Riyaz Patel
Gambia has filed a case at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), accusing Myanmar of committing genocide against its Rohingya Muslim minority.
“We have just submitted our application to the ICJ under the Genocide Convention,” Gambian Justice Minister Abubacarr Tambadou confirmed Monday.
“It is a shame for our generation that we do nothing while genocide is unfolding right under our own eyes.”
The ICJ, also known as the World Court, is the United Nations’ top legal institution that rules on disputes between states.
While the ICJ has no means to enforce any of its rulings, going against the decisions of the court could further harm Myanmar’s international reputation.
Both Gambia and Myanmar are signatories to the 1948 Genocide Convention, which not only prohibits states from committing genocide but also compels all signatory states to prevent and punish the crime of genocide.
“The aim is to get Myanmar to account for its action against its own people: the Rohingya. It is a shame for our generation that we do nothing while genocide is unfolding right under our own eyes,” Tambadou told a news conference at The Hague, where the court is based.
Gambia filed its case with the support of the Organisation for Islamic Cooperation (OIC).
More than 730,000 Rohingya Muslims fled to neighbouring Bangladesh following a 2017 crackdown by Myanmar’s military, which UN investigators said was executed with “genocidal intent.”
UN investigators have also called on the UN Security Council to refer Myanmar to the Hague-based International Criminal Court (ICC) or to set up a tribunal, like for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda, but again no action has yet been taken, TRT reported.
Myanmar, which has a Buddhist majority, denies accusations of genocide against the Rohingya Muslims and says its crackdown targeted militant separatists in Rakhine state.
In its filing, Gambia asked the court to grant so-called provisional measures to make sure Myanmar immediately “stop atrocities and genocide against its own Rohingya people.”
The lawsuit further asks the ICJ to “order Myanmar to punish the perpetrators, and to provide reparations for the Rohingya victims,” Gambia’s justice ministry added.
The law firm helping Gambia said it expected the first hearings on the provisional measures to take place in December.
Human rights groups, which have been pushing the international community to act on the Rohingya crisis, hailed Gambia’s move.
“Gambia has found a way to turn the international community’s hand wringing over the Rohingya into action,” Param-Preet Singh of Human Rights Watch (HRW) told Reuters.
The rights group added that the move by the tiny west African state was the “first judicial scrutiny” of Myanmar’s alleged crimes against the Rohingya.
The court’s “prompt adoption of provisional measures could help stop the worst ongoing abuses” in Myanmar, Singh said.
Additional reporting by Reuters
