The Reality of Protecting the Rohingya: An Inherent Limitation of the Responsibility to Protect

This article explores the applicability of the notion of the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) in reference to the crisis faced by the Rohingya in Myanmar, and it discusses why the R2P has limited usefulness in certain cases. Since R2P came to be recognized by ASEAN, ongoing community-building activities within the ASEAN led to optimism that member countries would give increased attention to human rights, despite the organization’s historic practice of non-intervention in individual states’ internal affairs. However, the ASEAN’s stance regarding the Rohingya crisis can be described as all talk and no action. While recognizing the value of the R2P in protecting people from mass atrocities in certain contexts, the article points out the critical flaw that R2P rests on a particular discourse of sovereignty. Thus, it argues that the R2P not only has limited usefulness in the case of the Rohingya (whom Myanmar treats as stateless non-citizens) but could even exacerbate the situation.