Recommendations Even as the genocide of the Rohingya is ongoing, as Rohingya IDPs continue to be housed in internment camps in Rakhine state, as Rohingya are denied the right to vote or seek election, and as Myanmar refuses to acknowledge, take responsibility for and pursue accountability and restitution in relation to the 2017 atrocities; the country is moving forward to building a digital ID system on the foundations of its discriminatory and arbitrary 1982 Citizenship Law. Myanmar’s historical approach to erasing the Rohingya national and ethnic identity marker and imposing the foreign identity marker of “Bengali” on Rohingya and other Muslim populations in data collection processes, serves as a warning of the dangers inherent in providing technical and financial support to such projects in Myanmar, without ensuring fundamental reforms beforehand. In this context, we make the following recommendations: Myanmar, private companies and international organisations providing support for digital identification systems in Myanmar, must engage in meaningful consultation with all relevant stakeholders at all stages of its design and implementation. This must include Myanmar civil society and marginalised groups such as Rohingya. They must ensure that exclusions and discrimination do not become entrenched as a result. Transparency and accountability must be ensured throughout. Private companies, international organisations and donors should ensure a human rights approach is central to the design and architecture of a digital transformation system. A “do not harm” approach must be employed to ensure the system is aligned with the wider Sustainable Development Agenda and human rights standards. A legislative framework based on the principles of non-discrimination must be in place prior to the implementation of digital identification system. As a minimum, the discriminatory and arbitrary 1982 Citizenship Law should be reformed and replaced with a citizenship law and policy framework which complies with international standards. Additionally, the administrative and legal underpinnings that result in discrimination in personal documentation systems, including evidentiary requirements, voluntariness, arbitrary decision-making and the lack of judicial overview or appeal process, must be factored in and addressed prior to implementation. Myanmar must remove markers from all identity cards relating to ethnicity, religion, place of birth and other personal information that serves to identify protected characteristics and can lead to discrimination and other human rights depravations. Myanmar must enact and implement comprehensive data protection laws, which comply with international standards and cover data sharing and data retention. This law and policy framework must equally apply to non-citizens, including stateless persons. 27