persons, prioritize improving the situation of the Rohingya refugees, finalize its refugee policy and take measures to reinstate the resettlement programme” (Czech Republic).13 VII. As Bangladesh faces an unprecedented challenge of hosting over 500,000 new Rohingya refugees who fled Myanmar throughout August and September 2017, it is essential that the international community provides Bangladesh with the support and resources needed, to uphold its commitments. Bangladesh’s International Obligations 6. Bangladesh is party to core human rights treaties that include provisions related to statelessness and/or nationality, such as the International Covenant on Civil on Political Rights (ICCPR), the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD), the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC, 1997), the Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Their Families (CMW) and the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD). In addition to guarantees of the right to nationality, both the ICCPR and CRC contain provisions that oblige Bangladesh to ensure the timely birth registration of every child immediately after birth. 7. Despite supporting and noting the Sierra Leone and Austrian recommendations related to the ratification of the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees (and its 1967 Protocol), the 1954 Convention Relating to the Status of Stateless Persons, and 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness (refugee and statelessness conventions); Bangladesh is yet to ratify these treaties. 8. Notwithstanding Bangladesh’s failure to accede to the refugee or statelessness conventions, Bangladesh must comply with fundamental obligations towards refugees established under international law. Accordingly, everyone has the right to seek and to enjoy asylum from persecution and no persons may be expelled into a territory where they would be at risk of persecution. Article 22 of the CRC guarantees this right to all children, and Article 14 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) – while not legally binding – sets out the global consensus to which Bangladesh is party, that all persons have the right to seek asylum. In addition, the rights to seek and to enjoy asylum and not to be subjected to refoulement are well-entrenched principles of customary international law.14 Significantly, the principle of non-refouelement is also an integral component of the right to be free from torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, a non-derogable right protected under Article 7 of the ICCPR, Article 3 of the CAT and Article 37 of the CRC. This right is recognised as a peremptory norm of international law and is therefore universally applicable. Furthermore, the right to life of all persons, which is protected under Articles 6 of the ICCPR and CRC, also prohibits refoulement to a situation in which the person’s life would be at risk. Stateless Rohingya Refugees in Bangladesh 9. Bangladesh has served as a host to Rohingya refugees fleeing persecution from neighbouring Myanmar, for many decades.15 According to UNHCR data of March 2017, 33,148 Rohingya refugees had refugee 13 Ibid., Para 130.27 UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), The Principle of Non-Refoulement as a Norm of Customary International Law. Response to the Questions Posed to UNHCR by the Federal Constitutional Court of the Federal Republic of Germany in Cases 2 BvR 1938/93, 2 BvR 1953/93, 2 BvR 1954/93, 31 January 1994, available at: http://www.refworld.org/docid/437b6db64.html 15 Human Rights Watch, Burmese Refugees in Bangladesh: Still No Durable Solution, 1 May 2000, C1203, available at: http://www.refworld.org/docid/3ae6a86f0.html 14 3