The Grimshaw Review of International Affairs Vol. 2, No. 1 1.​ Introduction How can the unrecognition of an entire people persist in an international order ostensibly grounded in universal human rights and principles of social inclusion? Statelessness does not simply mean the absence of nationality1 or documentation – it constitutes a deliberate erasure of personhood, severing individuals from the rights, protections, and connections that underpin one’s existence in the world. For stateless populations, exclusion is institutionalised and their existence relegated to the periphery of an international society that fails to address their needs, rights, and securities. Nowhere are the consequences of this exclusion more evident than in the case of the Rohingya. By definition, they are a Muslim ethnic minority from Myanmar’s Rakhine State (Parnini et al., 2013). By experience, they are a people who have been systematically denied the right to belong in any nation – they have been denied citizenship, persecuted by their own government, and relegated to the status of non-recognition both domestically and internationally (Ansar, 2020; Alam, 2019; UNHCR, 2024). Home to approximately a million of the world’s 3.5 million Rohingya, Myanmar is one of Southeast Asia’s most ethnically diverse countries, with over 130 distinct ethnic and religious groups (MIMU, 2025; Harvard Divinity School, 2025). However, its political structure reflects the challenges of governing such a diverse society. While the Union Election Commission lists 73 political parties as of 2015, only a few, such as the ruling Union Solidarity and Development Part (USDP) and the opposition National League for Democracy (NLD), maintain national prominence, chiefly by appealing to Buddhist majoritarian nationalism (Nehru, 2015). Rakhine state itself has a unique political landscape. Historically alienated from Myanmar’s central government and Buddhist majority, Rakhine has seen growing fragmentation amongst 1 Nationality refers to the legal relationship between an individual and a state, granting rights like residence and imposing duties such as military service or allegiance. Stateless individuals, lacking this bond, are denied these rights and duties, rendering them foreigners everywhere but nationals of no country (ISI, 2014). See ISI, The World’s Stateless, pp. 19-22, for further discussion. 2