Dhaka, June 18 -- An independent review into how the UN System operated in Myanmar in the years leading up to the mass exodus of the Rohingya following serious human rights abuses has concluded there were "systemic and structural failures" that prevented a unified strategy from being implemented.

The report by former Guatemalan Foreign Affairs Minister Gert Rosenthal said the UN System overall had been "relatively impotent to effectively work with the authorities of Myanmar, to reverse the negative trends in the areas of human rights, and consolidate the positive trends in other areas."

Rosenthal is a former UN Ambassador and top executive at the UN's Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), according to UN News....