The positive practices enumerated in this report are organized according to the following thematic areas, which collectively encompass the majority of protections developed by host states within the region: • legal status and documentation (including birth, death, and marriage registration) • alternatives to detention (non-penalization of refugees for “unlawful” entry and presence in a state’s territory) • access to basic rights and entitlements (education, employment, and health care) This organization reflects certain assumptions and understandings on the part of the authors related to the hierarchy and conditionality of treatment by states: Without legal status, an individual is unable to be recognized and enjoy rights or entitlements. This reality underpins the primacy of legal status and documentation. From that starting point, the authors recognized the growing use of punitive immigration enforcement mechanisms such as mandatory detention and the interplay between precarity and such measures. In other words, freedom from arbitrary deprivation of liberty and freedom of movement, even if limited, are paramount and a necessary precondition to the enjoyment of other rights. Finally, basic rights and entitlements—such as those pertaining to education, health care, and work—are only meaningfully accessible if one is free from confinement and in possession of a legal identity of some kind. These subsections are also organized with the primary intended audience of the report in mind: civil society and advocates who are often engaged in efforts along these areas of work. The report is also intended to be useful in sections and not only as a comprehensive document. INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS LAW AND ALTERNATIVE PROTECTION REGIMES: PIECEMEAL PROTECTION IN THE ABSENCE OF HOLISTIC FRAMEWORKS While ratification of the 1951 Refugee Convention or its 1967 Protocol by states allows for a structure and framework that assists states in developing mechanisms for refugee protection, the principles of protection underpinning the international refugee system are not exclusively contained in the Convention or Protocol. Rather, a number of international human rights mechanisms and norms establish a complex web of obligations and guidelines for the treatment of a persecuted foreign population seeking protection on a state’s territories. While international refugee law does not establish a treaty monitoring or complaint mechanism (international supervision is provided by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the treaties provide a state-to-state dispute mechanism), human rights treaties are supported by their own treaty bodies, which promote and monitor state compliance with treaty obligations and process interstate and individual petitions on alleged violations. In addition, alternative protection regimes have continued to emerge. While at times these alternatives challenge (and potentially undermine) protections prescribed by international refugee law, they have led to important protections being provided by non-signatory states. In sum, there is a patchwork of mechanisms, norms, and obligations, as well as exceptional alternative protective arrangements, that can be used to guide states to take positive action in terms of refugee protection, including among those states which are not signatories to the 1951 Refugee Convention.14 6 BE YOND REFU GE: ADVANCING LEG AL PROTECTIONS FOR ROHINGYA C OMMUNITIES IN BANGL ADESH