Research Question: Why did the UN fail to sanction the Burmese government for its ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya.
My Argument.
Earlier inaction by the United Nations
According to Battistella (2017), argues that the United Nations has had knowledge of the gross violation of human rights committed against the Rohingya people since the advent of their nation, but they have never acted on it. The government-sanctioned ethnic cleansing in Burma has been there since the begin of the country. The Rohingya people are denied citizenship by birth and have to acquire their citizenship by naturalization. The Rohingya have written the United Nations to have them intervene in the issue, but they have not resolved any problem so far. United Nations, therefore, lack any credibility in handling the issue.
The United Nation’s Systemic Failure.
Rosenthal, 2019, argues that the Myanmar crisis tested the limits of the United Nation’s capacity to react in a timelier manner. The United Nations offered many conflicting statements making it harder to trace where the problem lied. The United Nations is also in conflict with member states that systematically violate their international commitments. However, to enact any sanctions on such erroneous nations, the United Nations Secretariat has to seek the collaborative support of its member states. This means the United Nation has to exert maximum influence under limited political space which sets them up for failure. China and Russia, both who sit in the United Nations Security Council, supported the Myanmar government, making it even harder for the United Nations with the already limited political influence.
Over-dependence on the developed nations.
I argue that the United Nations for a very long time has been depending on developed nations such as the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, and other European powers to act. The United Nations is afraid to work independently fearing contradicting some of the most significant financial contributors’ retribution. The developed nations, in this case, did not have any idea or never wanted to get involved in the Myanmar issue. As such, the United Nations, borrowing a leaf from these nations also became inactive, leaving the Rohingya people at the mercies of their inept government.
Other potential explanations.
Split loyalties among the United Nations security council.
Wilson 2016, argues that with the widespread human rights violation in Myanmar against the Rohingya people, Australia patterned with like-minded nations to help solve the issue. Australia issued sanctions against Burma. However, such sanctions were not universal for the United Nations Security Council did not authorize them. As such, the sanctions were not closely coordinated and could not offer any tangible result. The lack of a consensus in the United Nations Security Council made it hard for the United Nations to sanction Burma.
The United Nations approach to the Myanmar Issue was wrong the onset.
Lewis Sida and Ed Schenkenberg (2019) argue that the United Nations failed to sanction Burma because of confusion. This argument is based on the idea that the agencies under the United Nations-mandated to advocate for and secure the Rohingya people lacked proper partnerships within themselves, governments, and other non-governmental organizations. However, the UNICEF Evaluation Report of November 2018 is different from Sida and Schenkenberg because the UNICEF’s mandate was not to issue sanctions but to offer humanitarian aid. UNICEF also took point in the refugee crisis that followed playing its role entirely. However, it never made any recommendation on the sanction of Burma.