Policy Brief Assignment

Take on the role of a policy analyst at a human rights international governmental organization (IGO) and write a 2 page policy brief based on the human rights issue portrayed below.

“A policy brief is an advocacy and policy-making tool which communicates information to policy-makers and advocates for a certain course of action.  Persuasive, evidence-based, and structured writing of this type represents one of the most powerful ways of contributing to policy debates and influencing the policy-making process.”
[http://gdppc.idebate.org/content/writing-guidelines-policy-brief]

Typical Characteristics of a Policy Brief

• focused, succinct & limited
  problem & policy-oriented
• understandable, practical & feasible
• analysis-driven
• evidence-based
• offers viable recommendations
• appealing layout

Your policy brief should include the following components:

• executive summary
• introduction (context and importance of the issue
• approach and results (critique of the policy options)
• implications and recommendations

Be creative and feel free to “invent” information to lend credibility to the brief, and to cite your sources.  Remember to submit in MS Word.

Base your policy brief on this human rights issue:

Burma committed ethnic cleansing against thousands of Rohingya Muslims; 28 children hacked to death and mass graves uncovered.

Burma’s quasi-civilian government was accused of committing crimes against humanity in the Rakhine State for forcibly displacing more than 125,000 Rohingya Muslims, the religious minority.

A Human Rights Watch report revealed that authorities denied tens of thousands of stateless Muslims access to humanitarian aid, destroyed mosques, conducted mass arrests and issued a public statement promoting ethnic cleansing.

Security forces stood aside and directly assisted Arakanese mobs in attacking and killing Muslim communities.

In October, at least 70 Rohingya were killed in a day-long massacre in which 28 children hacked to death. Four mass gravesites were uncovered.

The persecution stems from a long internal conflict in Burma essentially emanating from an arbitrary citizenship law passed in 1982 which denies Burmese citizenship to Rohingya on discriminatory ethnic grounds. In recent times, lack of rule of law has led to thousands of Rohingya fleeing the country.

http://www.alternet.org/civil-liberties/14-shocking-global-human-rights-violations-2013

I attached helpful information.