Refugees International and founder of Refugee Women for Peace and Justice

Dr Jeff Crisp
Former UNHCR official and UAI volunteer

Ewen Macleod
Independent Consultant

Chair: Dr Melanie Garson, UCL (TBC)

Join us

The event will take place in person at the UCL campus and is aimed especially at students from UCL and neighbouring universities, including King’s and LSE. Some guest speakers may join online if they are unable to travel to London.

The discussion will also be live-streamed on Zoom, and a recording will be made available afterwards.

Whether you are following developments in Myanmar closely or looking to better understand one of the defining humanitarian and diplomatic crises of our time, we warmly encourage you to join us.

The post Beyond Silence: Myanmar, the Rohingya, and the Politics of Inhumanity appeared first on United Against Inhumanity.

The post Joint US-UK Civil Society Letter on Sudan – Atrocity Prevention Working Group appeared first on United Against Inhumanity.

The contribution from the floor at the end of the presentation was by Eva Jonsson and relates to ‘Community Sponsorship of Refugees’. This is an organisation that has been in existence since 2016 and is modeled on a scheme that has been used in Canada for a number of years. In the UK it has helped Syrian refugees to the UK find suitable accommodation.

Gill Grunwald (Hon Treasurer & Acting Secretary): Gill has a degree in Chemistry and taught for a number of years before a mid-life career change to work in the field of accountancy and bookkeeping. She has extensive experience of voluntary work on committees in the UK as well as in Thailand and Malaysia. Currently, she is Honorary Treasurer and acting Secretary to the committee and is also their Communications Manager.

The post Report on the UK Government’s Homes for Ukraine Scheme – a collaboration between LBS & UAI in the UK [Video] appeared first on United Against Inhumanity.

The post Atrocity Prevention Working Group letter on Sudan appeared first on United Against Inhumanity.

United Against Inhumanity in the UK invites you to an evening for a keynote event with Guardian Journalist, Kaamil Ahmed. This follows our extensive coverage of the plight of the Rohingya in Myanmar and abroad. Later in the evening UAI in the UK Committee members will report on the LBS (London Business School) project and formally hold their Annual General Meeting.

Please join us at Initiatives of Change venue on Monday 26 June. If you are unable to get to the venue it will be possible to watch on line. Book a ticket here via Eventbrite, preferably before Friday 23rd June 2023. If you are attending on line you will receive the Zoom link via Eventbrite.

Full schedule for the evening

6:30PM: Doors open (Tea and coffee will be available)

7:00PM – 8:00PM: Kaamil Ahmed in Conversation with Dr Jeff Crisp

8:00PM – 8:30PM: Committee Presentation: Initial Assessment of UK’s Homes for Ukraine scheme
Presentation of an Initial Assessment of the UK’s Homes for Ukraine scheme (a collaboration between MBA students at the London Business School and UAI in the UK).

8:30PM – 9:00PM: UAI in the UK’s Annual General Meeting

Keynote event : Kaamil Ahmed in Conversation with Dr Jeff Crisp

Following UAI in the UK’s coverage of the plight of the Rohingya, we are honoured that Kaamil Ahmed has agreed to take part in a conversation with Dr Jeff Crisp about the Rohingya who are the subject of his new book. (See the end of the event description for comments by some reviewers.) Furthermore, Jeff himself has been actively monitoring and involved in addressing the situation of the Rohingya for years. He recently published “UN and Rohingya Refugee Repatriation: is History About to Repeat Itself?” in The Irrawady newspaper (22nd March 2023).

Kaamil Ahmed is an author and a journalist at The Guardian, covering international development, who previously lived in and reported from Jerusalem, Bangladesh and Turkey. Kaamil studied at Queen Mary University of London. “I Feel No Peace” (2023) is his first book. It covers violence, persecution and exploitation of Rohingya and is published by Hurst Publishers.

Dr Jeff Crisp has held senior positions with UNHCR (Head of Policy Development and Evaluation), Refugees International (Senior Director for Policy and Advocacy) and the Global Commission on International Migration (Director of Policy and Research). He has also worked for the Independent Commission on International Humanitarian Issues, the British Refugee Council and Coventry University. Jeff has first-hand experience of humanitarian operations throughout the world and has published and lectured widely on refugee and migration issues. He has a Masters degree and PhD in African Studies from the University of Birmingham. He is currently an Associate Fellow in International Law at Chatham House and a Visiting Research Fellow at the Refugee Studies Centre, University of Oxford. He is a Committee member of United Against Inhumanity in the UK.

