Background ing the Rohingya as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh. They began calling the Rohingya ‘Bengali,’ stating that Rohingya don’t exist, and often forced or coerced Rohingya to accept National Verification Cards (NVCs) that effectively identified Rohingya as foreigners. Human rights organisations have determined that the NVC process has violated customary international law and core human rights treaties.12, 13 Restrictions on Freedom of Movement in Myanmar For decades, Rohingya freedom of movement has been severely restricted by the Myanmar government. Specific restrictions included not being able to travel from village to village or town to town without specific documentation from the local administration, being barred from entering certain communities, and from accessing facilities such as local hospitals or markets. Rohingya who live in camps for internally displaced persons (IDPs) were often confined within the boundaries of the camp14. The consequences of these restrictions were far reaching, severely impacting Rohingya in their ability to access work, healthcare, and education, among other fundamental human rights. These restrictions were enforced through violence, checkpoints, arbitrary detention, curfews, and extortion.15 The intentions underpinning these systematic human rights violations, including the restrictions on movement, have been to weaken the Rohingya community to the point that they wouldn’t be able to raise their voices or stand for themselves. Ultimately, they were used to expel Rohingya from Myanmar.16 State-Sponsored Violence in Myanmar Waves of state-sponsored violence against Rohingya have accompanied these restrictive and discriminatory policies. Large scale attacks against Rohingya resulted in waves of refugees seeking shelter in Bangladesh in 1978, 1991, 2012, and 2016, leading to the largest and most recent of these attacks in 2017.17 These attacks, dubbed “clearance operations” by the Myanmar military, were initiated in response to attacks on police checkposts by a militant group known as the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA).18 As part of these clearance operations, the Myanmar military and civilian collaborators burned Rohingya villages, indiscriminately killed civilians, and raped and sexually assaulted both women and men throughout Rakhine State.19,20 The extreme violence resulted in the deaths of at least 9,400 Rohingya and the destruction of 354 Rohingya villages.21,22 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 Fortify Rights. Tools of Genocide. 2019. Fortify Rights. Genocide by Attrition. 2022. Independent Rakhine Initiative. Freedom of Movement in Rakhine State. 2020. Ibid. Fortify Rights. Policies of Persecution. 2014. Fortify Rights. The Torture in my Mind. 2020. Fortify Rights. They Gave Them Long Swords. 2018. Ibid. Legal Action Worldwide. They Took Me To A Dark Place: The Experiences and Needs of Rohingya Hijra and Male Survivors of Sexual and Gender-Based Violence. 2021. Médecins Sans Frontières. No One was Left: Death and Violence Against the Rohingya in Rakhine State, Myanmar. 2017. Human Rights Watch. 40 Rohingya Villages Burned Since October: Satellite Imagery Shows New Destruction in Rakhine State. 2017. 15