Rohingya Crisis: the Reflection of the Role of Regional Human Rights Protection in Southeast Asia

Authors

  • Wilasinee Wadeesirisak School of Political and Social Sciences, University of Phayao

Keywords:

Rohingya, Human Rights, ASEAN, International Human Rights Mechanisms

Abstract

Rohingya is a Muslim ethnic minority group settled down in Arakan State or Rakhine in Myanmar. For many years, Rohingya people have been encountered discriminatory deprivation of human rights and numerous waves of religious tension and ethnic violence. Myanmar government has not recognized them as its nationals. They have become stateless and been seeking to refuge from Myanmar to Southeast Asian neighboring countries such as Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand. The Southeast Asian countries of Rohingya’s destination have been in a quandary about this issue.

This article is intended to find out why the Rohingya is not recognized as Myanmar citizens and to examine the role of human rights protection mechanisms of both internationally and especially regionally of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in safeguarding human rights for the stateless Rohingya minority group. It is found that the Rohingya has not been legally recognized to be the citizen of Myanmar by the 1982 Citizenship Law. This subject matter has been the historical consequence since the colonial era that it was annexed and administered as a province of British India. The efforts of human rights protection of the global community and ASEAN for the Rohingya have been handicapped. It is because the government of Myanmar has neither signed nor ratified any international human rights laws. Moreover, ASEAN regional human rights body might be recently established but it is ineffective because of ASEAN’s tradition of non-interference in each other’s internal affairs.

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Published

2018-11-14

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Section

บทความวิชาการ (Academic Article)