Location and accessibility

Initiatives of Change, 24 Greencoat Place, London SW1P 1RD

There is easy access to Victoria rail, coach and bus stations. The venue is a 10 minutes walk from Victoria underground station and St James’ Park station is a 15 minutes walk. There are two car parking spaces that must be booked in advance. The nearest street parking is in Vincent Square.

The ground floor is fully accessible with a lift that provides access to the 1st floor. Disabled toilets are located on the ground floor. Guide dogs and other assistance dogs are welcome.

Please contact us to discuss your needs if need be: contact@against-inhumanity.org

Booking a ticket for the event

The event will take place in person, but you can also book a ticket to follow the event online. You will receive the Zoom link to follow the event online via Eventbrite, 48 hours before the event.

The event is free of charge, but you are welcome to support us by donating via our website. Please quote ‘UK AGM Event’ as a reference.

Reviews of Kaamil Ahmed’s Book, “I Feel No Peace: Rohingya Fleeing over Seas and Rivers” (more are available here)

‘An impressive mix of history, political analysis and extensive reportage from Myanmar, Bangladesh and Malaysia… The book gives a human angle to the refugee crisis and Ahmed’s often tender portrayal, combined with a rightful anger for their treatment, is a must read.’ — Asian Review of Books

‘In prose that brims with empathy and humanity, Ahmed zooms in on individual lives to explain the breadth of this people’s struggles.’ — Prospect

As Mr. Ahmed observes with heart-rending eloquence, the Rohingya have been, since 1982, a species of non-people in Myanmar… To read Mr. Ahmed’s invaluable book is to become overwhelmed with dread for the Rohingya.’ — The Wall Street Journal

The post Invitation: Guardian Journalist, Kaamil Ahmed, in Conversation with Dr Jeff Crisp appeared first on United Against Inhumanity.

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18:30 to 20:30 (GMT)

THIS EVENT IS FREE

Since the military coup in Myanmar in February 2021, the situation for ordinary people in the country has become more and more desperate. What can be done?

The Diplomacy Society at University College London, in collaboration with UAI in the UK, will host a HYBRID WEBINAR to explore this question.

Please join us for this important online event. To register, click on the Registration link below.

REGISTRATION VIA EVENTBRITE

Participants are as follows:

Chair:

Dr Melanie Garson – Associate Professor (Teaching) in Conflict Resolution & International Security at UCL

Panelists:

‘Alexia’ – Activist from Myanmar
Min Ye Kyaw – Journalist from Myanmar
Adelina Kamal – Formerly of the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN)

Sir Charles Petrie – Former UN Resident Coordinator in Myanmar
Dr Jeff Crisp – Former head of policy at UNHCR and Committee member of UAI in the UK
Florence Duchet – Recent UCL graduate and volunteer with UAI

ABOUT THE EVENT

The event will start with a presentation about the current situation in Myanmar, including an analysis of how it has developed and how it compares with earlier periods under military rule. 

There will be a special focus on the student-led uprising (and its consequences) and consideration of the situation of the Rohingya, both those in Myanmar and those living as refugees in Bangladesh and other countries in the region.

In the final segment, panellists will look at the options for the future and the attitudes of external actors including ASEAN, regional powers, such as China and India, the UN, and Western states.

BACKGROUND

Useful information for this meeting can be found in articles by Sir Charles Petrie, Florence Duchet, and Dr Jeff Crisp & Heeba Hasan on UAI’s website. See below for links to each of the articles.

Myanmar is falling apart. It needs urgent attention from the United Nations – By Charles Petrie

Myanmar is Descending into Anarchy, Atrocities, and Destitution: What can be done? – By Florence Duchet

Displaced, dispossessed and deprived of rights: The Rohingya of Myanmar – By Jeff Crisp and Heeba Hasan

Photo credit: Rohingya refugees entering Bangladesh in 2017 having been driven out of Myanmar. (UN)

The post EVENT – 23 JANUARY: Anarchy, Displacement and Destitution: What Future for Myanmar? appeared first on United Against Inhumanity.

The following is a transcript of the response made, at the 2021 AGM of UAI in the UK, to the keynote presentation by Dr Jeff Crisp

Jeff, I’d like to take this occasion to thank you for your constant commitment to advocate for refugee rights. It’s change-makers like you (who stand up to power) that make a difference in the lives of the vulnerable community of asylum seekers and refugees.

