The report is focused towards understanding the various humanitarian and ethical aspects related to the Rohingya crisis of Myanmar. The crisis concerning the Rohingya community of Myanmar has been a widely debated international issue in the recent years. There are multifaceted issues concerning the atrocities that the minority Muslim community of Myanmar have faced in the recent years forcing many to become refugees. However, the problem is deep rooted in the historic relation between the Buddhists and the Rohingya Muslims of the Rakhine state. The identity of the Rohingya, the colonial past of Myanmar, the Buddhist majority, ethnic conflicts and discrimination against the minority Muslim population of the Rakhine state have all contributed to the continuing crisis situation in the country that have already been equated by many international organizations as a major refugee crisis. The ethical and social justice oriented dimensions of the same is systematically analyzed. This can help towards providing a comprehensive evaluation of the crisis being studied.
The issues faced by the Rohingya community of Rakhine state of Myanmar can be essentially classified as serious problems related to social justice. The main factors that have caused the problems to be related to gross breach of social justice of the state of Myanmar concerning the historic treatment of the community and the systematic marginalization of the group by government agencies. The Rohingyas have faced discrimination from the administrations for a long time (Fair 2018). The social justice issues that were present previously were lack of political representation, unfair treatment by government authorities, severe marginalization of the community and limiting the scope for seeking administrative justice. In the recent years there were severe population control laws specifically targeting the community (Kaufman 2018). The atrocities faced by the community in the wake of the current event have further aggravated the violation of social justice with regards to the community.
The clearance operations of the army had subjected the community to severe human rights violations. There has been complete denial of civil rights in the name of security operations where several instances of infanticide, killing of innocents, rape and in less severe cases unfair detention of the members of Rohingya communities have taken place. As a result of the operations it is estimated that more than 10 thousand mainly Rohingya lives have been lost (Humalisto et al. 2018). The denial of basic necessities have added to the problems faced by the community. The security forces have been reportedly engaged in intentional destruction of farmlands and food and water resources of the community. Entire villages have been burned and destroyed forcing tens of thousands of the affected Rohingya community to flee to neighboring Bangladesh (Lewis 2018). The most important breach of social justice has been reported concerning the unfair crackdown of the military on Rohingya villages. Intentional terrorizing of the populations have been done with indiscriminate firing on the local populations and killing small children and their mothers. Even disabled people from the villages have been reported to be indiscriminately killed. The greater impact of the social justice violations included the killing, raping and destruction of property of the Rohingyas by the local Rakhine groups that were at times supported by the administration of Myanmar.
The Rohingya crisis and its impact point towards severe breach of the UN directives on human rights. In essence the administrative forces of Myanmar have committed severe crimes against humanity. The United Nations have had long standing issues with the government of Myanmar with regards to the human rights situations prevalent in the country. Previously the country had faced a strict and oppressive military regime for a long time. According to the UN reports the matter can definitely be classified as a genocide (Landry and Tupetz 2018). A genocide is defined as an intended policy to systematically eliminate members of a specific ethnic group by another group by violent and terrorist means by the international conventions for human rights. In this regards the large scale killings that have taken place can be termed as a genocide. Large number of people have been killed due to the atrocities that were committed by the military agencies of the government. This proves a significant role of the government towards the implementation of the security operations that resulted in death and displacement.
The issue also falls under the definition of a refugee crisis acknowledged by the UN and other international conventions. Any displacement that is forcible pertaining to specific ethnic groups due to any violent act committed by any state against them can be termed as a refugee crisis. The large scale torture, killing, rape, unwarranted detention and sexual violence carried out against women and children make the breach of international human rights codes severe if the Rohingya crisis of Myanmar is considered.
