{"id":2186,"date":"2019-09-03T06:13:08","date_gmt":"2019-09-03T06:13:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/arakanwatch.org\/?p=2186"},"modified":"2019-09-12T06:16:52","modified_gmt":"2019-09-12T06:16:52","slug":"myanmar-end-campaign-to-deny-rohingya-citizenship-and-erase-identity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/arakanwatch.org\/en\/myanmar-end-campaign-to-deny-rohingya-citizenship-and-erase-identity\/","title":{"rendered":"Myanmar: End Campaign to Deny Rohingya Citizenship and Erase Identity"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n
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Fortify Rights\u2019 latest 102-page report exposes new details on root of Rohingya crisis<\/em><\/h3>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n\n\n
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(Bangkok, September 3, 2019)\u2014The Government of Myanmar should end discriminatory measures that deny Rohingya equal access to citizenship, said Fortify Rights in a new report today. The report exposes a systematic campaign to erase the identity of Rohingya Muslims.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Myanmar government is trying to destroy the Rohingya people through an administrative process that effectively strips them of basic rights,\u201d<\/em>\u00a0said Matthew Smith, Chief Executive Officer at Fortify Rights.\u00a0\u201cThis process and its impacts lie at the root of the Rohingya crisis, and until it\u2019s addressed, the crisis will continue.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The 102-page report,\u00a0\u201cTools of Genocide\u201d: National Verification Cards and the Denial of Citizenship of Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar<\/strong><\/em><\/a>, reveals how Myanmar authorities forced and coerced Rohingya to accept National Verification Cards (NVCs), which effectively identify Rohingya as \u201cforeigners\u201d and strip them of access to full citizenship rights. Myanmar authorities tortured Rohingya to accept NVCs and restricted the movement and livelihoods of Rohingya who refused NVCs. Due to a highly restrictive environment created by the government, international humanitarian agencies also effectively furthered the government\u2019s NVC policies and erasure of Rohingya identity, according to the report.<\/p>\n

The violations documented in the report associated with the government\u2019s NVC process and the denial of citizenship are within the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court to consider in its investigation into atrocity crimes against Rohingya in Myanmar, Fortify Rights said.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n\n\n
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H.K., 75, Cox\u2019s Bazar District, Bangladesh. \u00a9Saiful Huq Omi, Counter Foto,\u00a0August 2019<\/h4>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n\n\n
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The new report is based on more than 600 interviews, including with 304 Rohingya women, in Myanmar, Bangladesh, and Malaysia. Fortify Rights interviewed eyewitnesses and survivors of human rights violations as well as members of civil society organizations and humanitarian aid workers.<\/p>\n

The United Nations Office on Genocide Prevention warns of certain indicators that \u201cprovide an environment conducive to the commission of atrocity crimes,\u201d including \u201cincreased politicization of identity\u201d and discriminatory \u201cmeasures or legislation\u201d targeting protected groups. In addition to certain prohibited acts, such as killing members of a group, genocidal States often use legal and administrative tools to facilitate the destruction of a targeted group \u201cin whole or in part.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe NVC is a tool of genocide,\u201d a Rohingya refugee in Bangladesh told Fortify Rights. \u201cWe want our citizenship restored first, and there should be equality, safety, and security in our motherland.\u201d<\/p>\n

Using a citizenship law entered into force in 1982, the government denies access to full citizenship for individuals who do not belong to certain \u201cnational\u201d ethnic groups determined by the Government of Myanmar. The government relies on an arbitrary and disputed list of 135 recognized ethnic groups that excludes Rohingya, effectively stripping them of access to full citizenship rights under the current law.<\/p>\n

Successive Myanmar governments also created a series of administrative \u201ccitizenship scrutiny\u201d processes involving a variety of \u201cidentification cards\u201d that progressively limited the rights of Rohingya. The NVC is the most recent process that fails to confer rights to Rohingya and is implemented through further human rights violations.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was beaten everywhere\u2014my head, back, chest, and all over my body,\u201d a Rohingya farmer, 62, told Fortify Rights, describing beatings by Myanmar authorities who threatened him to accept an NVC, telling him, \u201cIf you don\u2019t accept the NVC, we will kill you.\u201d<\/p>\n

Myanmar state security forces also forced Rohingya to accept NVCs at gunpoint.<\/p>\n

