Response Paper Two
10%
Due: Check Dropbox For Due Date and submit in the appropriate drop box inside the “Assessments” folder above.
Based on Lesson Eight
This response paper is to be written using the guided questions in this week’s lesson to respond to the readings, short documentary and online research you are assigned to do.
After thinking through the guided questions, please complete your second response paper. Your response paper is two to three pages (700 words minimum), double spaced and should be a non-formal written personal response to the materials for this week.

For the readings this week, please familiarize yourself with the following reports on the Rohingya crisis from various human rights organizations and UN agencies:
https://www.hrw.org/asia/myanmar-burma

Anistia internacional – informe 2016/17: O estado dos direitos humanos no mundo

https://reliefweb.int/report/bangladesh/2017-monitoring-report-rohingya-refugee-crisis-response-plan
It in the upload files
Lesson Eight Activities
In addition to the assigned readings and short documentary, I have compiled a list of five websites from various human rights groups, non-government organizations, alternative news sources and humanitarian aid agencies that work on the issue of migrants and refugees in the case of Burma. I would like you to look through all these sites, then choose one to research in greater detail. I provide more guidance on this in the section that follows, Lesson Eight Question Guide to Readings.

Home

The website of this non-profit advocacy agency provides access to human rights reports on refugees and Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in Burma.
https://rohingya.webs.com/
This is an organization based in Kitchener, which works both to support Rohingya refugees settling in Canada and to raise awareness in Canada regarding the plight of Rohingya populations in Myanmar and in refugee camps in Bangladesh.
https://khrg.org/
This group attempts to document the voices of Karen villagers in rural Burma. Their website provides information and news on the situation of displacement, forced labour and human rights abuses in Eastern Burma.
https://www.irrawaddy.com/category/news
This alternative media source covers news, human rights reports and other government and media analysis on Burma and South-East Asia.
https://www.freeburmarangers.org/
This non-government agency is an activist group that illegally crosses the Thailand-Burma border as ‘Rangers’ in order to provide valuable humanitarian and medical aid to Internally Displaced Persons in Burma. Their website provides front-line news and reports on Internally Displaced Persons in the Karen and Karenni States of Burma.
Lesson Eight Activities
There are two dimensions to explore for the response paper this week. Try to use your treatment of the readings and documentary as background information to situate your discussion of the organization whose web page you’ve chosen to look at in more detail.
First, I’d like you to reflect on the Rohingya crisis in light of what you’ve already learned about Burma, based on the four readings and the news documentary. Consider the following questions.
Which agency have you chosen to research?
What sorts of persecution have the Rohingya been subjected to in the years leading up to the recent massive displacement of their population?
What acts is the Burmese military accused of committing as the impetus for this exodus of Rohingya?
How are the continued limitations of Burmese democratic reform reflected in the response of the Burmese government to these accusations?
How does the government response align with prevalent attitudes in Burmese society towards the Rohingya?
How has the international community responded to the Rohingya crisis?
What kinds of risks do the Rohingya face in fleeing Burma, and what kinds of vulnerabilities do they experience in the refugee camps in Bangladesh?
What chance of return do the Rohingya refugees have, and what other alternatives are open to them?
In the same summer when the Rohingya exodus from Burma into Bangladesh began, Canada experienced a spike in the number of irregular border crossings by migrants fearing deportation in the United States. Over 14,000 people crossed outside legal border crossings and made refugee claims. Canada’s capacity to deal with these claims was overwhelmed, and the military was even called in to set up a temporary camp for the refugee claimants near the most frequently used irregular crossing point, located in Quebec. These events sparked national debate about Canada’s policies and measures to handle these kinds of irregular crossings and refugee claims. On the other hand, over a similar period more than 600,000 Rohingya refugees arrived in Bangladesh—a developing country with already high levels of poverty and precarious settlements. What kinds of economic and political stress would this influx put on Bangladesh? Reflect on these parallel but very different scenarios.
Second, pick one of the five organzations’ web sites to focus on in more detail, and address the following questions.
Why did you choose to focus on this particular organization?
Where are they situated and who is their staff/membership?
Who is their constituency (in other words, who is their target audience, as far as you can tell from the type of language used)?
What are their goals and how do they aim to achieve them?
Can you tell whether their work is accomplishing their goals?
Is there a particular aspect of this organization’s approach, perspective or focus that you think is noteworthy?
Is the organization addressing the plight of the Rohingya in its web site, and if so, how is its coverage aligned in relation to the official view of the Burmese government versus other actors like international human rights organizations?
Keep in mind that the situation of the Rohingya will have evolved since this lesson was written—is their plight still a focus of attention or has this organization moved on to address other issues?