The recent highly discriminatory attacks of the government forces such as the Tatmadaw on the Rohingya population of the Rakhine state can definitely be termed as crimes against humanity (Brooten, Ashraf and Akinro 2015). The various international conventions condemn any kind of indiscriminate attack on local populations carried out in the name of fighting insurgency. In many other countries these kinds of incidents have taken place in the past. The large scale systematic killing, raping, property destruction and even severer atrocities like enslavement, persecution and forced sexual slavery have raised the issue to the international humanitarian conventions (Benner et al. 2015). According to the pre-existing notions of international humanitarian crisis the Rohingya issue has emerged as one of the worst such crisis in recent years.
The international humanitarian law or IHL focuses on the conduct of the government of various countries with regards to the handling of war or similar conflict. It has been formulated to protect the population that is not taking part in any armed conflict. The factual evidence gathered from the situation in Myanmar, however, point towards severe breach of the international humanitarian codes (A.K.M 2016). The law safeguards the right to live for people that do not engage in armed combat. In the context of Myanmar it can be said that the situation of war was replaced by internal insurgency. The country had witnessed armed insurgency among the Rohingya community for a long time. However, it was the government’s stand on resisting and eliminating the insurgency that later on became an excuse for committing atrocities against the entire community especially in the state of Rakhine (Brooten and Verbruggen 2017). The Geneva conventions specifically aim towards stopping all forms of genocidal activities in the name of war or armed conflict. The convention has laws against harming the sick, degradation or inhuman treatment and especially frames strict guidelines in order to differentiate between the combatants and civilians (Shah 2017).
However, with regards to the occurrences in the Rakhine state of Myanmar there were strong evidence to prove the killing of old and disabled members of the community. Moreover, the usage of men, women and children from the community by the armed forces such as the Tatmadaw and the subsequent inhuman treatment is also evident from the stories shared by the affected Rohingya families (Labib, Hossain and Patwary 2018). Forced eviction of the community were rampant during the supposed anti-insurgency drives of the government. The women were subject to sexual harassment and frequent sexual assaults by the armed forces. This often happened in the context of forced labour that they were subject to. Indiscriminate firing over entire village populations mean severe breach of the international humanitarian laws. In the name of insurgency control the entire community was treated as the other and at times even separated from the national identity of Myanmar. This made possible the treatment of the entire community as insurgents by the armed forces. This led to the instances of further subjugation and oppression of the community.
The Rohingya crisis can have far reaching ethical implications on the current issues being faced across the globe. The Syrian Refugee crisis has already caused large scale ethical dilemmas with regards to the resettlement of the refugees. The Rohingya crisis can turn out to be a similar if not greater crisis if left unchecked by the international authorities. The brutality with which the atrocities were carried out depict the serious humanitarian crisis that is being witnessed in the Rakhine state of Myanmar (Singh and Haziq 2016). The various historical and cultural backgrounds and the essentially long standing issues that the Rohingya community has faced have made the complete solution to the problem even more difficult. It is important to look into the matter from all perspectives in order to form better conceptions in regards to the essential implications that can be generated from the event.
Firstly, the insurgency in the Rohingya dominated areas of the country has been the result of the historical marginalization of the community by the government. The matter are made worse by the recent anti-insurgency activities that led to the death, rape and destruction of properties concerning the Rohingya Muslims. The insurgency could hence, further increase leading to further loss of life property and humanitarian crisis. Secondly, the Rohingya crisis can end in systematic ethnic cleansing of the community. Ethnic cleansing have eradicated entire communities in the past and international laws have been framed against the same for this specific reason. Thus, ethnic cleansing of the community can mean that the problem could transpire into the biggest modern day genocide. Thirdly, the refugee crisis can increase tensions across the border and the sub-continental countries can be seriously affected by economic and social turmoil due to already existing volatile politics in the areas. Lastly, if the crisis worsens it could mean that the international humanitarian laws are greatly undermined leading to significant negative impact on world politics (Morris 2017). The crisis has already lead to a great deal of political and religious debates across the affected areas and the neighboring countries. The Rohingya issue can become a strong context for future terrorist activities if not properly contained through humanitarian initiatives. The colonial past and the identity debate has on a more local scale provided significant damage to the demographic aspects of the Rakhine state. This has also negatively affected development and growth of poverty in the region.
