Citizenship, Statelessness And Legal Recognition: A Comparative Study Of Bihari And Rohingya Communities In Bangladesh And Global Contexts
Farzana Hossain, Lecturer, Bangladesh Army University of Engineering and Technology (BAUET) Qadirabad Cantonment, Natore, Bangladesh.
ABSTRACT
Citizenship is a fundamental legal and political relationship between citizens and the state which affects their access to rights, protection and social inclusion. But it is difficult for displaced and marginalized communities to gain formal citizenship recognition due to complex historical, legal and institutional circumstances. This study examines the connections between citizenship, statelessness and legal recognition based on a comparative analysis of the Bihari and Rohingya communities in Bangladesh and experiences of displaced and stateless communities in a global context. This study uses a qualitative comparative legal methodology to examine the various routes towards citizenship recognition and exclusion in domestic citizenship frameworks, judicial rulings, government policies and international human rights standards. The research focuses on the Bihari community's journey from citizenship uncertainty to citizenship recognition, through the use of national legal mechanisms and judicial developments and how the Rohingya community continues to experience issues of nationality and identity. The study also analyzes the global examples of statelessness and citizenship recognition to discover wider trends in legal inclusion, documentation and protection of nationality. The result shows that institutional mechanisms, judicial processes and state recognition procedures have a significant impact on citizenship outcomes together with legal provisions. The Bihari case is one of pathways towards citizenship recognition while the Rohingya case is one of the difficulties in getting durable legal recognition without secure nationality status. The study recommends inclusive citizenship framework, documentation system and rights-based approaches to safeguard displaced and marginalized communities based on the experiences of Bangladesh and International experiences.
Keywords: Citizenship; Statelessness; Legal Recognition; Displaced Communities.
