Understanding causes of human rights violations: a case study of the plight of the Rohingya in Myanmar

The present study is one of the first academic efforts to systematically study the causes of the massive human rights violations that Rohingyas have suffered in Myanmar over the past half a century. While most of the existing literature treat the “Rohingya problem” mainly as a case of forced migration or de jure statelessness, I trace it back to colonial times and the immediate post- independence period, demonstrating that it is a sedimented problem involving different players at different critical junctures.The study is informed by broad social theories of rationalism, structuralism and culturalism. It reviews the literature on political repression (the most advanced sub-field of political science on human rights violations), and finds that it has two serious gaps: its sole focus upon violations of dissidents’ physical integrity rights, and an overly narrow conception of ‘threat’, which is defined in political power terms alone. I extend the possible repertoire of human rights violations to include also other categories of rights. I then draw from theories of identity, demographic insecurity and threat perception and construction, and conclude that threats may be defined also in cultural/ethnic/religious terms.I argue that the violations of the Rohingyas’ human rights over the past half a century are rooted in rationalist political calculations and demographic insecurities of the Myanmar – and more recently also Rakhine – authorities; structural imbalances between Rakhines and Rohingyas, as well as between central Bamar-dominated governments and Rakhine State; the conflicting cultural identities of Rohingya Muslims and the Buddhist majority in Myanmar; and discriminatory and persecutory citizenship documentation policies and practices specifically targeting Rohingyas. Prior to 2012, the “causers” were mainly the central government and its agents based in Rakhine State. More recently, however, Rakhines, both leaders and local communities, as well as nationalist Buddhist monks and other anti-Rohingya or anti-Muslim Buddhists, have also come to play a prominent role, expressing vehement opposition to any form of recognition, respect, protection or fulfillment by the government of the Rohingyas’ human rights