BANGLADESH INSTITUTE OF INTERNATIONAL AND STRATEGIC STUDIES

RECONCILIATION AND JUSTICE MECHANISM IN THE ROHINGYA CAMPS IN BANGLADESH

Author: Umme Wara

DOI Link: https://www.doi.org/10.56888/BIISSj2022v43n4a4

ABSTRACT

The widespread and systematic attack had turned the Rohingyas into the world’s biggest persecuted and stateless community. Even though over one million Rohingya victims have found refuge in the Bangladeshi camps after years of excruciating torture and discrimination, the camps where they reside now continue to be riddled with challenges, criminal activities and conflicts. Several formal and informal justice mechanisms have evolved over the years to address the growing issues and conflicts within the camps. This study considers the importance of addressing the crimes and conflicts, processes of accessing justice and the reconciliation processes of the deeply torn stateless community, taking into account specific needs and challenges based on power dynamics, age, gender or other diversity factors. As an approach to fill up the pertinent research void, this qualitative study sets out to understand and analyse the present picture of the justice mechanism. By taking in-depth semi-structured interviews of the Rohingya victims, this study aims explicitly to investigate and analyse their experiences in accessing the justice processes. Another critical purpose of this study is to outline strategic solutions towards the existing challenges by conducting Key Informant Interview (KII) with relevant experts and people from international justice facilitators in the camps. This study reveals that even though the Rohingyas took shelter in Bangladesh as displaced people, their trauma, constrained lifestyle in the camps and vulnerability compelled a lot among them towards criminal activities like Gender-based violence (GBV), intra-community conflicts and narcotics-related crimes. Due to the lack of any specific legal framework pertaining to refugees or stateless persons, they enjoy minimal access to the formal justice processes of the country. In response to the problems they have been facing in the camps, different forms of formal and informal mechanisms have developed that provide them with some sort of justice. However, these mechanisms are merely a temporal response to the burgeoning crises; hence, numerous areas require reformation and development.