International Court of Justice (ICJ) - Myanmar

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Title: Myanmar lodges objections in Rohingya genocide case
Sub-title: Filing, made two weeks before military staged a coup and detained the country’s civilian leaders, is likely to delay proceedings by at least a year.
Description: "Myanmar is being accused of attempting to delay court proceedings after it emerged the country last month filed preliminary objections to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) over genocide charges for its treatment of the mostly Muslim Rohingya. The case was brought by The Gambia in 2019 after a brutal military crackdown in the western state of Rakhine in 2017 forced hundreds of thousands of Rohingya to flee across the border to neighbouring Bangladesh. “On 20 January 2021, the Republic of the Union of Myanmar filed preliminary objections to the jurisdiction of the Court and the admissibility of the Application,” the ICJ said in a filing signed by Court President Abdulqawi Ahmed Yusuf and dated January 28. The filing did not elaborate on the nature of the objections, but legal experts say they are likely to include whether the court has jurisdiction to hear the case and whether The Gambia has the appropriate standing to bring the suit. Aung San Suu Kyi, Myanmar’s former civilian leader raised similar issues during preliminary hearings in December 2019 when she travelled to The Hague to defend her country’s treatment of a minority group that has been described as among the world’s most persecuted. The Gambia has until May 20 to respond and the court will then consider the points raised. “These objections will fail and are nothing more than delaying tactics,” Mark Farmaner, the director of the Burma Campaign UK wrote on Twitter, urging the British government to intervene..."
Source/publisher: "Al Jazeera" (Qatar)
Date of publication: 2021-02-04
Date of entry/update: 2021-02-05
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Title: Myanmar air raids 'that killed children amount to war crimes'
Sub-title: Amnesty says Myanmar military carried out 'indiscriminate' air strikes in Rakhine, calls for war crimes investigation.
Description: "Myanmar's military has killed civilians, including children, in indiscriminate air attacks amid worsening conflict in the country's western Rakhine and Chin states, a prominent rights group has said, urging the United Nations Security Council to launch a war crimes investigation. In a new report on Wednesday, Amnesty International said it collected new evidence showing Myanmar's military - also known as the Tatmadaw - bombed several villages in Chin state in March and April, killing more than a dozen people. One witness who was interviewed remotely told the group that an air raid in Paletwa Township on March 14 and 15 killed his uncle, his brother and his brother's 16-year-old friend. Two people from another family in the same village cluster said nine people, including a seven-year-old boy, were also killed in the bombardment. "Our family is destroyed," the boy's father told Amnesty. In another round of aerial raids in Paletwa on April 7, seven people were killed and eight wounded, the report said, citing testimony from a farmer. The indiscriminate attacks, which Amnesty said amounted to war crimes due to civilian deaths, came amid a surge in fighting between the Tatmadaw and the Arakan Army (AA), an armed group seeking greater autonomy for the Buddhist Rakhine people who make up most of the state's population. Rakhine is also home to the mostly Muslim Rohingya, and borders Chin state, whose people are mostly Christian. The conflict escalated in January last year following an AA attack on police posts and worsened in March after Myanmar's government officially labelled the group a terrorist organisation. The AA posed "a danger to law and order, peace and stability of the country and public peace," it said..."
Source/publisher: "Al Jazeera" (Qatar)
Date of publication: 2020-07-08
Date of entry/update: 2020-07-08
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Title: Myanmar ordered to protect Rohingya Muslims
Description: "The United Nations' court, based in The Hague in the Netherlands, ordered Myanmar to take urgent measures to protect Rohingyas from persecution and atrocities. Rohingya Muslims remain "at serious risk of genocide" in Myanmar, the International Court of Justice has ruled..."
Source/publisher: "Sky News"
Date of publication: 2020-01-24
Date of entry/update: 2020-07-04
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Title: Myanmar sets November 8 date for general election
Sub-title: The nationwide vote is seen as a test for Aung San Suu Kyi and her party National League for Democracy.
Description: "Myanmar will hold its next general election on November 8, the election commission has announced, in a vote seen as a test for the country's fledgeling democratic government led by Aung San Suu Kyi. In a statement on Wednesday, Hla Thein, chairman of the union election commission, said a "multi-party general election for the parliament" would be held on that day. The Myanmar Times said a total of 1,171 national, state and regional seats would be up for grabs in the election, with polling set to take place in all townships, including areas considered conflict zones and self-administered regions. Analysts see the polls as an important test of Myanmar's transition away from direct military rule. Aung San Suu Kyi, a Nobel laureate, won power in a landslide in 2015 that ended decades of military rule. But her administration has come under pressure internationally over a military crackdown that drove hundreds of thousands of Rohingya into Bangladesh in 2017. She personally appeared at an international tribunal in The Hague to defend the army against the allegations of rape, arson and mass killing in the campaign, which rights groups have said was tantamount to genocide..."
Source/publisher: "Al Jazeera" (Qatar)
Date of publication: 2020-07-02
Date of entry/update: 2020-07-02
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Title: Gambia's justice minister who led Rohingya case resigns
Sub-title: Abubakarr Tambadou, known for human rights efforts at home, abroad steps down from government post
Description: "The Gambian justice minister who led efforts to protect human rights in his own country, as well as an international case in defense of the persecuted Rohingya minority in Myanmar, has stepped down from his government post. Abubakarr Tambadou, who will leave office on June 30, will be replaced by lawyer Dawda Jallow, President Adama Barrow announced Thursday. At a press conference in Gambia's capital Banjul on Friday, Tambadou said: "I led efforts to rebuild a hitherto weakened judiciary and I'm glad that we now have a respectable, robust and independent organ of state." Tambadou is hailed inside and outside Gambia for advocating rule of law and human rights, as well as for establishing the transitional justice process to deal with human rights violations of former president Yahya Jammeh who ruled the West African country for 22 years. Tambadou also established an inquiry to recover Jammeh's allegedly ill-gotten assets and a draft constitution more protective of human rights. During his tenure, Tambadou pushed for Jammeh to be held accountable for past crimes. He helped the US arrest one of Jammeh's alleged henchmen, Michael Sang Correa, and made clear that if Jammeh tried to return to Gambia, he would be arrested on charges of committing atrocities. Tambadou told journalists that his resignation was for personal reasons, but would not comment on reports that he would be appointed as UN registrar of the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals. The international court was established by the UN Security Council in 2010 to perform the remaining functions of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda. "What happened in this country on 1 December 2016 was a revolution by any standards, a political revolution to match any other in world history. We removed a dictator by democratic means, through the ballot box, and peacefully," said Tambadou, referring to the country's landmark elections that voted Jammeh out of office. "Since then, a lot has happened over the past three and a half years. On my part, I have initiated and delivered on the key pillars of our transitional justice process which has now achieved global recognition by experts as being among the best models in the world, particularly for its inclusiveness and originality." At ICJ for Rohingya In January this year, Tambadou led a historic court case of genocide against Myanmar at the International Court of Justice on the country's Muslim Rohingya. The case was filed by Gambia with the backing of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "Anadolu Agency" (Ankara)
Date of publication: 2020-06-26
Date of entry/update: 2020-06-28
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Title: ICJ urged to make Rohingya genocide report public
Sub-title: Rights groups say keeping reports confidential 'will undermine their effectiveness, allow Myanmar to skirt obligation'
Description: "Over two dozen rights groups from various countries are urging the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to make Myanmar’s report on the Rohingya genocide available to the public. Myanmar submitted the report to the ICJ late last month, stating what the government had done to prevent further acts of genocide against the country’s persecuted Rohingya Muslim minority. In the joint letter sent to the ICJ on June 17 and made available to Anadolu Agency, 30 Rohingya rights groups expressed fears of misinformation if the report remains confidential. “We fear that keeping the reports confidential will undermine their effectiveness and allow Myanmar to skirt its obligation to comply with the Court’s Order, and its continuing obligations under the [UN’s] 1948 Genocide Convention,” it states. “We would like to respectfully urge the Court to make the 23 May 2020 report and all future reports (including any responses from The Gambia) available to the public on the Court’s website.” According to a January 23 ruling by the ICJ, Myanmar is obliged to take all measures to protect the Rohingya community from mental and physical harm, as well as from the deliberate infliction of life conditions that cause their “physical destruction” and measures “intended to prevent births within the group.” Stressing the need to ensure public confidence in the trial process, the rights groups said “the non-public nature of the reports will prevent Rohingya communities and other observers who may have relevant information and expertise from being able to scrutinize Myanmar’s reports.” “The reporting requirement may not fulfil its intended purpose, especially given that United Nations investigators are not able to operate within Myanmar,” the letter said. It warned that “misinterpretation may arise even among the Rohingya people” if the report was not made public..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "Anadolu Agency" (Ankara)
Date of publication: 2020-06-19
Date of entry/update: 2020-06-20
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Title: Lawyers seek Facebook posts of Myanmar leaders in Rohingya case
Sub-title: Human rights lawyers: Facebook posts of officials 'may constitute evidence of genocidal intent' against Muslim minority.
