4 4.8 and mutual assistance among the national races; and promotion of socio-economic development including education, health, economy, transport and communication, of lessdeveloped national races”. Almost all Rohingya are denied citizenship under the 1982 Myanmar Citizenship Law, either because they do not meet its stringent and discriminatory citizenship requirements, or where they do, because they lack the documentary evidence required. People of Chinese, Indian or Nepali heritage are mostly denied full citizenship under this law because they do not automatically qualify under “national races”. The 2014 national census used the 135 categories of national races, with people required to check one of them, or indicate “other”; there was no option to indicate the frequent mixed heritage of many residents. This 135 national races categorisation is strongly contested by ethnic minorities, as they believe it does not accurately represent their true ethnicity and also that the Government, comprised primarily of ethnic Bamar, is using this to lower the real number of each broad ethnic group. A last minute Government decision prevented those Muslims in Rakhine State identifying as Rohingya to write in “Rohingya” as their ethnic group during the census process. 579 The Government has not yet released 2014 census ethnicity data. The Protection of the Rights of National Races Law 580 enacted on 24 February 2015 gives further effect to Article 22 of the 2008 Constitution. Article 3 includes the purposes of the law: “(e) to aim for the socio-economic development of less-developed national races including education, health, economics and transportation.” While Article 3 of the law provides for “access to equal citizenship rights for all ethnic groups”, and for “ethnic groups to have full access to rights enshrined in the Constitution”, it does not explicitly protect ethnic minorities against discrimination. The law states that no one can behave with intent to incite hatred, animosity and disunity among “national races” and that ethnic rights and entitlements cannot be restricted without a sound reason. The 2015 Law establishes a Minister for National Races to be appointed by the president with the approval of the union Hluttaw. This has not yet taken place. In article 9 the Ministry’s duties and mandate includes: “(e) carry out all round development activities including education, health, economics and transportation of less developed national races for their socio-economic development and article;” and (j) “carry out activities to develop, maintain, protect and improve language, literature, arts, culture and traditions of minority and ethnics’ tribes in danger of extinction”. It is not yet clear whether this will extend to supporting the development of online content in ethnic minority languages. 579 580 See International Crisis Group, “Counting the Costs: Myanmar’s Problematic Census” (15 May 2014). Available at: http://www.pyithuhluttaw.gov.mm/lawdatabase/?q=my/law/431 (Burmese only). 230 PAGE CHAPTER 4.8: GROUPS AT RISK