III. Legal Framework and Analysis 76 to coerce Rohingya into accepting an NVC.322 Several Rohingya told Fortify Rights that felt they had no choice but to accept the NVC after being threatened by the authorities.323 Moreover, the decades-long denial of nationality to Rohingya may also constitute serious mental harm. For decades, the Government of Myanmar subjected Rohingya to wholesale denials of their ethnic identity, claiming Rohingya do not exist while denying them citizenship and all the rights attached to citizenship.324 Rohingya told Fortify Rights that the government’s longstanding denial of citizenship rights contributed to serious mental anguish, fear, and uncertainty about their fate in Myanmar and beyond.325 Between 2012 and 2015, this uncertainty led more than 170,000, mostly Rohingya, to board ships operated by a transnational human trafficking syndicate, facing possible harm or death, to escape persecution in Myanmar.326 The prospect of being sent back to Myanmar led one Rohingya refugee in Bangladesh to attempt suicide by drinking cleaning detergent.327 The ICTR and ICTY found that similar acts—including death threats—qualified as serious mental harm.328 In the context of the ongoing genocide in Myanmar, it is likely that the acts documented in this report led to “grave and long-term disadvantages” for the mental faculties of the survivors to lead “normal and constructive lives.” Therefore, it is likely that the mental impairment inflicted by the documented acts qualifies as serious mental harm—a prohibited criminal act enumerated by the Rome Statue for the purposes of establishing the crime of genocide. As such, investigative bodies tasked with examining the violations of Rohingya rights should include and prioritize serious mental harm as a potential prohibited act of genocide. Inflicting Conditions of Life Calculated to Bring About Physical Destruction as a Prohibited Act of Genocide Deliberately inflicting on a protected group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction is a prohibited criminal act of genocide that includes “methods of destruction by which the perpetrator does not immediately kill the members of the group, but which, ultimately, seek their physical destruction.”329 The act may also include “the creation of circumstances that would 322 Fortify Rights interview with D.G., Cox’s Bazar District, Bangladesh, March 10, 2019 (threatening the person with imprisonment); Fortify Rights interview with F.I., Cox’s Bazar District, Bangladesh, June 17, 2019 (threatening the incarcerated person with an extended sentence); and Fortify Rights interview with F.B., Cox’s Bazar District, Bangladesh, June 16, 2019 (threatening another prison sentence); Fortify Rights interview with A.C., Cox’s Bazar District, Bangladesh, November 4, 2018; Fortify Rights interview with B.C., Cox’s Bazar District, Bangladesh, November 30, 2018; Fortify Rights interview with A.F. , Rakhine State, Myanmar, November 9, 2018. Fortify Rights interview with B.K., Rakhine State, Myanmar, November 10, 2018; Fortify Rights interview with A.I., Rakhine State, Myanmar, November 9, 2018. 323 See, Fortify Rights interview with D.F., Cox’s Bazar District, Bangladesh, March 10, 2019; Fortify Rights interview with G.C., Cox’s Bazar District, Bangladesh, June 18, 2019. Fortify Rights interview with A.C., Cox’s Bazar District, Bangladesh, November 4, 2018; Fortify Rights interview with F.H., Cox’s Bazar District, Bangladesh, June 17, 2019; Fortify Rights interview with B.C., Cox’s Bazar District, Bangladesh, November 30, 2018. Fortify Rights interview with A.F., Rakhine State, Myanmar, November 9, 2018; Fortify Rights interview with B.K., Rakhine State, Myanmar, November 10, 2018. Fortify Rights interview with A.I., Rakhine State, Myanmar, November 9, 2018. 324 “Burma: Military Chief Denies Existence of ‘Rohingya’ Term,” Asian Correspondent, (denying the existence of the people “Rohingya”). See, “Background” chapter of this report. 325 See, chapter 1, “Human Rights Violations and National Verification Cards” in this report. 326 Fortify Rights and the National Human Rights Commission of Malaysia (SUHAKAM), “Sold Like Fish”: Crimes Against Humanity, Mass Graves, and Human Trafficking from Myanmar and Bangladesh to Malaysia from 2012 to 2015, March 2019, https://www.fortifyrights.org/downloads/Fortify%20Rights-SUHAKAM%20-%20Sold%20Like%20Fish.pdf (accessed August 23, 2019). 327 Fortify Rights interview with G.B., Cox’s Bazar District, Bangladesh, November 5, 2018. 328 Akayesu, ICTR, Case No. ICTR-96-4-T, Judgment (Trial), paras. 711–722. Prosecutor v. Tolimir, ICTY, Case No. IT-0588/2-A, Judgment (Appeal), April 8, 2015, paras. 206, 210. 329 Akayesu, ICTR, Case No. ICTR-96-4-T, Judgment (Trial), paras. 505–506.