Description: "Lawyers bringing a case before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) accusing Myanmar of genocide against its Rohingya Muslim minority have asked a United States district court to order Facebook to release posts and communications from the country's military and police. The ICJ, based in the Hague, has agreed to hear a case accusing Myanmar of genocide against the Rohingya in violation of a 1948 convention. More: UN's Guterres asks Bangladesh to move Rohingya to refugee camps First coronavirus case found in Bangladesh Rohingya refugee camps Bangladesh quarantines hundreds of Rohingya rescued from sea The ICJ, a United Nations court commonly known as the World Court, accepts cases between states, and the case against Myanmar was brought by the Gambia with the backing of a group of Muslim countries. Hundreds of thousands of Muslims have fled a crackdown in mainly Buddhist Myanmar, which considers members of its Rohingya minority to be foreigners. Rights groups have documented killings of civilians and burning of villages. Myanmar authorities say they have been battling an insurgency and deny carrying out systematic atrocities. In 2018 UN human rights investigators said that Facebook had played a key role in spreading hate speech that fuelled violence in Myanmar. Facebook has said it is working to block hate speech. A request, filed on behalf of the Gambia on June 8 with the US District Court for the District of Columbia, calls on Facebook to release "all documents and communications produced, drafted, posted or published on the Facebook page" of Myanmar military officials and police forces..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "Al Jazeera" (Qatar)
Date of publication: 2020-06-11
Date of entry/update: 2020-06-11
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Title: Myanmar Avoids Helping Rohingya Minority Despite International Court Order, Observers say
Description: "Myanmar has sidelined an international court order to improve conditions for its long-embattled Rohingya minority, despite fears that the Southeast Asian government is trying to commit genocide against the group, observers say. The U.N.’s International Court of Justice in January ordered Myanmar to "take all measures within its power" to prevent any acts of genocide against ethnic Rohingya Muslims, who fled the country amid a bloody military crackdown in 2017. The ICJ ordered Myanmar to submit a report within four months on what actions it is taking to comply with the court's decision, and to submit follow-up reports every six months after that. The court last month accepted the first of the required reports, but its contents have not been released. Nevertheless, observers contacted say there has been little change. “The situation to me seems like it’s more of the same,” said Thitinan Pongsudhirak, political science professor at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok. “There has not been any major deterioration, but also no major new measures.” The COVID-19 pandemic prompted Myanmar to control people’s movement in Rakhine state in western Myanmar where about 400,000 Rohingya live, Thitinan said. Legislative elections set for November will embolden the government to stiffen its stance toward the Rohingya, he added. Voters of other groups see the Muslim minority as uninvited people allowed in during British colonial rule over Myanmar. “The Rohingya is a very paradoxical issue,” Thitinan said. “To the outside world, there’s a lot of sympathy and outcry. Within Myanmar, it’s the opposite.” The Rohingya crisis has tarnished the international reputation of Myanmar’s de facto head of state, former opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi. Myanmar has targeted the Rohingya in a “systematic” way, a court news release said. “Genocidal acts” including mass murder, rape and setting fires were intended to wipe out the group, the release said. It pointed to an increase in those acts starting from August 2017..."
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Source/publisher: "VOA" (Washington, D.C)
Date of publication: 2020-06-06
Date of entry/update: 2020-06-07
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Title: Argentinian court decision brings hope for Rohingya
Sub-title: In a significant development, Buenos Aires court admits petition to probe Myanmar leaders’ role in Rohingya genocide
Description: "A court in South American country of Argentina has decided to pursue a case against Myanmar's leader Aung Sang Suu Kyi and senior officers in the military over the genocide and persecution against Rohingya community. In a statement issued on Monday, Burmese Rohingya Organization UK (BROUK) said that Argentina’s Federal Criminal Chamber No. 1 has accepted its petition and asked to collect more information on the Rohingya genocide. The court, in its decision on May 29, overturned a previous order when it had rejected to admit a similar petition seeking to probe the role of Myanmar leadership in the acts of genocide. “A court in Buenos Aires on Friday overturned a previous order of not to pursue a case against [Myanmar’s] State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi and senior officers in the Tatmadaw [the Myanmar military],” the statement said. “The court has now requested more information from the International Criminal Court (ICC), to ensure that the case in Argentina would not duplicate other efforts of justice,” the statement added. An Argentinian court on Dec. 9, 2019, had rejected the lawsuit filed by BROUK seeking to open an investigation into the role of Myanmar’s civilian and military leaders in committing genocide and crimes against the Rohingya. Citing the principle of “universal jurisdiction”, the BROUK pleaded that the cases of genocide and extreme crimes against humanity can be tried in any court across the globe. Earlier the court had pointed out that admission of the petition would amount duplicating the investigation launched by the ICC. The ICC on Nov. 14, 2019, approved a full investigation into Myanmar's alleged crimes against the minority Rohingya Muslims..."
Source/publisher: "Anadolu Agency" (Ankara)
Date of publication: 2020-06-02
Date of entry/update: 2020-06-02
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Title: Myanmar’s violent civil war makes it hard to obey ICJ orders to protect the Rohingya
Topic: Civil War, International Court Of Justice (ICJ), Rohingya
Topic: Civil War, International Court Of Justice (ICJ), Rohingya
Description: "Myanmar recently sent its first report to the International Criminal Court on the steps it’s taking to protect the Rohingya. The report isn’t public, but Rohingya activists and rights advocates say ongoing violence and human rights abuses show Myanmar hasn’t complied with the court’s orders. Editorial Rights advocates and ethnic Rohingya activists say Myanmar is failing to comply with orders from the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to take steps to protect the Muslim minority from ongoing genocide. On May 23, Myanmar submitted its first report to the ICJ outlining how the government and military are complying with the court’s orders to prevent genocide and preserve evidence. The court issued the orders in January after the first hearings in the case brought by The Gambia charging Myanmar with genocide, as the case could take years to resolve. Though the report is not yet public, ALTSEAN Burma (the Alternative ASEAN Network on Burma) and other groups claim Myanmar has done little to end violence against ethnic minorities, prevent discrimination or stop hate speech and violence. Following the ICJ hearing, there have been at least five cases in which Rohingya civilians were killed by the Myanmar military or in fighting between the military and ethnic armed group the Arakan Army (AA). In an op-ed in Frontier Myanmar, three Rohingya youth leaders—Zahidullah, Shohid and Abdullah Zubair—say Myanmar hasn’t changed its course since the ICJ hearing in January. “If we had an opportunity to respond to Myanmar’s report, the following is what we would say. In the four months since the ICJ issued the provisional measures ruling, our lives in Bangladesh and Myanmar have become worse,” the three wrote. They say that Rohingya groups have documented at least 54 cases of rights abuses against Rohingya in Rakhine between January and May..."
Source/publisher: "ASEAN Today" (Singapore)
Date of publication: 2020-05-30
Date of entry/update: 2020-05-30
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Title: We, the Rohingya, can’t wait for justice from faraway courts
Sub-title: Expectations about international justice are unrealistically high among Rohingya in the camps in Bangladesh, and the case before the ICJ is likely to end in disappointment.
Description: "On May 23, Myanmar had to submit its first report to the International Court of Justice in The Hague about the measures it has taken to prevent the genocide of the Rohingya people. The report was not made public so we can only guess what Myanmar is telling the court about the situation in Rakhine State. There have been many times during the past three years when discussions about the Rohingya have taken place in other countries without our involvement. If we had an opportunity to respond to Myanmar’s report, the following is what we would say. In the four months since the ICJ issued the provisional measures ruling, our lives in Bangladesh and Myanmar have become worse. There is no justice for us in the camps, where we have no education, no livelihoods, no movement, no internet and no hope for the future. There is no justice for the Rohingya who are forced to flee on boats and are abused and extorted by people smugglers. Support independent journalism in Myanmar. Sign up to be a Frontier member. There is no justice for the hundreds of young men who are forced to join criminal gangs in the camps, or the women and girls who are harassed and abused by gang leaders. There is no justice for our brothers and sisters in Rakhine who are caught in the middle of a war that is not their own. Rohingya civil society groups that help refugees have been documenting abuses in Rakhine since the ICJ handed down its ruling in January. Between January and May they have recorded 54 cases of human rights abuses against Rohingya, including deaths and injuries by landmines and shelling. Because the internet has been blocked on both sides of the border, we think the number of cases is likely much higher..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "Frontier Myanmar" (Myanmar)
Date of publication: 2020-05-28
Date of entry/update: 2020-05-30
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Title: Myanmar Submits First Report To ICJ Concerning Rohingya Genocide
Description: "Last Sunday, Myanmar submitted its first report to the International Court of Justice, elaborating on the measures it has taken to protect the Rohingya ethnic minority from genocide. The ICJ had issued a provisional order on Myanmar in January following a call to action made by The Gambia, urging Myanmar to take all necessary means to prevent genocide acts and incitement from happening. In 2017, Myanmar’s military launched a clearance operation in the Rakhine state in response to an offensive attack by an armed Rohingya group. The violent aftermath that followed this crackdown has forced more than 750,000 Rohingya minority to flee to Bangladesh, languishing in squalid conditions in the world’s largest refugee camp. Another 600,000 Rohingya citizens still reside in the Southern area of Myanmar. The ongoing crackdown of Myanmar’s security forces had led to mass killing, rape, torture, forced displacement, and other human rights violations, which the ICJ has cited as war crimes or crimes against humanity. Rohingya’s villager homes were ransacked and set on fire, which could be seen from the border in Bangladesh. Discrimination against the Rohingya, however, is not a new phenomenon. According to Aljazeera, “nearly all Rohingya have been denied citizenship since 1982, effectively rendering them stateless. They are denied freedom of movement and other basic rights.” The Rohingya have been described by United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres as one of the most discriminated and persecuted populations in the world..."