On European asylum policies, all I can say is that European member states are regretfully engaged in raising their border fences instead of elevating their moral leadership. Sadly, so many lives out there are lost while trying to reach a safe space.

In September 2020, the world recognized the 75th anniversary of the United Nations and its founding Charter. In July 2021, we will recognize the 70th anniversary of the Refugee Convention, created to ensure that the rights of refugees are respected and protected.

The UK takes pride in its heritage of welcoming refugees over the last 70 years and some of us here have benefited from this.  Now, as a result of the current government activities, we find that this tradition is being eroded.

We hear of a “New Plan for Immigration” which says that asylum seekers who enter the UK via routes deemed illegal will be removed. We are witnessing the Home Office proposal to send asylum seekers abroad while their claims are pending.

We hear that the Danish Parliament voted in favour of a proposal to process asylum seekers outside Europe by setting up a refugee screening centres in third countries. Although no deals with third countries have yet been signed, the Danish Government has agreed a Memorandum of Understanding with Rwanda and is in contact with Tunisia, Ethiopia and Egypt.

This plan drew strong criticism from the UN, the European Commission and human rights groups, who said that it lacked guarantees on human rights and would undermine international cooperation. It is this Danish ‘offshoring policy’ that the UK Home Office is seeking to emulate. One suggestion of the location seems to be Ascension Island, more than 4,000 miles from the UK.

I’d like to share what happened, in 2014, when the Danish Immigration Service appointed two researchers to carry out a fact-finding mission on Eritrea titled “Eritrea – Drivers and Root Causes of Emigration, National Service and the Possibility of Return. Country of Origin Information for Use in the Asylum Determination Process”. The Danish report documented that Eritrean refugees could safely return home with no consequent repercussions by the Eritrean authorities.

In 2015, in the UK, the number of Eritrean Refugees was higher than even the number of Syrians. The Home Office quickly adopted the Danish report to determine the decision on rejecting the Eritreans’ applications for asylum, knowing that this was at odds with the findings of the UN Commission of Inquiry on Human Rights in Eritrea, which had said that the severe human rights violations carried out by the government may constitute crimes against humanity and that Eritreans who fled the country illegally were regarded as “traitors” and, when they returned, were usually detained in harsh conditions. 

The Home Office rejected suggestions from NGOs, academics, media outlets and others to avoid using this report in determining the decision to reject applications from Eritrean asylum seekers.

Later, the two Danish researchers resigned because they believed that the final document produced by the Danish Immigration Service misrepresented them. As a consequence of this, the UK Home Office was forced to take the document off their site and, most importantly, to reverse the rejected Eritrean applications.

The advice and advocacy against using the findings in the report by Danish NGOs, including the Danish Refugee Council, Amnesty International, various civil society organisations, campaign individuals and groups, academics, as well as media outlets, had its impact.

Based on this, my suggestion would be to remove ourselves from the lack of moral leadership that UK authorities continue to display on this issue. We should engage in expressing our concerns and urge the government to “refrain from externalising its asylum obligations”.

The last event I would quickly want to share is the deal between Italian and Libyan authorities to prevent migrants/asylum seekers from reaching the European soil. In February 2020, the Italian authorities’ 2017 controversial agreement governing migrants crossing the Mediterranean Sea was renewed for a further 3 years.

What happens on the ground is that the migrants, or their smugglers, negotiate with the coast guards to turn a blind eye when they leave. Once the migrants are on the sea, they are returned by the orders of the same guards. These are guards who benefit from the salary and training funded by the Italian authorities.

One may ask if the Italian authorities are taking the smugglers out of business or helping them to flourish?

30 June 2021

The post AGM of UAI in the UK – Response by Lul Seyoum to the Keynote Presentation entitled ‘Institutionalizing Inhumanity’ appeared first on United Against Inhumanity.

The following is a transcript of the response made, at the 2021 AGM of UAI in the UK, to the keynote presentation by Dr Jeff Crisp, entitled ‘Institutionalizing Inhumanity’

I would like to share with you another example of what I believe contributes to “institutionalising inhumanity”. This relates to current bilateral and multilateral deals with Rwanda whereby refugees and asylum-seekers are transferred there, far from Europe, often unwillingly.

