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   “We Have a State”: Confronting the Statelessness of the Rohingya
   People 
   June 3, 2019
   Blog Post
   Ana-Sofia Gonzalez
   “We Have a State”: Confronting the Statelessness of the Rohingya
   People

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   Blog Post

“We Have a State”: Confronting the Statelessness of the Rohingya People

   Ana-Sofia Gonzalez
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   Blog Post

   “We are not stateless. Stop calling us that,” Muhib Ullah, leader of
   the Rohingya civil society group Arakan Rohingya Society for Peace and
   Human Rights, said before the UN Human Rights Council last month. “We
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   flee to Bangladesh. The roots of the crisis, however, can be traced
   back several decades. The Myanmar government’s refusal to offer the
   Rohingya citizenship has rendered them effectively stateless, denied
   basic rights and protections. In fact, they are the largest stateless
   population in the world. This statelessness is a key factor
   perpetuating the conflict in Myanmar to this day.

   The stateless status of the Rohingya leaves them easily susceptible to
   discrimination. Stateless persons typically cannot obtain legal
   documents, do not have access to education, healthcare, or employment,
   cannot participate in the political process, and do not enjoy freedom
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   applications.

   Today, Myanmar’s laws leave the Rohingya in stateless status despite
   the fact that they can trace their family roots back generations.
   Previously some have enjoyed the right to citizenship and the right to
   vote and hold office. For these reasons, many Rohingya reject the being
   considered stateless. To them the fact that Myanmar is their state is
   clear.

   In order to address the root causes of the Rohingya
   crisis appropriately, statelessness in particular, we must create
   a solution-oriented response:
     * Citizenship must be granted and restored to the Rohingya people.
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   Myanmar, as well as the UN Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar.

   Statelessness remains at the heart of the Rohingya crisis. The failure
   to effectively address this root cause has affected not only Rohingya
   in Myanmar but more than 1 million refugees who have fled to other