Justice professionals need to consider the matter from all essential point of views. However, the entirety of the matter needs to be essentially judged on a humanitarian basis. The death and displacement of a large number of people from Myanmar due to the ongoing ethnic conflict can have multifaceted impacts on the lives of both the displaced Rohingya Muslims and the people of the countries where resettlement activities take place (Beyrer and Kamarulzaman 2017). A justice professional should identify the significant aspects that are related to the forced eviction and the resettlement debate of the Rohingys. The displaced Rohingyas need to be properly directed towards establishing effective means of livelihood. This is because refugees can resort to criminal and insurgent activities as they can be subject to extreme poverty. The international courts of justice have to look towards developing the prospects of the dispersed Rohingya populations returning to Myanmar (Lim 2017). This can help to stop any significant problems that can be caused due to the political situations that might arise due to any refugee crisis. As for the populations that are not in favor of returning to Myanmar effective negotiation activities need to be undertaken by the assigned justice professional. The negotiations need to be carried out considering all the concerned parties namely the country of resettlement, the refugee Rohingyas and the Myanmar government. The ethical need for the concerned justice professionals at this time is to impose strict actions on the perpetrators that have already been responsible for mass killings, sexual crimes and forced evictions against the Rohingya Muslims (Ware, Lo Bianco and Komesaroff 2017).
Conclusion:
In conclusion, it can be said that the atrocities against the Rohingya community of the Rakhine state have been a continuous process that has had several significant undertones. The ethnic strife has been caused by unfair notions of national identity that have been aggravated by the armed forces that have carried out the oppressive agenda against the Muslim Rohingyas. It is much important that significant international pressure is provided on the state of Myanmar to stop the crimes being committed against the minorities of the Rakhine state. Effective international monitoring of the issue can help towards resolving the humanitarian crisis and make way for better future prospects of the affected communities and the country.
References:
Ahsan Ullah, A.K.M., 2016. Rohingya Crisis in Myanmar: Seeking Justice for the “Stateless”. Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice, 32(3), pp.285-301.
Benner, T., Brockmeier, S., Burai, E., Murthy, C.S.R., Daase, C., Madhan Mohan, J., Junk, J., Kurowska, X., Kurtz, G., Tiewa, L. and Reinicke, W., 2015. Effective and responsible protection from atrocity crimes: toward global action.
Beyrer, C. and Kamarulzaman, A., 2017. Ethnic cleansing in Myanmar: the Rohingya crisis and human rights. The Lancet, 390(10102), pp.1570-1573.
Brooten, L. and Verbruggen, Y., 2017. Producing the News: Reporting on Myanmar’s Rohingya Crisis. Journal of Contemporary Asia, 47(3), pp.440-460.
Brooten, L., Ashraf, S.I. and Akinro, N.A., 2015. Traumatized victims and mutilated bodies: Human rights and the ‘politics of immediation’in the Rohingya crisis of Burma/Myanmar. International Communication Gazette, 77(8), pp.717-734.
Fair, C.C., 2018. Rohingya: Victims of a Great Game East. The Washington Quarterly, 41(3), pp.63-85.
Humalisto, N., Käkönen, M.N.E., O’Reardon, L. and Kuronen, T., 2018. Conflicts and resource politics in Myanmar.
Kaufman, Z.D., 2018. The Prospects, Problems and Proliferation of Recent UN Investigations of International Law Violations. Journal of International Criminal Justice, 16(1), pp.93-112.
Labib, S.M., Hossain, N. and Patwary, S.H., 2018. Environmental Cost of Refugee Crisis: Case Study of Kutupalong-Balukhali Rohingya Camp Site A Remote Sensing Approach.
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Lim, J., 2017. Rohingya crisis: breaking the unending cycle of Exodus.
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Shah, R.L., 2017. Assessing the Atrocities: Early Indications of Potential International Crimes Stemming from the 2017 Rohingya Humanitarian Crisis. Loy. LA Int’l & Comp. L. Rev., 41, p.181.
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