9. Furthermore, as a member of the United Nations (UN), Myanmar is obligated by the UN Charter to promote "universal respect for, and observance of, human rights and fundamental freedoms for all without distinction as to race, sex, language, or religion". The principle of non-discrimination – particularly on the grounds of race – is a peremptory norm of customary international law and must be applied in relation to protecting the right to nationality. 10. As a member State of the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN), Myanmar a signatory to the 2012 ASEAN Human Rights Declaration.12 Although this declaration is a non-binding document, it nonetheless reflects consensus as to the right to a nationality and the importance of human rights in the region.13 Genocide, Crimes Against Humanity and Other Violations against the Rohingya 11. The Rohingya are one of the most persecuted minorities in the world. Having been arbitrarily deprived of citizenship by the 1982 Citizenship Law and its discriminatory implementation, they have faced decades of discrimination and repression, lacking access to even the most basic of rights. The arbitrary deprivation of nationality and resultant statelessness of the Rohingya remains a significant obstacle to finding a sustainable and dignified solution to the crisis. 12. Since 2016, there has been a wave of violence against the Rohingya. In August 2017, brutal militaryled ‘clearance campaigns’ were carried out by the Myanmar army (Tatmadaw), leading to a range of gross human rights violations including arbitrary arrests and torture, indiscriminate killings, mass gang-rape of women, enforced disappearances, forced labour, and the destruction by fire of entire villages.14 This resulted in nearly one million Rohingya fleeing across the border to Bangladesh, where hundreds of thousands of Rohingya refugees already lived for decades. 13. These ‘clearance operations’ have since been correctly recognised as crimes against humanity amounting to genocide, and the previous UN Human Rights Commissioner called the situation in Rakhine State “a textbook example of ethnic cleansing.”15 These allegations, based on meticulous research and the lived testimony of thousands of Rohingya survivors have been met by denial from the Myanmar government, opaque domestic inquiries and sham trials if low ranking military officers. Additionally, the government has actively blocked or impeded humanitarian aid and human rights monitors from helping victims. 14. A UN Independent Fact-Finding Mission was established in March 2017 to establish the details of human rights violations by military and security forces in Rakhine, Kachin and Shan States. It found that the Tatmadaw conducted ‘clearance operations’ in 54 locations, with first-hand accounts of such operations in a further 22 locations. Around “40,600 structures were also destroyed between August 2017 and April 2019, with over 200 [Rohingya] settlements almost completely wiped out”.16 The report also discusses the rampant hate speech propagated by the authorities and spread across social media. 12 ASEAN, ASEAN Human Rights Declaration (18 November 2012) <https://asean.org/asean-human-rights-declaration/>. 2012 ASEAN Human Rights Declaration, article 18. 14 UN Human Rights Council, ‘Myanmar: UN Fact-Finding Mission releases its full account of massive violations by military in Rakhine, Kachin and Shan States’ (18 September 2018), available at https://www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/HRC/Pages/NewsDetail.aspx?NewsID=23575&LangID=E. 15 ‘UN human rights chief points to ‘textbook example of ethnic cleansing’ in Myanmar’ UN News (11 September 2017), available at https://news.un.org/en/story/2017/09/564622-un-human-rights-chief-points-textbook-example-ethnic-cleansing-myanmar#.WfJRrltSy70. 16 UN Human Rights Council, ‘Report of the detailed findings of the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar’ (17 September 2018) UN Doc. A/HRC/39/CRP.2. 13 3