South Asia State of Minorities Report 2019 beginning of a lengthy state-led process of denationalisation that culminated in mass statelessness. In 1982, a new citizenship law enacted by the military government classified citizens as ‘full’, ‘associate’ and ‘naturalised’: the first group included some 135 national races, with the Rohingya systematically excluded. In 2014, the government introduced the Citizen Verification (National Verification Card—NVC) in Rakhine State, based on the 1982 Citizenship Law, requiring Rohingya to self-identify as Bengali to apply. Most of the Rohingya people rejected the NVC, knowing that the intention of the government was to quarantine and deport anyone who refused to participate or failed to provide the required documentation. In 2015, the right of Rohingya to vote was taken away by withdrawing their Temporary Resident Card (TRC). The Legal Status of the Rohingya in Bangladesh International Law While it is widely accepted that the Rohingya are stateless, the current focus of the national and international response to the crisis has been emergency relief and rehabilitation rather than resolving their citizenship rights. Yet this is likely to have a major bearing on their future wellbeing, particularly for children born in the camps who may find themselves deprived of rights in both Myanmar and Bangladesh. While Bangladesh has not ratified the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, it is party to a host of major UN treaties, convention and customary international laws. In light of these commitments, Bangladesh has an obligation to provide security and assistance to the Rohingya displaced within its borders. Customary international law implies an obligation to all states to protect all persons in their territory and subject to their jurisdiction, regardless of whether they are citizens, stateless persons, asylum-seekers or refugees.19 Thus, Bangladesh has to org/ertdocumentbank/Equal%20Only%20in%20Name%20-%20Malaysia%20-%20 Full%20Report.pdf. 19 ‘Customary International Law,’ Legal Information Institute, Cornell Law School, accessed January 24, 2020, law.cornell.edu/wex/customary_ international_law. 24