Source/publisher: "The Organization for World Peace"
Date of publication: 2020-05-28
Date of entry/update: 2020-05-29
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Title: Myanmar Parliament Approves Half-Million USD for ICJ Genocide Defense After Debate
Description: "The Myanmar Parliament has approved a budget of 680 million kyats (US$484,000) for the country’s defense at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) against genocide charges filed by The Gambia. Union Minister for International Cooperation U Kyaw Tin defended the government’s budget before a vote on Wednesday, responding to criticism from a military-appointed lawmaker by saying that the budget was made in line with laws and procedures. As lawmakers discussed proposed additions to budgets for the 2019-20 fiscal year last week, military lawmaker Major Naing Lin Aung asked if the proposed budget of 680 million kyats was in line with laws and procedures. “We will have to face the lawsuit for years. So, I’d like to say that the proposed addition to the budget is in line with financial procedures and laws,” said U Kyaw Tin. The budget for the defense at the ICJ falls under the budget of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA). The joint public accounts committee suggested slashing 626.7 million kyats (US$446,000) from the 4.4 billion kyat-budget proposed by MOFA. The Union Parliament accepted the cut and approved the adjusted MOFA budget on Wednesday. The budget covers hiring of legal experts and advisors, travel to the ICJ and meetings inside and outside the country, said U Kyaw Tin. He said that in November of last year, MOFA explained its plan to defend against the lawsuit at the ICJ to President U Win Myint, State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, vice-presidents, parliamentary speakers, military chief Senior General Min Aung Hlaing and region and state chief ministers. “The ministry was able to satisfactorily explain how its expenditures are in line with regulations. As our country is being sued and we face a lawsuit at the international level, there must be sufficient budget. This must be accepted,” said lawmaker Daw Pyone Cathy Naing, who is also a member of the Lower House International Relations Committee..."
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Source/publisher: "The Irrawaddy" (Thailand)
Date of publication: 2020-05-28
Date of entry/update: 2020-05-28
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Title: Myanmar submits report to UN court on Rohingya genocide
Description: "Myanmar, on Saturday, confirmed that it had submitted a report to the International Court of Justice (ICJ), or sometimes called the World Court, on preventing further acts of genocide against the country's Muslim Rohingya minority as well as preserving evidence of the genocidal campaign seen in recent years. In January, the top UN court issued a provisional order asking Myanmar to take certain preventive measures against the genocide of the Rohingya community in the western Rakhine state of Myanmar, reports Turkey’s Anadolu Agency. About its compliance report, a Foreign Ministry official of Myanmar, on Saturday said: “We submitted it to the ICJ today.” As he was not authorized to speak to the media, he sought anonymity, and informed the report was based on three directives issued by the president’s office this April in response to the ICJ order. He said Myanmar’s President Win Myint ordered the regional government and military not to remove or destroy evidence of a genocide, and prevent anyone and all groups from committing genocidal acts as well as prevent incitement and hate speech against the Rohingya population. “What I know is that the report was based on what we have done and what we are doing regarding these three directives,” commented the official. It is unclear if the court will make the report public..."
Source/publisher: "Dhaka Tribune" (Bangladesh)
Date of publication: 2020-05-24
Date of entry/update: 2020-05-26
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Title: Myanmar submits first report on Rohingya to UN's top court
Sub-title: Document about steps Myanmar took for protecting Rohingya from genocide is with ICJ, official says as critics cry foul.
Description: "Myanmar has submitted its first report to the International Court of Justice (ICJ), detailing what it has done to protect the minority Rohingya from genocide. The Hague-based court issued a provisional order in January, asking Myanmar to safeguard the mostly Muslim group in western Rakhine state as part of "provisional measures" at the start of a trial expected to take years. More: UN envoy calls for investigation into 'possible war crimes' in Myanmar Eight killed in Myanmar's troubled western state of Rakhine Myanmar to release 25,000 prisoners to mark New Year festival The top UN court agreed last year to consider a case brought by The Gambia alleging that Myanmar committed genocide against the Rohingya, an accusation vigorously denied by the government. Myanmar's military in August 2017 launched what it called a "clearance operation" in Rakhine state in response to an attack by a Rohingya armed group. The crackdown forced more than 730,000 Rohingya to flee to neighboring Bangladesh and led to widespread accusations that security forces committed mass murder, gang rape, torture and arson. A foreign ministry official told Turkey's Anadolu news agency the report submitted on Saturday was based on three directives issued by President Win Myint's office in April. It is unclear if the court will make the report public. Speaking on condition of anonymity as he was not authorised to speak to the media, the official said the president ordered the regional government and military not to remove or destroy evidence of a genocide. He also instructed them to prevent genocidal acts as well as incitement and hate speech against the Rohingya. "What I know is that the report was based on what we have done and what we are doing regarding these three directives," said the official..."
Source/publisher: "Al Jazeera" (Qatar)
Date of publication: 2020-05-25
Date of entry/update: 2020-05-25
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Title: Myanmar submits report to ICJ on Rohingya genocide
Sub-title: Myanmar leaders said to order prevention of genocidal acts and hate speech against Rohingya Muslims
Description: "Myanmar confirmed on Saturday that it had submitted a report to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on preventing further acts of genocide against the country's Muslim Rohingya minority as well as preserving evidence of the genocidal campaign seen in recent years. In January, the top UN court issued a provisional order asking Myanmar to implement certain preventive measures against the genocide of the Rohingya community in Myanmar’s western Rakhine state. About Myanmar’s compliance report, a Foreign Ministry official on Saturday told Anadolu Agency over the phone: “We submitted it to the ICJ today.” On condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to speak to media, the official said the report was based on three directives issued by the president’s office this April in response to the ICJ order. He said Win Myint, Myanmar’s president, ordered the regional government and military not to remove or destroy evidence of a genocide while it must prevent anyone and all groups from committing genocidal acts as well as prevent incitement and hate speech against the Rohingya. ‘What I know is that the report was based on what we done and what we are doing regarding these three directives,” said the official..."