To my knowledge, these deals started back in 2014, between Rwanda and Israel. Reports of that time revealed that these two countries signed a private memorandum of understanding whereby Eritrean asylum-seekers in Israel were forcibly removed to Rwanda on tourist visas. According to UNHCR, bilateral transfer agreements must be public and ensure protection against refoulement from the receiving country. I gathered evidence from refugees who were subject to these removals to Rwanda that showcased that neither Rwanda, nor Israel, complied with their international obligations towards refugees.

The tourist visas that allowed entry into Rwanda were obviously temporary; reportedly, refugees were obliged to pay bribes to migration officials upon arrival to be able to enter the country, and once in the country, they did not get access to international protection. After the publication of several reports and advocacy work, these transfers were challenged as contrary to international law, and eventually halted.

However, these transfer agreements have now become “legal”, or in other words, ‘institutionalised’. In 2019, there was a Joint Statement between the Government of Rwanda, UNHCR and the African Union, with the support of the EU, to set up a transit mechanism for evacuating refugees out of Libya. While initially EU Member States were the ones agreeing to receive and provide protection to refugees and asylum-seekers who were held in detention centres in Libya, they later decided to partner with the Government of Rwanda for refugees to be evacuated out of Libya and transferred there instead. Most recently, just a few months ago, Denmark and Rwanda signed a memorandum on asylum and migration, setting out plans to shift asylum procedures outside the EU, and the UK is recently reported to be having similar discussions with Rwanda.

Are these policies and deals in compliance with international law? To what extent can Rwanda ensure the protection of all these refugees? Is there transparency in the management of these transfer mechanisms and the funds that Rwanda has received from its partners? These are urgent questions to which answers from UNHCR can reasonably be requested.

30 June 2021

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As a friend recently put it in a blog, this extraordinary year has reinforced our isolation from our fellow human beings in other parts of the world. News bulletins have been dominated to a degree we would not have thought possible by discussion of a single topic.

One can almost feel the perpetrators of atrocities breathing a collective sigh of relief, as the spotlight is removed from them, allowing them to continue their murderous rampages with impunity.

In this context, UAI becomes ever more important. Too often, when the wars in Syria, Yemen, South Sudan and elsewhere do hit the headlines, the emphasis is only on getting aid to the victims. However important this is (and it is), it pales into insignificance alongside what could be achieved if the wars stopped, and the war criminals were brought to account.

As this report sets out, the Committee of UAI in the UK has pursued several initiatives in support of the overall goals of UAI set out in its Call to Action.

While UAI builds up its support networks and reaches out to new supporters to join our growing community, one of the most valuable services we can provide is to bring to the attention of UAI’s supporters, in our monthly newsletters, reports and analysis of atrocities being suffered by ordinary people which readers would not otherwise hear about.

In our two most recent newsletters, we looked, in May, at the horrendous situation in Tigray, Ethiopia, and in June, we highlighted several new or under-reported refugee situations, that demand our attention.

Colleagues sometimes ask me, what do you want us to do with this information? Here are some suggestions:

• Forward the information to your MP. At my request, in the past year, my MP wrote twice to the Secretary of State at the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), once to support our calls for justice for the victims of war crimes in Syria and once to demand an explanation for why the government had not pursued criminal charges against a British national, dismissed and repatriated by the UN for sexual abuse in the DRC.
• Share the information with friends, including on social media. Encourage them to sign up to receive our updates. The overall goal of UAI is for a community of citizens around the world to emerge that is large enough and strong enough to insist that governments take seriously their responsibilities to stop war crimes and crimes against humanity. Every additional voice added to this community helps to build up support for attaining this goal.
• Find out what the overseas charities you support are doing in the affected areas and encourage them to speak out against the atrocities their staff are witnessing.
• Take a look at what the major human rights organisations, like Amnesty or Human Rights Watch, are reporting on the situations we are highlighting.
• Bring to our attention situations that you think we should be investigating.

Activity reports

Monthly Newsletters

In September 2020, we produced UAI in the UK’s first monthly newsletter, in the form of a simple email, highlighting three situations of concern, and including links to in-depth assessments of the situations. This formula was generally well received and in early 2021, UAI’s International Executive Committee (IEC) invited UAI in the UK to convert this newsletter into one that goes to all supporters of UAI in every part of the world. So, since April 2021, we have been doing that.

We greatly welcome feedback on these newsletters. Please send comments to uai.ukcontact@gmail.com.

