On March 21, Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken announced what the world has long known: that the Burmese Rohingya faced genocide and crimes against humanity at the hands of the Burmese military. The determination was based on atrocities committed in 2016 and 2017.

Sadly, there is no reason to believe that the crimes have stopped since the military coup in 2021. Indeed, there is every reason to believe the atrocities continue, with no end in sight.

Earlier this month, a 193-page report released by Fortify Rights presented evidence that the Burmese military has continued to commit crimes against humanity since seizing power. Specifically, the report documented “how the Myanmar military junta murdered, imprisoned, tortured, disappeared, persecuted, and forcibly displaced or transferred peaceful protesters, activists, political leaders, and other civilians throughout the country in the six months following the military coup.” Burmese civilians, especially those opposing the military’s reign, as well as ethnic minorities involved in ethnic conflicts are the prime targets of the military’s latest round of atrocity crimes.

That the military continues to perpetrate grave human rights violations makes it even more pressing that the atrocity determination serve as a catalyst for action.

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Previous atrocities determinations have generated political momentum. After the Obama administration declared ISIS’ targeting of Yazidis and Christians in Iraq and Syria genocide, Congress sprang to action passing legislation that created a fund administered by USAID that so far has disseminated close to $400 million in assistance to survivors of ISIS’ genocide. The Trump administration’s determination that the Chinese Communist Party is committing ongoing genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs led other countries to make similar determinations, as well as issue multilateral sanctions and undertake diplomatic boycotts of the Beijing Olympics.

Atrocity determinations transcend administrations. They also have the potential to mitigate future atrocities and ensure adequate support to survivors. The Rohingya atrocity determination should be no different.

To ensure maximum impact, the U.S. and the international community should consider the following next steps:

1. Provide safe haven to Rohingya in need.

When situations are especially grave, the U.S. can confer the label of “groups of special humanitarian concern” by extending Priority 2 (P-2) refugee status. As a member of a persecuted group, P-2 recipients are able to bypass UNHCR-, embassy-, and NGO-referral and apply directly for resettlement in the U.S. They are processed on the basis of their belonging to a group with known, established grounds of persecution, like genocide. Current P-2s include Afghans who have worked for the U.S., Iraqis who have worked for the U.S., Burmese refugees in Thailand and Malaysia, and politically persecuted Cubans, among others. There is a strong case that Rohingya should receive this same designation.

2. Ramp up sanctions pressure on the Burmese military.

The Biden administration’s sanctions response has fallen far short of expectations. In the immediate aftermath of the coup, the Biden administration issued sanctions against two major military-owned conglomerates, MEC & MEHL. Since then, the sanctions response has petered out, issuing largely piecemeal sanctions, and stopping short of sanctioning the oil and gas industry. That’s a critical loophole, because the military-owned conglomerate Myanma Oil and Gas Enterprise largely bankrolls the military. Stronger sanctions—by the U.S. and others—are needed to cut the military off from the resources it needs to perpetrate ongoing and future atrocity crimes.

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3. Ensure adequate aid and assistance to the Civil Disobedience Movement—or the opposition, pro-democracy movement—in Burma. Using existing cross-border channels, the U.S. should continue to support a wide range of civil society organizations, including ethnic and women’s groups, that can provide support to those who are suffering the consequences of the coup. This should include not only assistance to CDM participants, protesters, detainees’ families, and those directly involved in the movement, but also an element specifically targeting military and other security personnel in a manner that would encourage defections. As members of the CDM increasingly become targets of the military’s ire, these efforts become even more important, as well as complementary, to this latest determination.

There is much work to do to ensure justice for the Burmese Rohingya people and others active in opposing the military’s brutal reign. The atrocity determination was an important step toward shoring up U.S. policy toward Burma, but it’s just that: the beginning. The U.S., in concert with international allies and partners, must make clear that there will be severe consequences for the military leadership should it continue to perpetrate atrocities against the Burmese people.