Source/publisher: "Anadolu Agency" (Ankara)
Date of publication: 2020-05-23
Date of entry/update: 2020-05-24
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Title: Myanmar to submit first report to ICJ on Rohingya order
Sub-title: 4 months after UN court orders Myanmar to prevent Rohingya genocide, Yangon scheduled to submit first report on May 23
Description: "Myanmar on Saturday will submit its first compliance report to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on a previous order to prevent and not commit genocide against the Muslim Rohingya minority in the country. Early in January, the top UN court issued a provisional order asking Myanmar to implement certain preventive measures against the genocide of the persecuted community. The ICJ may rule against making the report public. However, Myanmar was ordered to share a copy of the report with Gambia for the West African country to submit its comments. The ICJ is set to hear Myanmar on its implementation of "all measures taken to give effect" to its order, seeking to ensure Yangon prevents genocidal acts -- including by its own security forces -- and preserve all potential evidence of genocidal acts. The ICJ had given to Myanmar four months, ending on May 23, 2020. Subsequent reports will be filed every six months. However, the UN's former Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar, Yanghee Lee, said Myanmar had not taken any steps since the order. "Sadly, no progress at all," Lee said in a webinar organized by the Global Justice Center. The ICJ delivered its verdict on a case filed last December by Gambia. The Maldives has also hired prominent human rights lawyer Amal Clooney to represent the persecuted Rohingya at the UN court alongside Gambia..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "Anadolu Agency" (Ankara)
Date of publication: 2020-05-22
Date of entry/update: 2020-05-23
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Title: Whatever Myanmar tells the UN’s top court, the only hope for the military’s victims is to stand together
Sub-title: As the deadline approaches to answer to the UN’s top court about abuses against the Rohingya, the government and the military are using the same old tricks
Description: "Myanmar has until tomorrow to submit a report to the United Nation’s highest court detailing what it is doing to protect the mostly Muslim Rohingya minority from genocide. The International Court of Justice (ICJ) ordered the report, the first of many, as part of “provisional measures” at the start of a trial that is expected to take years. It made the ruling after The Gambia accused Myanmar of genocide following mass rapes and killings against the Rohingya that forced over 730,000 to flee to Bangladesh in 2017. In response to this case, the government and the military are taking slightly different, but equally flawed, approaches. The government has tried to feed people inside Myanmar a nationlist narrative about the need to fight “terrorists” while presenting itself abroad as diplomatic and reasonable. The military, meanwhile, is brazenly continuing its attacks in Rakhine but pursuing sham accountability against soldiers who have been caught red-handed abusing civilians. Both are attempts to appease the international community by giving the appearance of cooperation, and neither is a genuine effort to take this opportunity to right the injustices done to the Rohingya and other minority groups..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "Myanmar Now" (Myanmar)
Date of publication: 2020-05-22
Date of entry/update: 2020-05-23
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Myanmar’s integrity test in an international court
Sub-title: The country has until May 23 to provide evidence to the International Court of Justice that genocide has stopped
Description: "The clock is ticking down to a May 23 deadline for Myanmar’s government to provide demonstrable evidence that it has taken substantive action in the first four months of 2020 to protect its Rohingya minority from genocide. The International Court of Justice (ICJ) imposed that deadline in January in response to The Gambia’s petition for “provisional measures” to protect the Rohingya from “real and imminent risk” of genocide by Myanmar authorities. Those provisional measures are the ICJ’s first response to The Gambia’s official complaint of Myanmar’s violations of the United Nations’ Genocide Convention. The complaint cited the extreme violence that the Myanmar military, or Tatmadaw, along with Border Security Guard units and armed Buddhist Rakhine civilians, unleashed against Muslim Rohingya civilians in late 2017. The ICJ decision imposed a series of obligations on the Myanmar government linked to a specific timetable for detailing its efforts to meet those benchmarks. The obligations include “taking all measures within its power to prevent” actions that meet the legal definition of acts of genocide and to ensure that the Myanmar military “do not commit acts of genocide, or of conspiracy to commit genocide, of direct and public incitement to commit genocide, of attempt to commit genocide, or of complicity in genocide.”..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "Asia Times" (Hong Kong)
Date of publication: 2020-05-21
Date of entry/update: 2020-05-22
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Freedom From Expression
Description: "“The NLD government still has time to make this right by taking the following actions without delay: Immediately and unconditionally release all political prisoners and drop charges against those who are being persecuted for their fundamental right to freedom of expression; stop harassing the media and reporters for doing their legitimate work; repeal repressive legislation and enact laws that enshrine press freedom and freedom of expression.” Myanmar has announced that it will indeed go ahead with the 2020 general election as planned, most likely in November. However, as noted by civil society organizations in light of World Press Freedom Day on 3 May, freedom of expression is in decline in the country. It is essential that this fundamental freedom is guaranteed to hold the government accountable, to monitor the fairness of the elections and ensure transparency and fairness in its organization, and to scrutinize the platforms of the political parties that will contest it. One of the most pressing concerns in regard to freedom of expression and restrictions on the press, is the ongoing internet shutdown in Rakhine and Chin States. While one township in Rakhine State, Maungdaw, was recently taken off this list, this is probably a tactical PR move from the government given the upcoming reporting deadline to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on progress on implementation of measures as ordered by the Court. The remaining eight townships, however, are black holes of information. This is particularly galling in the context of both the coronavirus pandemic – where information dissemination is key for public health – and the ongoing armed conflict, in which 157,000 people have been displaced and the Myanmar military continues to commit egregious human rights violations. It has now been ten months without internet access in this part of Myanmar. Furthermore, on the same day that the Myanmar government officially announced its first coronavirus cases, they also announced that over 230 websites would be blocked. While the government gave the reason that such sites either contain adult content or spread ‘fake news,’ the reality is that some of these websites are essential ethnic media outlets such as Karen News and the Rakhine-based Development Media Group. These media outlets are not purveyors of ‘fake news’ but trusted local agencies that provide valuable information regarding the ground situation in their respective areas, areas where mainstream domestic or international media do not have access to. This valuable information pertains not just to the coronavirus pandemic, but also on the human rights violations and atrocities committed by the Myanmar military..."
Source/publisher: Progressive Voice (Thailand)
Date of publication: 2020-05-10
Date of entry/update: 2020-05-18
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Did Myanmar Advance International Law in The Hague?
Description: "Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, foreign minister of Myanmar, went to The Hague last December to defend her country against charges of genocide. By going, she also acknowledged that the international community has a legitimate interest in holding countries accountable for genocide and crimes against humanity. Obviously, this includes Myanmar, but as importantly it also includes every other country. By responding as she did, Myanmar’s foreign minister actually raised the bar for other countries accused of committing war crimes. Myanmar is perhaps the first country to acknowledge the legitimacy of the international court, and the requirement that such serious accusations must be responded to. Indeed, such genocide charges are typically leveled only at already-defeated countries and deposed dictators. Or, as commonly, such crimes are not prosecuted at all. This has been the general policy for most of the other genocides that took place since the international genocide law was promulgated after World War II. By responding, Myanmar is in fact helping to establish new levels of accountability for not just its own army, but the larger community of nations..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "The Irrawaddy" (Thailand)
Date of publication: 2020-04-25
Date of entry/update: 2020-04-27
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Face facts: Genocide of the Rohingya in Myanmar is complete
Description: "As recently as two weeks ago, some of the few Rohingya remaining in Myanmar were still trying to make their way across the border to the relative safety of Cox’s Bazar in Bangladesh. This comes 16 months after the governments of Myanmar and Bangladesh agreed Rohingya who had previously fled Myanmar would be helped to return to the country of their birth, and over two months since the International Court of Justice ruled that Myanmar must take a number of steps to protect the Rohingya, who it judged as “at risk of genocide.” It therefore seems that fears for the safety of the Rohingya remaining in Myanmar were, unfortunately, well founded. And those who made it to the border were some of the luckier ones. The situation is probably even more precarious for the majority of those still in the country, who find themselves in internally displaced people’s camps in Myanmar under the direct supervision and “protection” of the Myanmar military, who orchestrated the “clearance operations” against them in the first place. As if the background situation of the ethnic cleansing, plus the intrusion the COVID-19 pandemic, were not enough, the Myanmar military has once again ramped up attacks against insurgent groups, and any civilian who belongs to the same ethnic group as the insurgents. Presumably the calculation was that the pandemic might make the insurgent groups less organized and more vulnerable to attack. If that was the case, then it would appear that calculation was wrong..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: Arab News (Saudi Arabia)
Date of publication: 2020-04-25
Date of entry/update: 2020-04-26
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Myanmar pays rising price for Rohingya crisis
Sub-title: The list of countries planning economic and legal measures against Myanmar is growing
Description: "Last week, the government of Myanmar started paying a real price for its failure to provide meaningful accountability for its security forces’ widespread and systematic violence against the country’s Muslim Rohingya minority in northern Rakhine state in late 2017. Literally. On February 26, Germany’s development minister, Gerd Müller, announced that Berlin was suspending development cooperation with Myanmar because of its “ethnic cleansing” of its Rohingya minority. Müller said the suspension would remain in place until Myanmar delivered on its commitment to “guaranteeing the safe return of the more than 700,000 Rohingya who fled for their lives to Bangladesh in late 2017 and protecting the Rohingya who still live in the country.” Although Müller didn’t specify the financial cost of that suspension, he simultaneously announced an additional German government contribution of €15 million (US$16.5 million) to support Bangladesh’s Rohingya refugee population..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "Asia Times" (Hong Kong)
Date of publication: 2020-03-02
Date of entry/update: 2020-03-03
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Inside Rohingya camps: Government invites media to Myanmar
Description: "Al Jazeera cameras have been allowed on a tightly-controlled, government-organised trip to Rakhine state in northern Myanmar, where the army has denied carrying out a genocidal campaign against the Rohingya..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "Al Jazeera" (Qatar)
Date of publication: 2020-03-02
Date of entry/update: 2020-03-02
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Rohingya crisis: Refugees afraid to return home to Myanmar
Sub-title: Afraid to return home, Myanmar's Rohingya refugees are stuck in camps in Bangladesh, three years on from a military crackdown.
Description: "Rohingya who fled a campaign of violence against them in Myanmar remain fearful of returning home, despite the government saying it is now ready to receive them. More than 700,000 Rohingya fled to neighbouring Bangladesh in 2017. A recent United Nations court ruling ordered Myanmar to protect them. Al Jazeera's Tanvir Chowdhury reports from Kutupalong refugee camp in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "Al Jazeera" (Qatar)
Date of publication: 2020-03-02
Date of entry/update: 2020-03-02
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: OIC contact group discusses Rohingya protection with UN chief
Description: ": The contact group of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), led by Saudi Arabia, met with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres at his office at the UN’s New York headquarters to discuss the latest developments related to the Muslim Rohingya ethnic minority community in Myanmar. The group included representatives from Turkey, Bangladesh, Malaysia, Indonesia and the OIC Observer Mission to the UN. The Kingdom’s permanent representative to the UN, Abdallah Al-Mouallimi, lauded the efforts of Guterres to support the legitimate rights of the Rohingya, highlighting the International Court of Justice’s (ICJ) decision demanding the government of Myanmar honor its obligations to provide protection to the group. “The ICJ decision was the result of the efforts exerted by the OIC members states in New York and the Contact Group on Rohingya Muslims of Myanmar headed by the Kingdom,” he said..."
