The Rohingyas: ASEAN’s Image and Responsibility

Abstract

Citizens enjoy protections and different kinds of rights in a country as its nationals. The stateless people,who are denied citizenships to any country, are deprived of such kinds of protections and rights, even thefundamental human rights. Among all the minority groups of the world, the United Nations considers theRohingyas of the Arakan in Myanmar as one of the most persecuted one. They have been deprived ofcitizenship of their country for long. They see a bleak future for them when the people of the Associationof Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) are eagerly waiting for a greater regional identity. The Rohingyasare deprived of fundamental human rights and are victims of state persecution policies. This factcontradicts with the regional value creation endeavors of the ASEAN. This paper is based on a review ofthe relevant literature on the issue. It looks into the origin of the so called ‘statelessness’ of theRohingyas, examines the international legal framework for the protection of the stateless people ingeneral, and the commitment of the individual ASEAN member countries to that legal framework as wellas the ASEAN’s role as a regional forum.