state sovereignty v responsibility to protect - myanmar

• Responsibility to Protect

  1. States have a responsibility to protect populations under their jurisdiction from genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity
  2. The international community has a responsibility to help states fulfil this
  3. When a state is ‘manifestly failing’ to protect its own populations then the international community has a responsibility to protect and may take collective action in a timely manner even to the point of using force as a last resort.
• • Military rule has continued after the ousting of the democratically elected government on the 1st of February, 2021. 
  • Military authorities persisted with their campaign to eliminate all opposition
  • International efforts proved ineffective in stemming violence and preventing grave human rights abuses.
• Foreign Policy

  • The Myanmar Military is a ‘patriarchal political actor’.
  • U.N.’s independent fact-finding mission for Myanmar found in August 2019 that sexual violence at the hands of the military was ‘part of a deliberate, well-planned strategy to intimidate, terrorise and punish a civilian population.’ 
  • Genocidal intent against the Rohingya population ‘through the widespread and systematic killing of women and girls...attacks on pregnant women and on babies, the mutilation and other injuries to their reproductive organs’
• • Protesters are taking to the streets ad directly calling for the implementation of R2P to shield them from the violence of the military
  • Dr. Sasa, the U.N. envoy for the democratically elected Burmese government in exile, wrote to U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres on March 4, asking the Security Council to uphold R2P.
• • ‘Military intervention is simply not a realistic option’ - Australian Minister of Foreign Affairs 
  • The need for targeted sanctions, diplomatic non-recognition, divestment, withdrawal of aid and a referral of the situation to the International Criminal Court. 
• • In 2017, Tatmadaw (military) commitment of genocide on the Royhina people called for R2P, however its exercise was blocked by China and Russia. 
  • China is Myanmar's top trading partner, and Russia openly supports the military. 
  • ‘The Chinese and the Russians are, in general, opposed to anything that’s about strengthening human rights’
• • The response from the international community has been limited as the military has been resistant to external pressure, and states need to balance non-interference principles with the responsibility to protect.

  China, as a permanent member of the UNSC, has used its veto power to block resolutions that condemn the actions of the military junta. In March 2021, China blocked a proposed draft resolution, which called for an immediate halt to the violence and the release of all those unlawfully detained. In May 2022, Russia and China wielded their vetoes to delay the release of a UNSC resolution.