Source/publisher: "Arab News" (Saudi Arabia)
Date of publication: 2020-03-01
Date of entry/update: 2020-03-01
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Myanmar: The Rohingya crisis
Topic: Genocide and hypocrisy
Topic: Genocide and hypocrisy
Description: "In 1948, Myanmar, then called Burma, gained independence from Britain, although the promised autonomy to the Rohingya people (who are mainly Muslim), as well as other ethnic groups like the Shan and Kachin people was never granted. Instead, military-government led persecution and theft of land have been their lot. The Rohingya people were stripped of their nationality in 1982, and subsequently labelled as ‘Bangladeshis’. Since 2012, especially in 2015 and 2017, there were several outbreaks of vicious attacks on the Rohingya people by the Tatmadaw, the Myanmar military forces, which forced over 700,000 to flee from Rakhine province into refugee camps in neighbouring Bangladesh. More than a million Rohingyas live in the squalor, disease, and poverty of the refugee camps in southern Bangladesh, having fled from appalling violence and rape or sexual abuse. According to “Physicians for Human Rights”, Rohingyas in the camps had been subject to being beaten or injured with weapons, hit by grenades or mortars, or raped or sexually assaulted. For example, in 2017, 6-year-old Abdul Wahid was shot in the head and left leg; despite surviving the attack after surgery in Bangladesh, walking is now an extreme difficulty for him. 21-year-old Rabia Basri lost five relatives when fired at by military forces, and is now unable to walk or even carry loads without the use of crutches.These examples are but the tip of the iceberg. There are currently around ten refugee camps in Bangladesh, each housing anywhere between 9,000 and 600,000 Rohingyas. The largest camp, Kutupalong, has the highest number and contains an expansion site of makeshift camps. International hypocrisy The government of Bangladesh is, of course, not a benevolent force intervening in the crisis; it previously provided the Myanmar government with tens of thousands of names of Rohingyas marked for repatriation, following a joint agreement signed in 2018. Voluntary repatriation has been refused by many Rohingya refugees over fears of further violence or sexual assault when back in Rakhine province. The government of Myanmar has also steadfastly refused to grant full citizenship to the Rohingya people, instead offering only the concession of ‘part-citizenship’..."
Source/publisher: "The Socialist" (UK)
Date of publication: 2020-02-28
Date of entry/update: 2020-02-28
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Myanmar: ‘Multidimensional and long-standing’ root causes behind rights minority abuses, says Bachelet
Sub-title: The Human Rights Council on Thursday held an interactive dialogue with UN rights chief, Michelle Bachelet, on the root causes of violations and abuses suffered by the Rohingya mainly-Muslim minority and other minorities in Myanmar. She said the Government now has a historic opportunity to counteract systematic violations, "by bringing its people together, as one".
Description: "The High Commissioner also presented her oral update, as well as country reports of the Secretary-General and the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), followed by a general debate. Ms. Bachelet said she welcomed the engagement and constructive input of the Government of Myanmar in the compilation of the report. She reminded Member States that for over half a century, the policies of Myanmar had discriminated against religious and ethnic minorities. Women and girls heavily impacted Democratic deficits, entrenched impunity, weak rule of law and the lack of civilian oversight had all contributed to human rights abuses in Myanmar, Ms. Bachelet noted, adding that women and girls were especially impacted as a result of sexual and gender-based violence. Government policies “have contributed to and perpetuated violence, extreme poverty, exploitation and dispossession. Notably, the 1982 Citizenship Law rendered stateless a significant proportion of the Rohingya and other Muslims, compounding their vulnerability”, she said. She added that the “root causes of these violations are complex, multi-dimensional and long-standing. Unpacking and untangling this multi-faceted human rights challenge requires understanding the historical, political, economic and social dimensions as a prerequisite to identifying solutions.”..."
Source/publisher: UN News
Date of publication: 2020-02-27
Date of entry/update: 2020-02-28
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Amal Clooney to pursue Rohingya case at The Hague
Sub-title: Human rights lawyer will represent Maldives, which is joining the Gambia in taking Myanmar to court for alleged genocide
Description: "Amal Clooney will represent the Maldives in seeking justice for Rohingya Muslims at the UN’s highest court, where Myanmar faces accusations of genocide. The Maldivian government has said it will join the Gambia in challenging Myanmar’s treatment of Rohingya people during an army crackdown in Rakhine state in 2017 that forced more than 700,000 people to flee to neighbouring Bangladesh. In a unanimous decision in January, the international court of justice (ICJ) in The Hague imposed emergency “provisional measures” on Myanmar, instructing it to prevent genocidal violence against its Rohingya minority and preserve any evidence of past crimes. The ruling was an outright rejection of the defence put forward by Aung San Suu Kyi, who attended court in person to defend the military’s actions. In evidence to the court she urged ICJ judges to dismiss allegations of genocide and instead allow the country’s court martial system to deal with any human rights abuses. A final judgement is expected to take years. In a statement, Clooney, the human rights lawyer and barrister at Doughty Street Chambers in London, said: “Accountability for genocide in Myanmar is long overdue and I look forward to working on this important effort to seek judicial remedies for Rohingya survivors.” Clooney successfully represented former the Maldivian president Mohamed Nasheed and secured a UN decision that his 2015 jailing for 13 years was illegal. She also represented Reuters journalists Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo, who spent more than 500 days in prison in Myanmar convicted of breaking the colonial-era Official Secrets Act. The journalists had been working on a Reuters investigation into the killing of 10 Rohingya Muslim men in Rakhine state. They were freed in May 2019..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "The Guardian" (UK)
Date of publication: 2020-02-27
Date of entry/update: 2020-02-27
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Maldives hires Amal Clooney to represent Rohingya at UN
Sub-title: British-Lebanese lawyer said she is delighted to represent the Rohingya before the International Court of Justice.
Description: "The Maldives has hired the services of prominent human rights lawyer Amal Clooney to represent the persecuted Rohingya at the United Nations court. "I am delighted to have been asked to represent the Maldives before the International Court of Justice [ICJ]. Accountability for genocide in Myanmar is long overdue and I look forward to working on this important effort to seek judicial remedies for Rohingya survivors," the British-Lebanese lawyer said. More: Will the ICJ order Myanmar to stop alleged Rohingya genocide? 'Great news': Bangladesh allows education for Rohingya children 'Justice served': Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh hail ICJ ruling Clooney is married to Hollywood actor George Clooney. The Maldives said it will file a written declaration of intervention at the ICJ supporting the Rohingya, a persecuted Muslim minority in Myanmar. "In line with the decision taken at the 14th Islamic Summit of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation [OIC], the Republic of Maldives intends to extend its support for the efforts to seek accountability for the acts of genocide committed against the Rohingya people," Foreign Minister Abdulla Shahid said..."
Source/publisher: "Al Jazeera" (Qatar)
Date of publication: 2020-02-27
Date of entry/update: 2020-02-27
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Maldives to intervene at ICJ in support of Rohingya
Sub-title: The minister made the declaration while addressing the 43rd Session of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in Geneva on Tuesday
Description: "Minister of Foreign Affairs Abdulla Shahid has announced the Maldivian administration's decision to file a written declaration of intervention at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) at The Hague, in support of the persecuted Rohingya people. The minister made the declaration while addressing the 43rd Session of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in Geneva on Tuesday. In his statement, Minister Shahid noted that the government welcomed ICJ's ruling last month, which ordered Myanmar to "take all measures within its power” to protect the Rohingya from genocide. "The Maldives intends to support the ongoing efforts to secure accountability for the perpetrators of genocide against the Rohingya people, in line with the decision taken by the OIC during the Summit held in Makkah last year," said Minister Shahid, referring to the Organization of Islamic Cooperation's calls on the ad hoc ministerial committee to launch a case over Myanmar's human rights violations against the Rohingya Muslims at the ICJ..."
Source/publisher: "Dhaka Tribune" (Bangladesh)
Date of publication: 2020-02-26
Date of entry/update: 2020-02-26
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Myanmar ICJ Defender to Give Lecture in Yangon
Description: "Professor William Schabas, who defended Myanmar at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) against genocide charges in December, will deliver a lecture at Yangon University on March 5. The Canadian-born academic is professor of international law at Middlesex University in the UK. He was among three senior members of Myanmar’s delegation at the ICJ. In December at the ICJ, Schabas denied genocide took place during the military clearance operation in Rakhine State in 2017 against the Rohingya community in which hundreds were killed and hundreds of thousands displaced. Schabas will give a lecturer on legal affairs at Yangon University’s Convocation Hall in the morning, director-general of the Higher Education Department Dr. Thein Win told The Irrawaddy. “The event is mainly intended for law students so that they can learn from a foreign academic to broaden their horizons,” he said..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "The Irrawaddy" (Thailand)
Date of publication: 2020-02-25
Date of entry/update: 2020-02-26
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Analysts optimistic Myanmar’s tourism will rebound
Description: "Industry analysts claim interest will return to Myanmar’s tourism sector after some challenges including the Rakhine crisis and the downswing due to the coronavirus, according to Skift.com. “We foresee an improvement in the next high season [October 2020 to March 2021] now that the ICJ [International Court of Justice] had concluded its findings,” said Jehan Wick, who has been in Myanmar since 1997 and now runs his company, JW Hospitality Management. “This improved sentiment was [noticed] by most operators since the World Travel Market [in London] in November.” Changes are taking place. Khiri Travel Group, an inbound agency handling Western clients in Asia with an office in Myanmar, said bookings rebounded from countries such as the UK, Netherlands, and Scandinavia after the ICJ ruling..."
