Compliance with International Human Rights and Refugee Rights Principles. The Case of Myanmar and its Refugees in Thailand

Abstract: The people of Myanmar find their personal security and well-being threatened by the military authorities of the country and have no option but to leave their homeland and seek refuge in Thailand. Nevertheless, seen as the burden and element of insecurity the refugees are often left unprotected or even expelled by the Thai authorities. The situation as such recalls what some observers shortly named “unwanted and unprotected”. The thesis focuses on the provisions of international human rights and refugee rights principles and traces the impact of international standards on the refugee problem situation. This research aims to assess the compliance with the international human rights and refugee principles in the Myanmar-Thailand case. Taking into account the particularity of this case, the aim has a twofold structure. On the one hand, it seeks to analyze the compliance with the international human rights principles in the Myanmar context. On the other hand, it needs to analyze the compliance with the international refugee and human rights standards of the Myanmar refugees in Thailand. Falling in-between the international law and international relations theories the compliance-based theory is employed to guide the analysis and help answer the fundamental question of this research: Why is compliance with the international human rights and refugee rights principles in the case of Myanmar and Thailand problematic?