The International Court of Justice (ICJ) announced on Tuesday, November 3, that it will deliver its judgment on November 19 in the landmark genocide case brought by Gambia against Myanmar over the military campaign that drove the Rohingya out of Rakhine State in 2017. The court's judges will begin reading out the judgment at 8:00 a.m. GMT at The Hague, the court said.

Source: Reuters

Gambia filed the case in November 2019, alleging that Myanmar violated the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. It is not a criminal trial of any individual: the court is being asked to decide Myanmar's responsibility as a state, and its ruling will be final, with no possibility of appeal.

Source: Human Rights Watch

What happened in Rakhine in 2017

In August 2017, Myanmar's security forces began a sweeping campaign in northern Rakhine State that Human Rights Watch describes as one of massacres, rape and arson against the ethnic Rohingya, a Muslim minority. Rohingya refugees who reached neighbouring Bangladesh recounted killings, mass rape and the burning of villages, and at least 730,000 people fled across the border.

A United Nations fact-finding mission that investigated the offensive concluded that it included “genocidal acts”. Gambia's case argues that the 2017 offensive, taken as a whole, amounted to genocide under the Convention.

Myanmar denies the accusation of genocide. It has said the 2017 offensive was a legitimate counter-terrorism campaign, mounted in response to attacks by Rohingya militants on security posts.

Why lawyers everywhere are watching November 19

Genocide judgments at the World Court are exceptionally rare. This will be the first time in more than a decade — and only the third time ever — that the ICJ hands down a judgment in a genocide case, Reuters reported. Genocide has rarely been proven in international courts because judges must find that crimes were committed with the specific intent “to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group”.

The outcome is also expected to shape how future genocide cases at the court are argued and judged — including South Africa's 2023 case accusing Israel of committing genocide in Gaza, a charge Israel denies. The ICJ is the United Nations' highest court and decides disputes between states over alleged breaches of international treaties, including the Genocide Convention.

“The International Court of Justice's Myanmar judgment will mark a crucial moment in the Rohingya's quest for justice,” said Maria Elena Vignoli, senior international justice counsel at Human Rights Watch. “The ruling will also be a stark reminder that the oppression of the Rohingya is ongoing, and that rights-respecting countries need to act decisively to support them, promote justice for atrocities, and ensure their safe and voluntary return.”