Source/publisher: "Mizzima" (Myanmar)
Date of publication: 2020-02-24
Date of entry/update: 2020-02-24
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: The fate of the Rohingya still left hanging
Sub-title: How likely is Myanmar to make policy changes after the ICJ ruling?
Description: "oes Myanmar have any obligation to take the world court -- the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague – seriously? The second question is whether Myanmar’s quasi-military ruler has the political will to implement the landmark judgment of January 23. Myanmar has officially rejected the International Court of Justice’s historic ruling, and accused international rights groups of making exaggerated statements about the prevailing situation. It also rejected the UN fact-finding mission’s report on the basis of being “one-sided.” It is well understood that the ICJ has no legal jurisdiction over Myanmar or any individual nation. The ICJ ordered Myanmar to implement vital measures to protect its Rohingya population from facing any further atrocities. This ruling has been hailed as an “accomplishment of international justice.” The court further ordered Myanmar to ensure protection from destruction of any evidence of “possible” genocide. The ruling means that a global body, for the first time, has officially recognized the threat of abuse against the Rohingya, and ordered Myanmar to protect the community..."
Source/publisher: "Dhaka Tribune" (Bangladesh)
Date of publication: 2020-02-17
Date of entry/update: 2020-02-18
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Justice will be a long time coming for the Rohingya. But the latest ICJ ruling is a start
Description: "On 23 January, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) issued what amounted to a “cease and desist” order against Myanmar, ordering authorities there to end genocidal practices against the Rohingya. The ruling of the so-called “World Court” has brought hope that international justice will prevail after the horrors inflicted on women, men and children in Rakhine State by Myanmar’s security forces. But while the court’s ruling was a landmark moment, there are still many lingering questions. What happens next? What effects will the ruling have on Myanmar’s domestic scene, where an election looms later this year? Will Myanmar comply with the order — and what happens if it does not? The ICJ’s ruling meant that a global legal body for the first time officially recognised the real threat of abuse against the Rohingya, and ordered Myanmar to do what it can to protect them. The ICJ also called on Myanmar to prevent further breaches of the Genocide Convention, rein in abuses by its security forces and preserve evidence of past abuses..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "Euronews" (Lyon)
Date of publication: 2020-02-14
Date of entry/update: 2020-02-15
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: ICJ’s Judgement On The Rohingya And Its Challenges – Analysis
Sub-title: Political will is extremely crucial since ICJ has no jurisdiction or legal apparatus over individual nations.
Description: "In a historic judgement, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on 23 January ordered Myanmar to implement vital measures to protect its Rohingya population from any further atrocities. This ruling has been hailed as an “accomplishment of international justice.” This lawsuit was brought by Gambia, a small African Muslim state backed by the 57 nation Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) in November at the United Nations’ highest body for disputes between states. It accused Myanmar of genocide against Rohingya in violation of a 1948 Genocide Convention. The court witnessed the trial on 10–11 December where the State Counsellor of Myanmar Aung San Suu Kyi was herself present to defend her country’s honour. She emphasised that the accusations made against her government are “incomplete and misleading factual picture of the situation,” thus categorically denying the allegations of genocide and thereby requesting to dismiss the charges brought to it. Under the presiding Judge Abdulqawi Yusuf and 16 other judges present in the panel, the undisputed ruling on 23 January granted Gambia’s request for preliminary measures. According to the court, the Rohingyas face an ongoing threat that necessitates Myanmar to “take all measures within its power to prevent all acts” prohibited under the 1948 Genocide Convention, and report back to the court within four months, and then, every six months after that..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: Observer Research Foundation (ORF) via "Europe-Asia Studies"
Date of publication: 2020-02-11
Date of entry/update: 2020-02-11
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Rohingya justice: Why the ICJ's public rebuke of Myanmar matters
Sub-title: The ICJ's order that Myanmar does all it can to prevent genocide offers the Rohingya hope for the future.
Description: "On January 23, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague imposed emergency "provisional measures" on Myanmar regarding its actions against and treatment of the Rohingya minority - my people. To the average person this may sound like incomprehensible legalese. But for many Rohingya, who had long been waiting for the international community to take meaningful action to end their suffering, this was some of the best news they had ever received. With this decision, the United Nations' "World Court" effectively instructed the government of Aung San Suu Kyi to respect the requirements of the 1948 genocide convention and bring an end to its military's attacks on the Rohingya. This decision marked the first time that a credible international body said "enough" to the government that for so many decades has abused and oppressed us. My people's plight captured global headlines in August 2017, when the Tatmadaw (the Myanmar military) launched a vicious "clearance operation" in the Rakhine State, which was home to more than a million Rohingya. Over the course of a few weeks, soldiers rampaged through the region, killing thousands, committing mass rapes, burning villages to the ground, and driving more than 700,000 people to flee into neighbouring Bangladesh. As shocking as the violence was, it was only the tip of the iceberg. For decades, the Myanmar authorities have confined the Rohingya to a virtual open-air prison in the Rakhine state. It denied us citizenship since 1982, effectively rendering us stateless. Our freedom of movement even within Myanmar is extremely limited. We are expected to acquire official permission, and often pay bribes, to leave our home villages. Healthcare and education are off-limits to most Rohingya. This is all part of a deliberate effort by Myanmar not only to dehumanise us, but also to make our lives so miserable that we have no option but to leave..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "Al Jazeera" (Qatar)
Date of publication: 2020-02-08
Date of entry/update: 2020-02-08
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Europeans Press For Action on Rohingya After China, Vietnam Shield Myanmar at UNSC
Description: "European member states of the United Nations called for Myanmar on Tuesday to take measures to hold to account those responsible for committing human rights violations against Rohingya Muslims after the Security Council failed to support an order by the international body’s top court to protect members of the minority group. The International Court of Justice (ICJ) on Jan. 23 ordered Myanmar to implement emergency provisions to protect Rohingya living in the country from genocide and to preserve evidence of atrocities from a 2017 military-led crackdown targeting them. After the Council did not reach an agreement on issuing a declaration urging Myanmar to comply with the ICJ’s order, current Council members France, Estonia, Germany, and Belgium, and former member Poland issued a statement calling on the Southeast Asian nation to take measures to prevent a Rohingya genocide. “Myanmar must address the root causes of its conflicts” and take “credible action to bring to justice those responsible for human rights violations,” the joint statement said, according to news wire reports. “Myanmar must also create conditions for and facilitate a voluntary, safe, dignified and sustainable return of the Rohingya to Myanmar,” the statement said, referring to the yet to be realized repatriation of some of the more than 740,000 Rohingya who fled to Bangladesh during the crackdown. The Rohingya who have been officially approved for repatriation have refused to return, citing safety concerns and demands for full citizenship..."
Source/publisher: "RFA" (USA)
Date of publication: 2020-02-05
Date of entry/update: 2020-02-07
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Hasina seeks EU support for Rohingya return to Myanmar
Description: "Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has sought continued support of the European Union (EU) to ensure safe, dignified, and sustainable return of the displaced Rohingya refugees back to Myanmar, a media report said on Friday. "The Bangladesh Prime Minister thanked the EU members, including Italy, for their support to the cause of the Rohingya," The Daily Star newspaper quoted a joint statement issued on Thursday after talks between Hasina and her Italian counterpart Giuseppe Conte in Rome, as saying. Briefing reporters after the meeting, Hasina's Press Secretary Ihsanul Karim said both sides welcomed the January 23 decision of International Court of Justice (ICJ) on the Rohingya crisis. Karim said that Conte appreciated Bangladesh's management of the Rohingya crisis, adding that he encouraged Hasina to continue with the policy of hospitality. In its January ruling, the ICJ directed Myanmar to prevent the alleged genocide against the Muslim minority community. The court said Myanmar must "take all measures within its power to prevent the commission of all acts" described by the convention. Nearly 738,000 Rohingya refugees are living in camps in Bangladesh since Aug. 25, 2017, following a wave of persecution and violence in Myanmar that the UN has described as a textbook example of ethnic cleansing and possible genocide. Myanmar does not use the Rohingya term and also doesn't recognize them as its citizens, arguing that they are illegal immigrants from Bangladesh..."
Source/publisher: Daijiworld.com
Date of publication: 2020-02-07
Date of entry/update: 2020-02-07
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Commentary: International law has its limits in protecting the Rohingya in Myanmar
Sub-title: The reach of the International Court of Justice is limited in ameliorating violent conflicts within or between states, says Hurst Hannum.
