Under Article 6 of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights[1] and Article 16 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights[2], “everyone has the right to be recognized as a person before the law.”[3] This guarantees the right to a legal identity, which includes the basic characteristics of a person’s identity such as their name, sex, place and date of birth.[4] Upon registration with the State, the State will issue proof of legal identity in the form of a birth certificate or identity card.[5] However, many States violate the human rights of stateless people by denying them this right to legal identity, leading to further human rights violations in other areas of life.[6]
Internationally, there are at least 4.4 million stateless people.[7] A stateless person “is someone who is not a citizen of any country.”[8] Due to their lack of connection to a State — even if they reside within one — stateless individuals are unable to register as citizens and, as a result, do not have proof of a legal identity.[9] The absence of documentation severely restricts the individual’s access to services and opportunities, including the ability to get a job, open a bank account, receive social assistance payments, access education, access health care, and limits voting, thus affecting both adults and children.[10] While the solution to this problem seems simple — ensuring that States issue proof of legal identity to allow individuals to fully participate in society — many States have used these identity documents as weapons against minority groups.[11]
One example of a group of stateless individuals who have faced proof of legal identity documents being used as weapons against them is the Rohingya. The Rohingya are a Muslim ethnic minority in Myanmar who have lived there since 1785.[12] In 1948, after Myanmar achieved its independence from Britain, the Rohingya were identified “as a separate indigenous ethnic group” and had the same rights as citizens.[13] However, after a military coup in 1962, discrimination based on ethnicity increased.[14] The military junta, which took power, “rejected autonomy for ethnic areas, initiating a decades-long period of military rule and ethnic conflict.”[15] The Rohingya became targets of policies aimed at erasing their identities, including a 1974 policy in Myanmar’s Constitution that recognized 135 races (or taingyinthar lu-myo), but did not recognize the Rohingya.[16]
The Emergency Immigration Act was implemented later in 1974, requiring citizens to carry National Registration Certificates (NRCs).[17] A person who possessed an NRC is able to “possess moveable and immovable or landed properties, pursue education, including higher studies and professional courses in the country’s seats of learning, right to work and public services, including armed forces, and to obtain Burmese Passport for travelling abroad, including pilgrimage to Holy Makkah.”[18] Since Myanmar did not recognize the Rohingya as citizens, they were unable to receive NRCs and were instead issued Foreign Registration Cards (FRCs).[19] The FRCs limited the jobs and educational opportunities that the Rohingya could pursue.[20] In 1977, Operation Nangamin (Dragon King) was carried out by immigration and military authorities.[21] The purpose of Operation Nangamin was to register citizens and screen out foreigners.[22] In 1978, a verification of citizenship program resulted in the expulsion of over 250,000 Rohingyas from their motherland.[23] The Rohingya fled to Bangladesh due to experiencing brutality, rape, and murder by the Burmese army.[24] The Rohingya officially became stateless in 1982 due to the Citizenship Act which created three categories of citizens–full citizens, associate citizens, and naturalized citizens–none of which included the Rohingya.[25] This is based on the recognized 135 races that are in the Constitution that was created in 1974, thereby granting a privileges to the already recognized ethnic groups and disadvantaging the unrecognized groups.[26]
In 1989, color-coded Citizen Scrutiny Cards (CRCs),were introduced.[27] Full citizens received pink cards, associate citizens received blue cards, and naturalized citizens received green cards–none of which were available to the Rohingya.[28] In 1995, the Rohingya were issued white Temporary Registration Cards (TRCs), which were not proof of citizenship but allowed them to vote in the 2010 general elections and the 2012 by-election.[29] However, by 2015, the white TRCs were revoked by Presidential order by Thein Sein, preventing the Rohingya from voting in elections.[30]
In 2016, the Rohingya were instructed to exchange their white TRCs for green National Verification Cards (NVCs).[31] The NVCs single “people out as foreigners who need to apply to citizenship.”[32] These NVCs have been described as a “tool of genocide.”[33] This is significant because a future citizenship card could assign a different identity to the Rohingya, such as Bengali, which would not afford them the same safety or equal rights as citizens.[34] Civil authorities, immigration, police, and border guard police organized community meetings to instruct the Rohingya that if they did not obtain an NVC and were labelled as foreign, they would not be allowed to stay in Myanmar.[35] As discrimination against the Rohingya intensified, on August 25, 2017, the Myanmar military committed massacres, rapes, and acts of arson against the Rohingya, forcing more than 730,000 Rohingya to flee to Bangladesh.[36] Since these acts of genocide and crimes against humanity occurred in 2017, there has been no change in legal status of the Rohingya in Myanmar.[37] However, in 2019, an estimated 500,000 Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh received identification cards.[38] These identification cards include a photo, key personal information, and both the Bangladeshi government and UNHCR logos.[39]
Since June 21, 2023, the Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights, Nadia Al-Nashif, announced to the Human Rights Council that “Myanmar authorities must ensure full legal recognition of the right to citizenship of all Rohingya people and issuance to them of appropriate civil documentation.”[40] Granting citizenship by Myanmar will not be sufficient, as it does not guarantee the protection of the Rohingya.[41] Unfortunately, the persecution of the Rohingya in Myanmar persists as they continue to fight for their human right to legal identification.[42] While the Rohingyas in Myanmar exemplifies the importance of the right to a legal identity, it also showcases how a government can weaponize legal identity documents.
In 2015, United Nations Member States adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.[43] This agenda includes 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).[44] SDG 16.9 aims to “provide legal identity for all.”[45] In attempt to tackle this issue, the UN established the Legal Identity Agenda Task Force to “provide technical and financial support to the” UN Country Teams.[46] For some States, this has been beneficial, but for others in situations similar to Myanmar’s, the issue extends beyond the issuance of proof of legal identity. Therefore, while the international community has begun to tackle the issue via issuance of identity cards to people in other countries, there needs to be greater pressure on Myanmar to recognize the existence of the Rohingya through legal reformations and amendments to their constitution.
