Prof. Dr. h.c. Mehmet Sukru Guzel

Solving Statelessness in Myanmar Prof. Dr. h.c. Mehmet Sukru Guzel

When the Nu-Atlee Agreement decolonized Burma (Myanmar), the option to refuse the nationality for the new state and chose another nationality had not been given to the minorities of Burma (Myanmar). Before the independence of Myanmar, all the peoples including the minorities were under the protection of the Article 73 of the UN Charter. When the minorities of Burma (Myanmar) became stateless by decolonization, this is against the "object and purposes" of Article 73 of the UN Charter that can never be "sacrificed." Decolonization is based on the principle, "leaving no one behind" for the right of the peoples to self-determination. The UN and the international community as a whole under the erga omnes responsibility for the protection of the Nu-Atlee Agreement on the base that "no derogation shall be allowed from the right of the peoples to self- determination."