The Most Unwanted People in the World

Abstract

Victims of long-standing persecution and ethnically charged violence in Myanmar, the Rohingya Muslims are targets of genocide enacted by Myanmar’s military and permitted by the government. The state systematically rendered the Rohingya Muslims to be powerless actors under the 1982 Citizenship Law, making the Rohingya the largest population of stateless people in the world. The inter-state ethnic conflict reached new heights following the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) counterattack led by Rohingya men against the military in 2017. The military responded by burning Rohingya villages, gang-raping Muslim women, murdering Rohingya civilians, placing the Rohingya in internment camps, and causing Rohingya Muslims to flee to neighboring states.

Following the 2017 attack, the Myanmar military is committed to wiping Rohingya Muslims out of existence. The method of inquiry to research this paper was content analyses of journals and news articles about Myanmar’s historical ethnic tensions and current genocidal events. The objective is to investigate the human rights and security violations of the Rohingya Muslims done by Myanmar’s government backed by military force and the potential avenues of relief provided by foreign powers and international organizations. It concludes that intervention from States is needed to punish Myanmar for human rights and security violations.