Description: "Myanmar has been ordered by the International Court of Justice to take “provisional measures” to protect the Rohingya, an ethnic Muslim minority in the Buddhist-majority country that has suffered “mass killing, mass displacement, mass fear [and] overwhelming … brutality” at the hands of the military. Over 700,000 Rohingya fled or were forced out of the country since 2016, most to neighbouring Bangladesh. The order comes after the African state of Gambia in November 2019 filed a complaint of genocide of the Rohingya against Myanmar with the International Court of Justice, the judicial organ of the United Nations. Under the 1948 Genocide Convention, genocide requires a specific intent to destroy a group in whole or in part. READ: Myanmar already protecting Rohingya, ruling party says after world court's order The United Nations (UN) General Assembly and numerous human rights organisations have for years condemned Myanmar’s attacks on the Rohingya..."
Source/publisher: "CNA" (Singapore)
Date of publication: 2020-02-01
Date of entry/update: 2020-02-05
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: ICC to now investigate Myanmar for crimes against Rohingyas
Sub-title: The International Criminal Court has officially launched an investigation into Myanmar.
Description: "Phakiso Mochochoko, director of the Department of Jurisdiction, Cooperation and Complementarity, made the announcement at a press conference at Pan Pacific Sonargaon hotel in Dhaka this afternoon. “Justice will be delivered,” Mochochoko said following the announcement. Investigations from the Office of the Prosecutor will now carefully and thoroughly seek to uncover the truth about what happened to the Rohingya people in Myanmar which brought them here to Bangladesh, the press release added. The ICC has jurisdiction to prosecute individuals for the international crimes of genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and the crime of aggression..."
Source/publisher: "The Daily Star" (Bangladesh)
Date of publication: 2020-02-04
Date of entry/update: 2020-02-05
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: UN fails to take action on order against Myanmar on Rohingya
Sub-title: Myanmar's allies China and Vietnam block vote on a joint statement forcing EU member states to make separate report.
Description: "The UN Security Council on Tuesday discussed the International Court of Justice's order that Myanmar do all it can to prevent genocide against the Rohingya Muslims, but failed to agree on a statement. China, an ally of Myanmar, as well as Vietnam, which is a member of the regional Association of Southeast Nations (ASEAN) along with Myanmar, objected, diplomats said, speaking on condition of anonymity because it was a closed-door meeting. More: 'As expected': People in Myanmar shrug off ICJ Rohingya ruling After ICJ ruling, Myanmar denies genocide against Rohingya Myanmar: Defending genocide at the CJ Instead, the European Union members of the council urged Myanmar in a joint statement to reporters afterwards to comply with the measures ordered by the UN's top court, stressing that they were "compulsory under international law." France, Germany, Belgium and Estonia along with former council member Poland also urged Myanmar "to take credible action to bring to justice those responsible for human rights violations."..."
Source/publisher: "Al Jazeera" (Qatar)
Date of publication: 2020-02-05
Date of entry/update: 2020-02-05
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Behind Myanmar’s Military Alibi: A Path for Compliance with the ICJ’s Order to Protect Rohingya
Description: "In the wake of the ruling from the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ordering Myanmar to prevent genocide against the Rohingya going forward, the initial excitement was tempered by pragmatics—how this important court order can be enforced so that it actually protects the 600,000 Rohingya who remain in Rakhine State. To be sure, there is no confusion that these measures are binding—as the court noted, they create international legal obligations that require Myanmar’s compliance. But how can the international community guarantee that Myanmar actually does anything? And does Myanmar’s civilian government have the capacity to do what is needed? The answers to these questions are mixed, generally relying on exertion of geopolitical pressure, including through the United Nations Security Council, to which the order has been transmitted. As a general rule and absent a concrete enforcement mechanism, ICJ orders have a reliable compliance rate. However, looking at the Myanmar case in context, and in particular the measures requiring prevention of the commission of genocide by Myanmar’s military, compliance will require a serious and concerted effort by both the international community and the civilian government..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "Just Security"
Date of publication: 2020-02-03
Date of entry/update: 2020-02-04
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: U.N. Court Orders Myanmar to Protect Rohingya Muslims
Description: "Rejecting arguments made by Myanmar’s civilian leader, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, the International Court of Justice at The Hague ruled on Thursday that Myanmar must take action to protect Rohingya Muslims, who have been killed and driven from their homes in what the country’s accusers call a campaign of genocide. The court said Myanmar must “take all measures within its power” to prevent its military or others from carrying out genocidal acts against the Rohingya, who it said faced “real and imminent risk.” It also essentially put Myanmar under court oversight, telling it to submit regular reports to the tribunal explaining what steps it had taken. The decision is the first international court ruling against Myanmar over its military’s brutal treatment of the Rohingya. While the court has no enforcement power, any member of the United Nations can request action from the Security Council based on its rulings. “The chances of Aung San Suu Kyi implementing this ruling will be zero unless significant international pressure is applied,” said Anna Roberts, executive director of the rights group Burma Campaign UK..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "The New York Times" (USA)
Date of publication: 2020-01-23
Date of entry/update: 2020-02-04
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: ICJ ruling shows Rohingya crisis rights and wrongs
Sub-title: Landmark initial ruling against Myanmar also raises doubts about UN impartiality and credibility
Description: "Given the persistent global publicity and intense lobbying on behalf of persecuted Rohingya refugees, a provisional decision handed down on January 23 against Myanmar by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague came as no surprise. The ICJ, the United Nations’ principal judicial organ, ordered Myanmar to take measures to stop killing and harming Rohingyas and to implement “all measures within its power to prevent genocide.” The ruling, likened in reports to a “restraining order”, said Myanmar’s government must further ensure that its military does not “attempt to commit genocide or conspire to commit genocide.” At the same time, ICJ judges underlined in dry legalese that the initial ruling would in no way prejudice the court’s dealing with the “merits of the case”, meaning it has not yet decided whether or not genocide was committed. The court did go further than requested by Gambia, the country which has brought the case to the ICJ on behalf of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), by ordering Myanmar to report on measures taken to comply with the ruling in four months and thereafter every six months. The initial ruling will add more international pressure on Myanmar to hold those responsible for alleged crimes against humanity to account, but will also likely cause the nation’s leaders to more deeply entrench their position of denial..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "Asia Times" (Hong Kong)
Date of publication: 2020-01-24
Date of entry/update: 2020-02-03
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: International law in spotlight following Myanmar genocide verdict
Description: "The Rohingya, who have been described by the UN as the most persecuted minority in the world, experienced a glimmer of hope last week, when the International Court of Justice (ICJ) delivered a remarkable ruling that those members of the community remaining in Myanmar currently face a credible threat of genocide. This was the first time that a genocide case has been brought before the ICJ by a signatory county — in this case, The Gambia. The case before the ICJ took an unexpected turn in November, when Aung San Suu Kyi, the long-time pro-democracy icon and Nobel Peace Prize laureate, and currently the most powerful person in the civilian government in Myanmar, announced that she would defend Myanmar against the charges of genocide in person before the court in The Hague. For a while, Suu Kyi’s former friends and allies in the international community sought to make sense of what was happening to the Rohingya by casting her as a prisoner of fate to the military establishment, which still controls most of the reins of power in the country. But as Suu Kyi became an increasingly prominent apologist for the army, and even adopted the language of those clamoring for the genocide by denying the very identity of the Rohingya and casting them as foreign “Bengalis,” we have increasingly run out of doubt to give her the benefit of. All possible doubt was finally dispelled when she appeared before the ICJ, casually admitting that war crimes had taken place, but that what had happened could not be genocide because there was no genocidal intent. She made this case while still refusing to utter the word “Rohingya” and insisting that she was talking about “Bengalis” — an “other” she should not be expected to be responsible for..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: Arab News (Saudi Arabia)
Date of publication: 2020-02-02
Date of entry/update: 2020-02-03
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Myanmar Update: Court Order tries to Protect Rohingya Muslims from Genocide
Sub-title: The Myanmar military’s years-long campaign against the Rohingya Muslims left hundreds of villages a smoldering pile of debris.
Description: "Myanmar has been ordered by the International Court of Justice to take “provisional measures” to protect the Rohingya, an ethnic Muslim minority in the Buddhist-majority country that has suffered “mass killing, mass displacement, mass fear [and] overwhelming…brutality” at the hands of the military. Over 700,000 Rohingya fled or were forced out of the country since 2016, most to neighboring Bangladesh. The order comes after the African state of The Gambia in November 2019 filed a complaint of genocide of the Rohingya against Myanmar with the International Court of Justice, the judicial organ of the United Nations. Under the 1948 Genocide Convention, genocide requires a specific intent to destroy a group in whole or in part. The U.N. General Assembly and numerous human rights organizations have for years condemned Myanmar’s attacks on the Rohingya. The country – which was slowly emerging from the global economic and political isolation that followed its 1989 military coup by making some very modest concessions to democracy – has also been subjected to new sanctions..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: The National Interest Online (USA)
Date of publication: 2020-02-03
Date of entry/update: 2020-02-03
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: The persecuted Rohingya now have legal protection, but will it amount to anything?