Criminalisation of the Asylum Process

One of the most shocking developments of recent years in Europe has been the growing tendency of governments to try and portray as criminals, people who go out of their way to bring help to desperate migrants and people seeking asylum. This criminalisation of what our societies have seen as a moral duty has received tacit acceptance by European institutions, although one component of the state – the judiciary – has in some situations stood up defiantly against this trashing of normative behaviour. We were pleased to encourage two young Irish law graduates, David Whelan and Euan Lindsay, to publish an interesting blog on Judicial Activism in France, where the Courts have refused to convict French citizens arrested for providing help to migrants arriving there. (See below for the link)

How Judicial activism challenged Fortress Europe in France – by David Whelan and Euan Lindsay

And we have continued our discussions with potential partners about a proposal to bring together academics, NGOs, diaspora communities, lawyers, and government officials to explore ways of ensuring that help can be provided to those who need it, without risk of prosecution. 

Education in Emergencies

For a second year, UAI collaborated with a dynamic team of MBA students from London Business School (LBS) on a project focusing on the education needs of Syrian refugee children.  This year the spotlight was on children living in Jordan.   This project built on solid foundations from the LBS team in 2020 who had focused on potential digital tools for online learning.   This year’s study focused on several of the main causes for children being out of school: lack of key infrastructure (physical and virtual); lack of support for children who have dropped-out of education; and lack of funding for education, particularly at secondary level.  The team also highlighted the lack of opportunities in the workforce which could act as a disincentive for sending children to school when families have more immediate need for their children to work to supplement living expenses.  

This was a challenging project to undertake with little publicly available information and in a fluid context of the global Covid -19 pandemic.  The pandemic forced global school closures leaving over 103 million students out of the education system in the Middle East and North Africa, including 2.4 million learners in Jordan.   Whilst the Ministry of Education sought to leverage various distance learning tools, refugee children lacked the hardware or wifi connectivity to enable them to make most use of these facilities. The Syrian refugee crisis continues for a tenth consecutive year, with over 230,000 registered school-age children currently living between host communities and refugee camps at huge risk of being left behind, in addition to a commensurately large number of undocumented refugees. Children living in temporary homes, already at great educational disadvantage, are now increasingly vulnerable. Although mitigating measures have been put in place, such as extended electricity hours at camps and data free access to the MOE website, significantly more attention and resources need to be devoted to ensure that the digital divide does not lead to an even larger learning and poverty divide. 

Partnerships

At UAI in the UK we understand that we can usefully make common cause with other like-minded groups to expand our outreach and help them to reach new audiences.

1. Atrocity Prevention Working Group

This group, hosted by Protection Approaches, brings together 25 specialised groups and individuals working to prevent atrocities in different parts of the world. In August 2020, UAI co-signed a submission to the UK Government’s Integrated Review of Security, Defence, Development, and Foreign Policy, recommending the adoption of a national atrocity prevention strategy, a proposal that was largely reflected in the Review when it was published in March 2021.

2. Protection of Civilians Working Group

This group, hosted by Crisis Action, brings together several major UK-based NGOs delivering humanitarian aid in conflict situations. UAI worked with them on a comprehensive submission to the same Integrated Review. We joined the group in its dialogue with Ministers in the FCDO.

3. CanDo

CanDo is a small charity bringing help to the people of Syria. In March 2021, they mounted a campaign to raise funds to install equipment in Syrian schools which would enable them to receive alerts about imminent attacks from the air.

Correspondence with UK Government

We have continued a regular correspondence with Ministers in the FCDO on issues of concern, including notably the importance of justice and accountability for the victims of atrocities in Syria and other conflict countries and the devastating impact of the cuts in the UK’s foreign aid budget on the lives of the most desperate civilians affected by war.

Volunteers and Universities

UAI International has recruited a part-time Communications Officer, Eleftheria Kousta, who is working with several volunteers to promote UAI among students at British universities. Anybody interested to join this group is welcome to contact Eleftheria at the following email address: united.against.inhumanity@gmail.com

Membership and Supporters

UAI in the UK currently has 37 registered members and 228 supporters who receive our monthly newsletters and other announcements. Applications for membership are always welcome and there is currently no fee for membership.

The Committee

The members of the Committee over the past year have been:

Martin Barber, Chair

Gill Grunwald, Treasurer and Acting Secretary

Saba Al Mubaslat, Mark Bowden, and Lul Seyoum – Vice-Chairs

Sarah Beeching, Amina Khalid, Michael Mosselmans and Sara Palacios Arapiles – Members  

30 June 2021

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