Democracy and Human Rights of Rohingya in Myanmar

Abstract

Liberal democracy and human rights are interlinked. However, the human rights of Rohingya are openly neglected in Myanmar’s democratic process under Aung San Suu Kyi. This paper focuses on state-sponsored comprehensive human rights abuses of Rohingya in Myanmar when the country has returned to official democracy in 2015. Studies on state sponsored human rights violation of Rohingya in Myanmar remains limited to few topics. Existing studies does not focus adequately on the links between democracy and human rights violations of Rohingya in Myanmar. This paper argues that the human rights of Rohingya in Myanmar are regularly abused due to the ineffectiveness of the human rights institutions, absence of democratic culture and minority rights, and militarism in Myanmar’s democracy. Therefore, concerned stakeholders should rethink making relations between Myanmar’s style of democracy and human rights and find out alternative ways to ensure the human rights of Rohingya in Myanmar.