Tun Khin is a Rohingya human rights advocate, president and co-founder of the Burmese Rohingya Organisation UK (BROUK), and chairperson of the Arakan Rohingya National Council (ARNC). Based in London, he has worked for Rohingya citizenship, protection, political representation and accountability for atrocities in Myanmar. He is among the Rohingya plaintiffs in the universal jurisdiction investigation in Argentina, one of the most significant legal efforts to pursue individual criminal responsibility for crimes against the Rohingya.
Early life and displacement
Tun Khin was born in Buthidaung Township in Arakan State, Myanmar. His family’s history reflects successive waves of Rohingya displacement. During the 1978 Operation Dragon King campaign, his parents fled to Bangladesh before later returning to Myanmar. Tun Khin has described how discrimination also shaped his own education: unable to attend university in Myanmar because he was Rohingya, he left Arakan in the 1990s.
He later studied engineering and completed civil engineering qualifications at London South Bank University. Accounts of his life identify him also by the Rohingya name Ziaul Gaffar. In his public advocacy, he has connected his family’s experience of flight and his exclusion from education to the broader history of restrictions on Rohingya citizenship, movement and access to public services.
Burmese Rohingya Organisation UK
After coming to the United Kingdom, Tun Khin helped establish BROUK and became its president. The organisation has campaigned internationally for recognition of the Rohingya as a people of Myanmar, restoration of their rights, protection of civilians, and accountability for abuses committed by state authorities and other armed actors.
Tun Khin has taken Rohingya concerns to lawmakers, international institutions and the media. His public engagements have included the UK Parliament, other national legislatures, European institutions and United Nations human rights forums. Through interviews, speeches and written commentary, he has argued that humanitarian assistance must be accompanied by political rights and credible paths to justice. The Free Rohingya Coalition reported that Refugees International gave him its Richard C. Holbrooke Leadership Award in 2015 for his advocacy.
Advocacy during the 2017 crisis
Following the Myanmar military’s operations in northern Arakan in 2016 and 2017 and the mass flight of Rohingya to Bangladesh, Tun Khin pressed governments to respond to the violence and to address the long-standing system of discrimination preceding it. BROUK called for international criminal accountability, targeted sanctions and protection for Rohingya still living in Myanmar.
His advocacy has also addressed proposals for return from Bangladesh. BROUK has argued that return cannot be treated simply as a movement of people across a border: safety, citizenship, freedom of movement and access to homes and services are central to any durable solution. In 2017, Tun Khin called for implementation of the recommendations of the Advisory Commission on Rakhine State, including reform of citizenship rules, humanitarian access and freedom of movement.
The universal jurisdiction case in Argentina
Tun Khin’s most consequential legal activity has been his participation in the Argentine case concerning alleged genocide and crimes against humanity against the Rohingya. On 13 November 2019, BROUK, supported by Argentine human rights organisations and represented by lawyer Tomás Ojea Quintana, asked an Argentine court to investigate Myanmar military and civilian leaders. Tun Khin was a leading public representative of the complaint and became a plaintiff in the proceedings.
The complaint invoked universal jurisdiction: the principle under which a national court may investigate certain grave crimes even when the alleged acts took place abroad. It concerned violence against Rohingya communities as well as the discriminatory policies and restrictions that preceded the mass expulsions of 2016 and 2017.
An Argentine court initially declined to proceed, partly because related matters were being examined by the International Criminal Court. BROUK appealed. In November 2021, an appeals court directed that the investigation could go forward. Tun Khin testified before the court in December 2021, speaking about his personal history and the wider persecution of the Rohingya.
The case has increasingly included direct participation by survivors. Six Rohingya women joined as formal parties, and survivor testimony has been gathered in the investigation. BROUK and the Global Justice Center also made a submission in 2023 concerning the treatment of survivors of sexual violence, urging procedures that would allow testimony to be received with dignity and without avoidable harm. The United Nations Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar has shared relevant information with Argentine authorities, subject to its procedures and the consent of sources.
The investigation has examined several kinds of evidence. In 2022, the Argentine judiciary sought information from Facebook about anti-Rohingya hate speech and accounts connected to Myanmar officials. BROUK argued that records of online incitement could help establish how hostility toward the Rohingya was spread before and during the violence.
In December 2023, BROUK petitioned the Argentine court for arrest warrants against Min Aung Hlaing and six other military-linked individuals. Its request drew in part on evidence gathered during the investigation, including testimony from Rohingya survivors who had travelled to Buenos Aires. An Argentine prosecutor subsequently requested warrants for a larger group. On 13 February 2025, an Argentine judge issued warrants for 25 military and civilian figures in connection with alleged crimes against the Rohingya.
The warrants marked a major development, but they did not establish guilt or constitute convictions. BROUK has stated that its December 2023 warrant request concerned military officials; certain civilian figures were added independently in the prosecutor’s later request. Tun Khin and BROUK have continued to call for the warrants to be acted upon.
In February 2026, BROUK filed a related civil claim in Argentina seeking reparations for Rohingya victims. It asked the court to consider assets connected to senior Myanmar military figures as a possible means of compensation. Later that year, BROUK also asked the Argentine judiciary to pursue Min Aung Hlaing’s arrest and extradition in connection with an anticipated visit to Thailand. These were requests made within an ongoing legal process, rather than completed arrests or awards of compensation.
Documenting conditions in Arakan
Alongside the court case, Tun Khin has used BROUK’s research and briefings to draw attention to conditions faced by Rohingya remaining in Myanmar. The organisation has reported on confinement in displacement camps, restrictions on movement, access to healthcare, food and education, and obstacles to humanitarian assistance.
After Cyclone Mocha struck Arakan in May 2023, BROUK published a report examining deaths it considered preventable and the effect of long-standing restrictions on Rohingya communities exposed to the storm. Tun Khin argued that the response to the cyclone had to be understood in the context of the existing system of confinement and denial of aid. BROUK has also issued reports examining conditions under the provisional measures ordered by the International Court of Justice in the separate case brought by The Gambia against Myanmar.
As conflict intensified in Arakan from late 2023 onward, BROUK documented allegations involving both the Myanmar military and the Arakan Army. In September 2025, it petitioned the Argentine court to consider alleged atrocities against Rohingya by the Arakan Army within the scope of its investigation. Tun Khin has called for accountability based on the acts committed, regardless of the identity of the alleged perpetrator.
International advocacy and the ARNC
Tun Khin has continued to address international human rights forums. In September 2025, he spoke at the UN Human Rights Council and met UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk. He called for humanitarian access, action on the Argentine warrants and Rohingya participation in decisions about their future. In 2026, he again addressed the Council on allegations of forced recruitment, sexual violence and other abuses affecting Rohingya communities.
In July 2025, Rohingya representatives publicly launched the Arakan Rohingya National Council after a period of consultations. ARNC identifies Tun Khin as its chairperson. Its stated aim is to provide a coordinated political voice for Rohingya living in Myanmar, in refugee camps and across the diaspora. Tun Khin’s ARNC role places his legal and human rights advocacy alongside work on political representation and the future of Arakan.
Significance
Tun Khin’s work spans community organising, public advocacy, documentation and litigation. His involvement in the Argentina case has helped bring Rohingya complainants and survivors into proceedings aimed at determining individual responsibility for alleged atrocities. His continuing work through BROUK and ARNC reflects two connected goals: accountability for past and ongoing abuses, and meaningful Rohingya participation in decisions that will determine their rights and future.