Dossier: Stateless Rohingya 5 (missing persons cases), in actual fact, the situation is much more insidious17—they have been lured out of their camps and into labor and prostitution.18 Further, according to Chakraborty and Bhabha, the appalling experiences of the stateless Rohingyas in SEA during the COVID-19 pandemic demonstrate the need for formal legal recognition of refugees19—for stateless children, major concerns relate to limited access to food, education, an increase in child marriage and labor,20 without which would result in adverse consequences and impacts, due to their expulsion and their default statelessness The Right of the Child to Birth Registratio Stein identi es administrative practices of birth registration among the contemporary causes of child statelessness.21 Although birth registration does not guarantee a right to citizenship, it lays a foundation for the obtaining of nationality, but also opens up channels for the enjoyment of human rights.22 Crucially, a human rights-based approach is necessary in dealing with child statelessness. From an international human rights perspective, birth registration can be linked with the right to acquire a nationality under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC): “The child shall be registered immediately after birth and shall have the right from birth to a name, the right to acquire a nationality and. as far as possible, the right to know and be cared for by his or her parents.”23 Additionally, there are state obligations under the CRC: “States Parties shall ensure the implementation of these rights in accordance with their national law and their obligations under the relevant international instruments in this eld, in particular where the child would otherwise be stateless.”24 However, we ought to remain cognizant of the deferring state practices in relation to citizenship laws and birth registration. As Stein points out, divergent domestic systems arise, limiting the protection of stateless people, including children.25 Out of all the ASEAN states hosting Rohingya refugees, only Cambodia and the Philippines are signatories to the 1951 Refugee Convention. As a result of this lack of international legal obligation, countries like Thailand, Indonesia, and Malaysia (affected countries) are observed to apply exclusionary policies against Rohingya refugees.26 But since we are extending this discussion to look at refugee and stateless children, from a normative perspective, all the 10 ASEAN Member States have signed and rati ed the CRC, which provides a rm foundation for the protection of undocumented and stateless children.27 Against the background of this legal framework, we are convinced that birth registration can be used as a 17 Leif Coorlim and Thomas Page, “Stolen Son: The Child Traf ckers Preying on the Rohingya,” CNN, August 31, 2019, accessed August 29, 2021, https://edition.cnn.com/2019/08/31/asia/stolen-son-rohingya-coxs-bazar-intl/ index.html. Watch video embedded in citation for further information on human traf cking and children traf cking of the Rohingyas in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh. 18 “The Rohingya Children Traf cked for Sex,” BBC, March 20, 2018, accessed October 8, 2021, https://www.bbc.com/ news/world-asia-43469043. 19 Roshni Chakraborty and Jacqueline Bhabha, “Fault Lines of Refugee Exclusion: Statelessness, Gender, and COVID-19 in South Asia,” Health & Human Rights: An International Journal 23, no. 1 (2021), 237. 20 Ibid. 21 Jill Stein, “The Prevention of Child Statelessness at Birth: The UNCRC Committee’s Role and Potential,” International Journal of Children’s Rights 24, no. 3 (2016), 599, 619. 22 Ibid., 618. 23 UN General Assembly, Convention on the Rights of the Child, 20 November 1989, United Nations, Treaty Series, vol. 1577, Art. 7(1). 24 Ibid., Art. 7(2). 25 Stein, Prevention of Child Statelessness, 602. 26 A. K. M. Ahsan Ullah, “Rohingya Crisis in Myanmar: Seeking Justice for the ‘Stateless,’” Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice 32, no. 3 (2016), 285. 27 ASEAN, “Children in ASEAN: 30 Years of the Convention on the Rights of the Child,” (ASEAN and UNICEF, 2019), 11, accessed July 2, 2021, https://reliefweb.int/sites/reliefweb.int/ les/resources/Children%20in%20ASEAN.pdf. fi fi fi fi fi . Genocide Studies and Prevention 15, no. 2 https://doi.org/10.5038/1911-9933.15.2.1863. n fi fi fi fi © 2021