\u201c[The soldiers] closed the door and surrounded us, holding guns,\u201d a Rohingya man, 61, from Baw Tu Lar village\u2014also known as Bandola village\u2014 in Rakhine State\u2019s Maungdaw Township told Fortify Rights. Myanmar authorities forced him and four of his seven family members to accept the NVC. \u201cThey separated men and women . . . The threats to receive an NVC are real. It\u2019s a horrible situation for us.\u201d<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n\n\n
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O.M., 55, Cox\u2019s Bazar District, Bangladesh. \u00a9Saiful Huq Omi, Counter Foto,\u00a0August 2019<\/h4>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n\n\n
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Beginning in October 2016 and August 2017\u2014in response to Rohingya militant attacks on police\u2014Myanmar security forces and civilian perpetrators razed several hundred Rohingya villages and massacred and raped Rohingya women, men, and children throughout northern Rakhine State, forcing nearly 800,000 to flee to Bangladesh. Fortify Rights, the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar (FFM), and others documented\u00a0evidence of genocide<\/a>\u00a0and crimes against humanity.<\/p>\n

\u201cTools of Genocide\u201d<\/em><\/a>\u00a0documents an uptick in Myanmar authorities\u2019 efforts to coerce or force Rohingya to accept NVCs just prior to widespread and systematic Myanmar Army-led attacks on Rohingya civilians in 2016 and 2017. There is evidence of a correlation between Myanmar authorities\u2019 efforts to force Rohingya to accept NVCs and their efforts to destroy the Rohingya as a group.<\/p>\n

The FFM similarly reported how \u201c[p]ressure to accept the NVC increased in the months leading up to August 2017\u201d and that Border Guard Police and Myanmar Army soldiers held a \u201cseries of more targeted and aggressive meetings\u201d with Rohingya elders in mid-August 2017, demanding residents accept NVCs. According to the FFM, these meetings happened where \u201csome of the most brutal \u2018clearance operations\u2019 subsequently took place.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fortify Rights further documented how Myanmar authorities coerced Rohingya to accept NVCs in order to travel and in exchange for access to subsistence livelihoods, creating severe economic pressure on Rohingya who refuse to identify as\u00a0\u201cBengali\u201d or other inaccurate identities.<\/p>\n

\u201cLast year, in September 2018, the authorities told me I could not fish,\u201d a Rohingya fisher, 30, told Fortify Rights. \u201cWithout the NVC, we cannot move or work, so I had no choice but to take the NVC.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Myanmar government\u2019s efforts to force Rohingya to accept NVCs also impacts the work of international humanitarian aid organizations operational in northern Rakhine State. Rohingya aid workers are required by the government to hold an NVC to travel and carry out their work.<\/p>\n

Fortify Rights documented how at least five humanitarian aid organizations coerced Rohingya to accept NVCs from 2016 to 2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy country director said, \u2018How can you stay with [our organization] without travel authorization?\u2019 I was advised that it is better to take the NVC to carry out my duties,\u201d a Rohingya aid worker in northern Rakhine State told Fortify Rights. \u201c[The agency] said, if not, they will not hire me again next year. I started considering my job security, and if I talk to you honestly, I had to take the NVC.<\/p>\n

Rohingya and foreign aid workers in northern Rakhine State also told Fortify Rights that Rohingya staff of international humanitarian aid organizations were unable to identify as Rohingya within their organizations and in the workplace.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was not able to say I was Rohingya in my place of work,\u201d a 37-year-old Rohingya aid worker told Fortify Rights. \u201cI was unable to say it at meetings or to people I would work with.\u201d<\/p>\n

Current senior staff of humanitarian organizations working in the area spoke about an ongoing \u201cculture of silence\u201d and \u201can environment of self- censoring.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe situation in northern Rakhine is exceedingly difficult but there\u2019s no justification for excluding the term Rohingya\u00a0from the workplace or requiring Rohingya aid workers to accept NVCs,\u201d\u00a0<\/em>said Matthew Smith.\u00a0\u201cAid groups are a part of the solution in northern Rakhine State, and the government is creating significant ethical challenges. Bold moral leadership is desperately needed.”<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

