SAHNI ARTICLE 3.3.21 (WORD) (DO NOT DELETE) Spring 2021 Loss of Nationality Rights 5/6/2021 7:21 PM 123 they lack citizenship; but they can remain in Myanmar if they choose to regardless of how inhumane or impractical the living conditions are for them. According to the U.N. Human Rights Council, ongoing State policies of persecution and human rights atrocities systematically oppress the Rohingyas.102 Hence many Rohingya103 fled to neighboring Bangladesh and India in 1978, 1991, 2012, 2016 and 2017.104 They continue to enter these countries and others.105 These individuals are forced to become refugees as their identity and physical security is at risk in their country of birth or habitual residence.106 In 2016, “… the authorities embarked on a renewed effort to impose the National Verification Card on the Rohingya, a card that the latter had refused, seeing it as symbol of a discriminatory system that would entrench their status as “Bengali immigrants”. The card increasingly became a prerequisite for passing through checkpoints, gaining access to farmland, and for fishing. Intimidation and force were used, including at community meetings in the presence of the police and military, during which threats were made at gunpoint. At these meetings, villagers were told to “take the card or leave the country”; others, for example in Chut Pyin, were told by soldiers to accept it or be killed. Most Rohingya still refused.”107 However, most Rohingya refugees are not automatically eligible for citizenship of Bangladesh or India under the jus soli or jus sanguinis principles. A primary reason is that the Rohingya, though stateless, are not denied the rights to continue residing in Myanmar. A Rohingya person 102. 103. Human Rights Council Res. 34/22, U.N. Doc. A/39/64, at 20-23 (Sept. 12, 2018). It should be clarified that the majority of the Rohingya population is Muslim while a minority are Hindu or Christian. Rohingyas of all three faiths are ineligible for Myanmar citizenship and have exited Myanmar as refugees. 104. Situation in the People’s Republic of Bangladesh/Republic of the Union of Myanmar, ICC-01/19, Decision Pursuant to Article 15 of the Rome Statute on the Authorisation of an Investigation into the Situation in the People’s Republic of Bangladesh/Republic of the Union of Myanmar, ¶ 88-89 (Nov. 14, 2019). 105. According to Human Rights Watch, “More than 14,500 Rohingya fled to Bangladesh between January and November 2018 to escape ongoing persecution and violence in Myanmar, joining almost 1 million others from 2017.” HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH, World Report 2019: Events of 2018, 413 (2019). 106. Application of the Convention (The Gambia v. Myanmar), ¶ 15 (Dec. 11, 2019, 10:00 a.m.), https://www.icj-cij.org/en/case/178/oral-proceedings. (Ms. Aung Sang Suu Kyi, agent of Myanmar, stated “Mr. President, it cannot be ruled out that disproportionate force was used by members of the Defence Services in some cases in disregard of international humanitarian law, or that they did not distinguish clearly enough between ARSA fighters and civilians. There may also have been failures to prevent civilians from looting or destroying property after fighting or in abandoned villages. But these are determinations to be made in the due course of the criminal justice process, not by any individual in the Myanmar Government.”) 107. Human Rights Council, Report of the detailed findings of the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar, U.N. Human Rights Council, U.N. Doc. A/HRC/39/64, ¶ 46 (Sept. 17, 2018).