Abstract
As an abstinence of the UN Refugee Convention, Bangladesh does not have an obligation to protect her inward refugees, and the Rohingya are one of the challenging concerns. This chapter aims to discuss human rights in light of international treaties/documents concerning the Rohingya community in Bangladesh when they are a stateless community, not refugees. Methodologically, this study takes the critical discourse analysis approach aided by secondary data. The study found that the community is competing with the majority of Bengali to access the common resources or property pools like forests, rivers, and beaches. This study concludes with a solid proposal of international legal frameworks' ratification and to make some local legal provisions for policy accelerating to reach the SDGs 2030.
TopIntroduction
Understandably, that Rohingya is a burning and burden issue for the Bangladesh government. Whether it has a political or social will but now it is a social and economic burden for the mass people when our economic and political unrest makes us hedge, then Rohingya is imposing an international political agenda in the Bay of Bengal, countering parts are Myanmar, India, and China (Ibrahim, 2018). This chapter did not heed all of these but will argue on the Human Rights situation of their life settings through the lens of international documents in Bangladesh to find the policy loopholes. However, there are three related issues of concern regarding the Rohingya crisis:
- (i)
a singular focus on persecution and nationality in Myanmar,
- (ii)
statelessness and displacement in the region
- (iii)
grave human rights violations amounting to international crimes, including genocide and crimes against humanity (Mutaqin, 2018).
This research also further expresses that to ensure that Myanmar will willingly accept the responsibility to address the source of the problem, the international community, particularly ASEAN, has to stand firmly against Myanmar's gross violation of human rights. At the same time, ASEAN must deal with the statelessness crisis by formulating a workable regional framework. However, this chapter will address the underlying Human Rights protection paradigm in Rohingya issues: how to reconcile State sovereignty vis-á-vis responsibility and how to ensure the protection of both human rights and State security.
Bangladesh is a small and overpopulated country; moreover, it has a political and ethnic conflict for occupying the driving seat (Roy et al.,2022). Despite this, the Issue has a long history in the Chittagong Hill Tract area (Roy et al.,2023). We heed the discursive discussion from different corners like academia, civil bureaucrats, and civil society. In that case, we can assume that Rohingya has a global political agenda, and it is not easy to solve when the powerful States are the players behind and beyond this Issue. In this context, this chapter's objectives are to explore Bangladesh’s position in international documents and to find out the policy loopholes for ensuring human rights in the light of the international legal protection framework. On the other hand, what says our discourse regarding the Rohingya issues, for example, ----- mostly discussed the historical context, such as questioning the origin of Rohingya and how the group was ending marginalized [dilemmas and insecurity, bilateral relationship, human rights]and discriminate by Myanmar authorities (Estriani, 2018; Parnini et al., 2013; Rahman, 2010; Ullah, 2011).
Key Terms in this Chapter
Stateless: The term “stateless person” means a person who is not considered a national by any State under the operation of its law (1954 Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons). According to its articles of 2, every stateless person has duties to the country where he finds himself, which require, in particular, that he conform to its laws and regulations as well as to measures taken to maintain public order.
Human Rights: In this chapter, the Rohingyas of Bangladesh are considered according to human rights principles. A fundamental human right is an essential privilege that everyone is entitled to, just by virtue of their humanity, irrespective of their nationality, gender, ethnicity, religion, or any other personal attribute. These rights shield people from unfairness and inequality and are widely acknowledged. All people have these rights by nature, regardless of gender, colour, nationality, ethnicity, language, religion, or any other characteristic. The freedom from slavery and torture, the right to life and liberty, the freedom of speech and thought, the right to employment and education, and many more are examples of human rights.
Migration Worker: A “migrant worker” is defined in the International Labour Organization (ILO) instruments as a person who migrates from one country to another (or who has migrated from one country to another) with a view to being employed other than on his own account, and includes any person regularly admitted as a migrant.
Rohingya: In general, meaning who have come from the Rakhain state of Myanmar to Bangladesh, popularly known as Rohingya. The Rohingya people are a stateless Indo-Aryan ethnic group who predominantly follow Islam and reside in Rakhine State, Myanmar. First time, in 1978, they fled to Bangladesh for political conflict, then in 1991-1992, and the next, the Rohingya influx wave started in 2017 massively. Before and after the Rohingya genocide in 2017, when over tentative estimated 1.4 million Rohingya fled to Bangladesh from Myanmar.
Refugee: UNHCR is the definition, protection, and welfare custodian of refugees. However, in this chapter, refugees cross the international border for well-ground reasons of feared persecution, conflict, generalized violence, or other circumstances in their home country. As a result, they require international protection. In a nutshell, a refugee is a person who has been forced to leave their country in order to escape war, persecution, or political violence.