The
Hague, December 10, 2019) – The International Court of Justice (ICJ) genocide
hearings will include the first response by Myanmar to allegations of
atrocities against the Rohingya before an independent and impartial court,
Human Rights Watch said. A Human Rights Watch “Questions and Answers” document
explains the significance of the December 10-12, 2019 hearings, the process for
enforcement of court orders, and other aspects of the proceedings in The Hague.
On
November 11, Gambia, with the backing of the 57 members of the Organisation for
Islamic Cooperation, filed a case with the court alleging that the Myanmar
military’s atrocities in Rakhine State against Rohingya Muslims violate the
Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. On
November 20, Myanmar recognized being bound by the ICJ Statute and announced
that its de facto leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, would lead the delegation to
“defend the national interest of Myanmar.”
“Gambia’s
genocide case unlocks a long overdue legal process to credibly examine
Myanmar’s countless atrocities against the Rohingya,” said Param-Preet Singh,
associate international justice director at Human Rights Watch. “The court has
an opportunity to put in place measures to prevent further abuses against
Rohingya victims and survivors still in the country.”
On
December 9, the governments of Canada and the Netherlands announced they
considered it “their obligation to support the Gambia before the ICJ, as it
should concern all of humanity.” Both Canada (1952) and the Netherlands (1966)
are parties to the Genocide Convention. Other members of the Genocide
Convention should also support Gambia’s case, Human Rights Watch said.
In
2018, the United Nations Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on
Myanmar concluded that “the actions of those who orchestrated the attacks on
the Rohingya read as a veritable check-list” on how to destroy a national,
ethnic, racial, or religious group. The mission concluded in 2019 that “the
State of Myanmar breached its obligation not to commit genocide under the
Genocide Convention.”
The
case before the ICJ is not a criminal case against individual alleged
perpetrators, but a legal determination of state responsibility for genocide.
Gambia has asked the court for provisional measures to require Myanmar to
immediately take all steps to prevent genocidal acts, including stopping and
preventing further genocidal acts; to ensure that security forces do not commit
or incite genocidal acts; and to preserve all evidence related to the
military’s crimes.
Gambia’s
filing was the first from a country without any direct connection to the
alleged crimes that used the country’s membership in the Genocide Convention to
bring a case before the ICJ. Gambia, a small West African country, has only
recently emerged from the repressive 22-year rule of Yahyah Jammeh and its own
history of human rights violations. After filing the case, Gambian Justice
Minister Abubacarr Tambadou said that “the aim is to get Myanmar to account for
its action against its own people: the Rohingya.”
