The Principle of Non-Interference and the Question of Human Rights Violation: The Case of the Rohingya Minority (original) (raw)
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Between August and February 2018, over 688,000 Rohingya refugees fled Myanmar for Bangladesh and the surrounding Southeast Asian countries. Since 1948, the Rohingya Muslims of Myanmar have been suffering from a violent persecution described by the UN as a "textbook example of ethnic cleansing" (Al Jazeera 2017). The response of the ten nations comprising the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), and of Bangladesh, to Rohingya refugees have been found lacking in humanitarian ideals, by repeatedly treating Rohingya as unworthy of protection or aid by ASEAN states. ASEAN throughout this crisis has attempted to avoid their obligations to refugees and human rights. I argue that it is ASEAN's institutionalized principle of non-interference that has lead to ASEAN's unwillingness to cooperate regionally on an effective regional refugee response to the Rohingya crisis, causing extensive tragedy and human rights abuses to Rohingya refugees. In order to improve the ...
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‘Whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity’, the human species discovered means to decrease the number of victims during the world’s history of violence and enable a large portion of humankind to coexist in peace. However, until today, humankind has also proven an enormous ability to tolerate vast brutalities and cruelties. From the emergence of civilization forward, forced displacements and exterminations of entire populaces, deliberate destructions of non-military property, large-scale indiscriminate killings, mass sexual violence, and torture have taken place. No part of the earth has not experienced one of those atrocities. During the centuries, earnest calls were made to cease atrocities and effectively protect civilians during war and peace. Ultimately after the horrors of WWII, when worldwide demands for ‘never again’ heightened, substantial efforts were made. Significant achievements have built the base for the evolution of human rights law nationally and internationally. The Genocide Convention criminalized genocide. Prohibiting genocide continued with the Geneva Conventions, and the Rome Statute criminalized crimes against humanity (CAH) and war crimes (WC). Nonetheless, to the greatest extent of human history and until not long ago, humanity’s reaction to the abominations of atrocity crimes was largely indifference, scepticism, or controversies over the protection of victims and the response to perpetrators. Perpetrators committed atrocities to achieve political aims. Unfortunately, in most instances, perpetrators were successful. The fate of the Rohingya population in Myanmar is one of those instances. August 2017 saw the unfolding of one of the most serious human rights disasters of modern times. More than 750,000 Rohingya were forced to flee Myanmar after the country’s military committed atrocities against them. At a time when Myanmar was opening up to the world, horrifying crimes against Rohingya were being committed. Yet it seems that the regional organization Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) has done little to prevent these. This dissertation strives to explore ASEAN's engagement with the Responsibility to Protect (RtoP) in light of the Rohingya crisis.
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