If this is not done, then the countries harbouring them should grant them nationalities
ISLAMABAD: In the post-Second World War era, there are charters which ensure basic human rights for all of humanity, such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). Such rights are called rights, therefore ‘omnes’ (towards all), as the charters were ratified by the sovereign legislatures, which represent more than 80 per cent of humanity. The rights we are concerned with in Myanmar are Articles three, 14 and 15 of the UDHR, which are, respectively, the right to life, asylum and nationality, and Article 14 of the ICCPR, which is the right to justice and fair trial.
The Rohingya people migrated from Bengal to Burma during British rule and settled in the state of Rakhine. The state was ethnically polarised with the Rakhine Buddhists on one side and the Rohingya Muslims on the other. In the 1990s, General Ne Win’s government enacted the Burmese Nationality Law which denied the Rohingya Burmese nationality, thus branding them stateless. Being stateless meant that you are not a party to any of the laws of the state, which also included fundamental human rights. Since then, the term ‘Rohingya’ has been used to refer to the stateless Muslims of Rakhine state.
The 2012 Burma riots, which began with an alleged rape of a Rakhine girl by a Rohingya male, started the unfair persecution of Rohingya Muslims as a whole. Around 4,000 of them have been killed and 8,000 are missing. Myanmar is in a state of anarchy. The legal action the state should have taken here was to hold a trial over the rape and punish the culprits. By not following this process, the state denied the Rohingyas the right to fair trial. The norm of being innocent until proven otherwise was destroyed and the Rohingyas were branded as criminals, becoming victims of acts of violence themselves. The Rohingyas became one of the most prosecuted people on earth. According to some statistics, more than 140,000 of the estimated 800,000 to 110,000 Rohingyas have been forced to seek refuge in displacement camps. Bangladesh is home to 32,000 registered refugees. About 3,000 boat people from Myanmar and Bangladesh have been rescued or have swum to shore, while several thousand more are believed to remain trapped at sea. At first, countries refused to harbour these refugees. Right now, the European Union, Turkey, the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia and several other countries are housing these refugees.
The legal solution to this crisis would be that the UN should play a concrete role in forcing the Burmese government through international law to grant the Rohingyas their nationality. If this is not done, then the countries harbouring them should grant them nationalities because if this issue of statelessness is further stalled, it will create an even bigger crisis.
Waqar Ali
Published in The Express Tribune, June 23rd, 2015.
Like Opinion & Editorial on Facebook, follow @ETOpEd on Twitter to receive all updates on all our daily pieces.