International humanitarian agencies in northern Rakhine State should establish a \u201ccommon position\u201d and \u201ca coordinated, rights-respecting response\u201d to the NVC process in order to protect the rights of Rohingya and enable Rohingya to opt out of the NVC process, if they choose, without fear of reprisals or loss of opportunities, Fortify Rights said.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n\n\n
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N.F., 20, Cox\u2019s Bazar District, Bangladesh. \u00a9Saiful Huq Omi, Counter Foto,\u00a0August 2019<\/h4>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n\n\n
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The new report documents how Myanmar\u2019s NVC process and denial of citizenship for Rohingya contravenes Myanmar\u2019s international legal obligations, including the rights to nationality, non-discrimination, protection from torture or ill-treatment, freedom of movement, and an adequate standard of living.<\/p>\n

Evidence in the report also addresses whether and how the NVC process and the 1982 Citizenship Law relate to the crimes against humanity of persecution and deportation as well as two prohibited acts of genocide\u2014namely, causing serious mental harm to Rohingya, and deliberately inflicting on Rohingya conditions of life calculated to bring about the group\u2019s physical destruction in whole or in part.<\/p>\n

The U.N. Security Council should refer the situation in Myanmar to the International Criminal Court or create a separate criminal tribunal to investigate and prosecute the full spectrum of atrocity crimes in Myanmar, including crimes in Rakhine, Kachin, and Shan states, said Fortify Rights.<\/p>\n

\u201cTools of Genocide\u201d<\/em><\/a>\u00a0finds that the NVC process has not been a response to the crisis in Rakhine State, as the government suggests, but is rather “a fundamental part of the crisis.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fortify Rights recommends that the Myanmar authorities, with international support, restore equal access to full citizenship rights for Rohingya through a speedy administrative process developed with Rohingya in Myanmar, Bangladesh, and the diaspora. The government should accept all forms of documentation, including NVCs, National Registration Cards, White Cards, household lists, and other previous government-issued and U.N.-issued identity documents, as well as alternative forms of evidence, such as testimonial evidence, to support applications for citizenship.<\/p>\n

The government should abolish the NVC process and amend the 1982 Citizenship Law so that it provides for a single citizenship status, rather than three, and so that the law ceases to base access to citizenship on ethnic categories, Fortify Rights said.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n\n\n
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N.B., 25, Cox\u2019s Bazar District, Bangladesh. \u00a9Saiful Huq Omi, Counter Foto,\u00a0August 2019<\/h4>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

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For more information, please contact:<\/h2>\n

John Quinley III, Human Rights Specialist, Fortify Rights
\n+66 62 814 1130 (Thailand)
\nEmail:\u00a0john.quinley@fortifyrights.org<\/a>
\nTwitter:\u00a0@johnquinley3<\/a>,\u00a0@FortifyRights<\/a><\/p>\n

Matthew Smith, Chief Executive Officer, Fortify Rights
\n+66 85 028 0044 (Thailand)
\nEmail:\u00a0Matthew.Smith@FortifyRights.org<\/a>
\nTwitter:\u00a0@matthewfsmith<\/a>,\u00a0@FortifyRights<\/a><\/p>\n

Nickey Diamond, Myanmar Human Rights Specialist, Fortify Rights
\n+95 0 99 7568 3114 (Myanmar)\u00a0(Burmese; English)
\nEmail:\u00a0Nickey.diamond@fortifyrights.org<\/a>
\nTwitter:\u00a0@NickeyMdy<\/a>,\u00a0@FortifyRights<\/a><\/p>\n

Thanaporn (Kwan) Saleephol, Communications Associate, Fortify Rights
\n+66 64 974 4826 (Thailand)\u00a0(English; Thai)
\nEmail:\u00a0Thanaporn.Saleephol@FortifyRights.org<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Fortify Rights\u2019 latest 102-page report exposes new details on root of Rohingya crisis (Bangkok, September 3, 2019)\u2014The Government of Myanmar should end discriminatory measures that deny Rohingya equal access to citizenship, said Fortify Rights in a new report today. The report exposes a systematic campaign to erase the identity of Rohingya Muslims. \u201cThe Myanmar government […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1815,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[8,4,37,49,70,12,9],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arakanwatch.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2186"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arakanwatch.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arakanwatch.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arakanwatch.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arakanwatch.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2186"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/arakanwatch.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2186\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2187,"href":"https:\/\/arakanwatch.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2186\/revisions\/2187"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arakanwatch.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1815"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arakanwatch.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2186"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arakanwatch.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2186"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arakanwatch.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2186"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}