All Ears to the Ground many national and international bodies were recommending an upgrade of Myanmar’s civil registration and identification systems (including NVCs), and supporting ‘trust-building’ in registration processes between Rohingya communities and government bodies as a means to promote peace and development. 82 Collective refusals by Rohingya communities effectively drew attention to the ongoing process of citizenship stripping and identity denial in Myanmar, which continued during the (ill-fated) transition from military to hybrid civilian-military rule. 83 As a result of these forms of resistance, the issues of citizenship violence were picked up in reports by international human rights organisations, and even shaped some international recommendations.84 However, the negative consequences of document refusal for Rohingya communities were wide-ranging. As a result of document refusal, different forms of administrative violence were deployed against the Rohingya. Movement restrictions and other permissions which were long associated with a discriminatory system of segregation were tied to NVCs; those without suffered from lack of access to livelihoods, health care, education and food security. 85 These coercive practices slowly wore down resistance to the NVCs. Further, in Rohingya narratives, the increased tensions between Myanmar authorities and Rohingya communities related to NVC refusals were closely connected to increased militarisation of Rohingya areas in 2016 and 2017 immediately prior to the ‘clearance operations’ that forced more than 700,000 Rohingya to flee the country to Bangladesh. 86 The international dimension brought by Rohingya refugee movements out of Myanmar also served to undermine Rohingya resistance to Myanmar’s ID schemes. From 2017 onwards, there was a strong international focus on ensuring timely repatriations to Myanmar. Documenting Rohingyas residency in Myanmar was seen as vital in securing proof of their right of return. Repatriation efforts skirted criticism of Myanmar’s ID schemes, instead focusing on the technicalities of implementing large-scale repatriations. 87 Rohingyas who returned or were deported were issued with NVCs on arrival, further breaking down resistance. Rohingya refusals are among the best documented examples of this form of resistance to citizenship stripping. There are, however, examples from other contexts. 88 Collective refusals to take part in state data collection and identification processes can have an important role in highlighting how state practices that re-categorise people can be part of a broader citizenship stripping process. They can also expose communities of resistance to other forms of state 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 Advisory Commission on Rakhine State, Towards a Peaceful, Fair and Prosperous Future for the People of Rakhine (Report, Kofi Annan Foundation, 2017) 31–2 <https://www.kofiannanfoundation.org/publication/rakhine-final-report/>, archived at <perma.cc/L46E-YZBU> (‘Advisory Commission on Rakhine State’). The period ended in February of 2021 with a military coup. Their accounts were evidenced in the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar: Detailed Findings of the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar (UN Doc A/HRC/42/CRP.5, 2019) (‘IIFFMM’). Brinham, Looking Beyond Invisibility (n 39) 161–3; Fortify Rights (n 53) 73. IIFFMM (n 84) 62; For general facts about the genocide, see Penny Green, Thomas Macmanus and Alicia de la Cour Venning, Genocide Achieved, Genocide Continues: Myanmar’s Annihilation of the Rohingya (Report, International State Crime Initiative, 2018) <https://qmro.qmul.ac.uk/xmlui/handle/123456789/42004>, archived at <perma.cc/3U5Y-MQ3G>. See, eg, Advisory Commission on Rakhine State (n 82). Areej Alshammiry, ‘Writing in Exile: Bidoon Resistance and Speaking Truth to Power’ (2020) 12(1) Cultural and Pedagogical Inquiry 149. 21