UN court opens Rohingya genocide case vs Myanmar
THE HAGUE, NETHERLANDS—Myanmar will face accusations on Monday that it is responsible for genocide against the Rohingya ethnic minority at the top court of the United Nations, as long-awaited hearings are set to begin.
The West African country of Gambia first filed the case at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in 2019, arguing a so-called “clearance operation” by Myanmar’s military in 2017 violated the 1948 Genocide Convention.
Myanmar, which has since been taken over by the military, has denied the allegations.
Without the ICJ, the military “will be accountable to no one and there will be no constraints on their persecution and ultimate destruction of the Rohingya,” lawyer Paul Reichler argued on behalf of Gambia during a preliminary hearing in 2022.
2017 campaign
The Southeast Asian country launched the campaign in Rakhine state in 2017 after an attack by a Rohingya insurgent group. Security forces were accused of mass rapes, killings and torching thousands of homes as more than 700,000 Rohingya fled into neighboring Bangladesh.
Now, some 1.2 million members of this persecuted minority are languishing in chaotic, overcrowded camps, where armed groups recruit children and girls as young as 12 are forced into prostitution. The sudden and severe foreign aid cuts imposed last year by US President Donald Trump shuttered thousands of the camps’ schools and have caused children to starve to death.
‘Beacon of hope’
“Myanmar’s case before the ICJ is a beacon of hope for hundreds of thousands of people like myself that our plight for justice will not go unheard,” said Lucky Karim of Refugee Women for Peace and Justice.