[1] Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Dec. 8, 1948, G.A. Res. 217A (III), (Dec. 10, 1038), Art. 6.
[2] International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, Dec. 16, 1966, S. Exec. Rep. 102-23, 999 U.N.T.S. 171.
[3] Home, United Nations Legal Identity Agenda, https://unstats.un.org/legal-identity-agenda/ (last visited Feb. 3, 2025).
[4] Id.
[5] Id.
[6] See OHCHR and the Right to a Nationality, United Nations Human Rights Office of the High Commissioner, https://www.ohchr.org/en/nationality-and-statelessness (last visited Feb. 17, 2025).
[7] Statelessness Around the World, UNHCR, https://www.unhcr.org/ibelong/statelessness-around-the-world/ (last visited Feb. 17, 2025).
[8] What is a Refugee?, UNHCR, https://www.unrefugees.org/refugee-facts/what-is-a-refugee/ (last visited Feb. 3, 2025).
[9] Statelessness, HIAS, https://hias.org/statelessness/ (last visited Feb. 17, 2025).
[10] Julia Clark, Anna Metz & Claire Casher, 850 Million People Globally Don’t Have ID – Why This Matters and What We Can Do About It, World Bank Blogs (Feb. 6, 2023), https://blogs.worldbank.org/en/digital-development/850-million-people-globally-dont-have-id-why-matters-and-what-we-can-do-about?cid=ppp_tt_digitaldev_en_ext; Who We Protect: Stateless People, UNHCR, https://www.unhcr.org/us/stateless-people (last visited Feb. 3, 2025).
[11] Md Mahbubur Rahman, Statelessness – the Root Cause of the Rohingya Crisis – Needs to Be Addressed, New Lines Institute (July 9, 2024), https://newlinesinstitute.org/state-resilience-fragility/statelessness-the-root-cause-of-the-rohingya-crisis-needs-to-be-addressed.
[12] History of the Rohingya, Rohingya Culture Center, https://rccchicago.org/history-of-the-rohingya/ (last visited Feb. 17, 2025)
[13] Rahman, supra note 11.
[14] Id.
[15] Burma: Background and Issues for Congress, Congressional Research Service (Nov. 7, 2024), https://crsreports.congress.gov.
[16] Rahman, supra note 11.
[17] Id.
[18] Amman Ullah, The Rohingya and the White Cards Sage, The Rohingya Post (May 4, 2019) https://www.rohingyapost.com/the-rohingya-and-the-white-cards-saga/.
[19] Rahman, supra note 11.
[20] Al Jazeera Staff, Who are the Rohingya?, Al Jazeera (Apr. 18, 2018), https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2018/4/18/who-are-the-rohingya.
[21] II. Historical Background, Human Rights Watch, https://www.hrw.org/reports/2000/burma/burm005-01.htm (last visited Feb. 17, 2025).
[22] Id.
[23] Rahman, supra note 11.
[24] II. Historical Background, supra note 21.
[25] Rahman, supra note 11.
[26] Ali Johar, Myanmar’s Discriminatory Citizenship Law: Are Rohingyas the only Victims?, Migration Mobilities Bristol (Nov. 9, 2021), https://migration.bristol.ac.uk/2021/11/09/myanmars-discriminatory-citizenship-law-are-rohingyas-the-only-victims/.
[27] Rahman, supra note 11.
[28] Id.
[29] Id.
[30] Id.
[31] Id.
[32] Id.
[33] Natalie Brinham, Looking Beyond Invisibility: Rohingyas’ Dangerous Encounters with Papers and Cards, 24 Tilburg L. Rev. 156, 162 (2019).
[34] Id.
[35] Id.
[36] Myanmar: No Justice, No Freedom for Rohingya 5 Years On, Human Rights Watch (Aug. 24, 2022), https://www.hrw.org/news/2022/08/24/myanmar-no-justice-no-freedom-rohingya-5-years.
[37] Rohingya Crisis, UNICEF, https://www.unicef.org/emergencies/rohingya-crisis (last visited Feb. 3, 2025).
[38] More Than Half a Million Rohingya in Bangladesh Get ID Cards for First Time: UN Refugee Agency, UN News (Aug. 9, 2019), https://news.un.org/en/story/2019/08/1044041.
[39] Over 250,000 Rohingya Refugees get Identity Documents, for Many a First, UNHCR (May 17, 2019) https://www.unhcr.org/us/news/briefing-notes/over-250-000-rohingya-refugees-get-identity-documents-many-first.
[40] Myanmar Authorities Must Ensure Full Legal Recognition of the Right to Citizenship of All Rohingya People, Deputy High Commissioner tells Human Rights Council – Council Concludes Interactive Dialogue with the High Commissioner on his Annual Report, United Nations Human Rights Office of the High Commissioner (June 21, 2023), https://www.ohchr.org/en/news/2023/06/myanmar-authorities-must-ensure-full-legal-recognition-right-citizenship-all-rohingya.
[41] Id.
[42] Myanmar Situation, UNHCR, https://reporting.unhcr.org/operational/situations/myanmar-situation (last visited Feb. 3, 2025).
[43] The 17 Goals, United Nations: Department of Economic and Social Affairs, https://sdgs.un.org/goals (last visited Feb. 3, 2025).
[44] Id.
[45] Home, supra note 1.
[46] Background, UN Legal Identity Agenda Task Force, https://unstats.un.org/legal-identity-agenda/UNLIATF/ (last visited Feb. 3, 2025).
