States of Legal Denial

How the State in Myanmar Uses Law to Exclude the Rohingya

Datos Bibliográficos

ID3986135
AutoresMira Crouch (0000-0001-9821-1209, Law School, University of New South Wales (UNSW), Sydney, Australia, autor de correspondencia)
Año2021
Volumen51
Número1
Páginas87-110
Fecha de publicación2021-01-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessNo
TipoARTICLE
RevistaJournal of Contemporary Asia (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0047-2336 • E-ISSN: 1752-7554
EditorialInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/00472336.2019.1691250
OpenAlexW2994050746
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas17
Referencias citadas32

States often use forms of denial to suppress the pain and suffering of minority groups. In 2015, the international community celebrated the electoral success of the National League for Democracy in Myanmar. Yet through legislative reform, the Rohingya were disenfranchised prior to the election. This is an example of legal denial, that is, the use of law and legal institutions to enact denial. The article traces three uses of legal denial against the Rohingya. One act of legal denial is constitutional reform through the creation of Rakhine State in 1974 and the making of the Rohingya as a minority within Rakhine State. Another act of legal denial is legislative reform through the removal of the right to vote and run for office in 2015. A further means of legal denial occurs through judicial decision-making and the use of political trials related to the conflict in Rakhine State. As the global community struggles with how to respond to the violence, displacement and humanitarian crisis, it is suggested that there is a need to understand the acts of legal denial – constitutional, legislative and judicial – that led to this crisis and how these acts of denial are employed to deny suffering and violence

Denial · Political science · State (computer science · State law · Asian Geopolitics and Ethnography · Computer Science · International Law and Human Rights · Law · Psychology