The Fate of the Stateless

The article republishes the piece first published by Policy Forum, in collaboration with New Mandala, on 22 March 2017, on the stateless Rohingya still living in Myanmar.

It argues: ‘Since Myanmar is not a signatory to the UN’s conventions on statelessness, it has no responsibility to provide basic rights and benefits to the stateless Rohingya.’ It proposes: ‘One possible solution to the problem could be the establishment of a mechanism where the UN can directly, or through one of its agencies, intervene by exercising diplomatic protection in case of stateless individuals or groups as and when it is required.’

It concludes: ‘Because, fundamentally, even if they are not citizens of any particular state, they are nonetheless citizens of the world.’