Sub-title: The ICJ ruling on Myanmar is a rare bright point in a woeful international response. Unfortunately its powers are limited
Description: "On Thursday the internet in Kutupalong, a city-sized refugee camp in south-eastern Bangladesh, was switched back on for a few hours. The camp’s residents gathered around their phones as, 5,000 miles away in The Hague, the international court of justice (ICJ) delivered a ruling on Myanmar’s treatment of its Rohingya Muslim minority. They cheered as the court issued a set of legally binding obligations: that Myanmar’s military does not commit acts of genocide against some 600,000 Rohingya who still live in the country, and that evidence of past crimes remains intact. This was the first legal victory for Rohingya since 2017, when upwards of 700,000 were driven into Bangladesh in a campaign by Myanmar’s military that produced the most concentrated outflow of refugees anywhere since the Rwanda genocide in 1994. Responding to attacks by Rohingya militants on security posts in Myanmar’s Rakhine state in late August 2017, military units acted with such ferocity that, within two months, the country had been emptied of nearly half its entire Rohingya population. Those who made it to Bangladesh recounted how troops encircled villages at night and opened fire, cutting down those who fled. Satellite imagery revealed more than 380 destroyed villages, and in the year that followed, new security bases were built where Rohingya homes once stood. Yet until now, there had been little substantive international action..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "The Guardian" (UK)
Date of publication: 2020-01-24
Date of entry/update: 2020-02-03
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Myanmar Rohingya: World court orders prevention of genocide
Sub-title: The International Court of Justice (ICJ) has ordered measures to prevent the genocide of Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar (formerly Burma).
Description: "The decision comes despite de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi defending her country against the accusations in person last month. Thousands of Rohingya died and more than 700,000 fled to Bangladesh during an army crackdown in 2017. UN investigators have warned that genocidal actions could recur. The ICJ case, lodged by the African Muslim-majority nation of The Gambia, called for emergency measures to be taken against the Myanmar military until a fuller investigation could be launched. The man who took Aung San Suu Kyi to the world court Myanmar Rohingya: What you need to know The Lady who fell from grace Myanmar, a predominantly Buddhist state, has always insisted that its military campaign was waged to tackle an extremist threat in Rakhine state. In her defence statement at the court in The Hague, Ms Suu Kyi described the violence as an "internal armed conflict" triggered by Rohingya militant attacks on government security posts..."
Source/publisher: "BBC News" (London)
Date of publication: 2020-01-23
Date of entry/update: 2020-02-01
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Myanmar’s get out of jail free card
Sub-title: So-called Independent Commission of Enquiry whitewashes military abuses in bid to elude genocide charges
Description: "Myanmar’s government made a stunningly rare admission of wrongdoing recently when it admitted that “war crimes” had been perpetrated against Muslims in Rakhine state during the violence of 2017. Unsurprisingly, it concluded the savagery did not constitute genocide as United Nations (UN) and other human rights investigators have suggested. The government made the admission following the finalization of the Independent Commission of Enquiry (ICOE) report, the executive summary of which was made public just days before the United Nations’ International Court of Justice (ICJ) announced temporary provisions on Myanmar in its ongoing proceedings on genocide charges. The ICOE’s conclusions evinced two broad international receptions: one of measured acknowledgement that it admitted to serious crimes previously flatly denied by the administration of State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi – and thus provides a foundation for further discussion on accountability – and another of blithe indifference. While the report should be dismissed as another exercise in cynical codswallop from an unrepentant military and civilian government, the ICOE experience nonetheless signals something more. That is, the report bids to peddle a sense of official partial closure on what happened in Rakhine state and that government business may now return to normal..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "Asia Times" (Hong Kong)
Date of publication: 2020-01-31
Date of entry/update: 2020-02-01
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: 'As expected': People in Myanmar shrug off ICJ Rohingya ruling
Sub-title: Despite indifference to legal cases some ethnic minority groups are backing the Rohingya to push back against military.
Description: " While thousands rallied in Yangon in December to support Myanmar's government as it contested allegations of genocide at the International Court of Justice, the public response to the first of the court's rulings has been decidedly more muted. The ICJ imposed a series of provisional measures on Myanmar last week, ordering it to take certain action to prevent future acts of genocide against the Rohingya Muslim minority. The judges also rejected Myanmar's motions to dismiss the case, which means the trial will now proceed to hear arguments on the alleged genocide itself. The decision brought criticism from officials. Than Htay, the chairman of the military-aligned opposition Union Solidarity and Development Party claimed “all 52 million people” in Myanmar would disagree with it, according to The Standard Time Daily, a local newspaper. But on the streets of the country's biggest city, the ruling barely registered. Two students who spoke to Al Jazeera separately both said neither they nor their friends particularly cared about the ICJ. “Yes I know about it, but I don’t really follow it,” said one. Another woman, from Rakhine but living in Yangon, said the result was “as expected”. When asked if she agreed with the ruling, she said: “Yes. It should be.” The ICJ case against Myanmar was brought by the Gambia accusing the country of committing genocide in its actions against the Rohingya and a brutal military crackdown in Rakhine in 2017 that sent 740,000 people fleeing across the border to Bangladesh..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "Al Jazeera" (Qatar)
Date of publication: 2020-01-31
Date of entry/update: 2020-01-31
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Myanmar Military Faces Added International Scrutiny
Description: "Increasing conflict between Myanmar’s ethnic armed groups and government forces during the last year has increased civilian casualties amid mounting allegations of war crimes. With the U.N.’s International Court of Justice order that the country "take all measures within its power" to prevent any acts of genocide against ethnic Rohingya Muslims, who fled the country amid a bloody military crackdown in 2017, other ethnic minorities that have been fighting for decades over control of resource-rich territory are coming forward to voice their concerns over past documented atrocities, also carried out by the Myanmar military. The mountainside village of Pain Lone in Shan State was the site of such conflict last fall between government forces and the Ta’ang National Liberation Army, an armed ethnic group based in the region, panicking students scrambling for cover as their afternoon classes were ending. "The sound of the helicopters was very terrifying and the loud explosions falling around the village were terrible,” recalls local instructor U Maung Chone, who teaches in the remote mountain settlement.“ It doesn’t matter if they are falling in the town or just in the area. The explosions were very frightening for the kids,” the 45-year-old said, adding that he’d never seen army helicopters in more than two decades of teaching..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "VOA" (Washington, D.C)
Date of publication: 2020-01-26
Date of entry/update: 2020-01-31
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: View From The Neighbourhood: ICJ on Rohingyas
Sub-title: A weekly look at the public conversations shaping ideas beyond borders — in the Subcontinent. Curated by Asad Ali
Description: "The editorial again pointedly ends by saying that since “What Bangladesh has been saying has found a voice at the World Court, we once again appeal to the entire world to step up its effort to assist Bangladesh in protecting the Rohingyas, and to hold Myanmar accountable for its many crimes that must not be ignored any longer.” The grim situation of the Rohingyas in Myanmar and the decision of the International Court of Justice (ICJ), The Hague — ordering Myanmar to urgently take “provisional” measures to protect the Rohingya from violence — is highlighted in an editorial in Daily Star. It recounts the ICJ verdict to justify “what Bangladesh has been saying at the top of its voice”. The editorial, right at the outset, says, “We hope the whole world is listening at last.” It then goes about putting into perspective the Rohingya crisis and Myanmar’s inability to deal with it in a humane manner: “Declaring there is prima facie evidence of breaches of the 1948 genocide convention, the court found that the Rohingyas remaining in Myanmar were “extremely vulnerable” to violence at the hands of Myanmar’s military. And, therefore, the panel of 17 judges, in its unanimous ruling, asked Myanmar to report back to it within four months on the actions it has taken to prevent any serious harm being done to the Rohingyas and every six months thenceforth.” The editorial goes on to say that, “We owe a debt of gratitude to Gambia for bringing this matter to the attention of the ICJ. Despite the fact that the ruling dealt only with the Gambia’s request for so-called preliminary measures, the equivalent of a restraining order for states —not the court’s final decision — it nevertheless could pave the way for Myanmar to finally be held accountable for its atrocities against the Rohingyas.”..."
Source/publisher: "The Indian Express" (India)
Date of publication: 2020-01-27
Date of entry/update: 2020-01-31
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: ICJ, finally, acts on the Rohingyas of Myanmar | Opinion
Description: "The inability of international law to effectively address situations of mass human rights atrocities, in particular genocide, within States has been the source of much consternation for international lawyers. The term genocide, deriving from the Greek prefix genos meaning race or tribe and the Latin suffix cide meaning killing, was coined by Polish lawyer Raphael Lemkin in 1944, in the aftermath of the Holocaust. It was soon codified as an independent crime under the 1948 United Nations Convention, acceded to by around 152 states. However, in over 70 years of operation of the Convention, the record of establishing State responsibility for the prevention and punishment of the crime of genocide has been unsatisfactory, illustrated by well-documented failures in Cambodia, Rwanda and Yugoslavia. However, in a significant ruling on the Rohingya issue, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) took tentative steps towards remedying In its preliminary judgment, the ICJ unanimously granted provisional measures, at the request of Gambia, directing Myanmar to take all measures within its power to prevent the commission of all acts, including by any persons subject to its direction, control or influence, which constitute genocide under the convention in relation to the Rohingya people in its territory; and take all measures to prevent the destruction and ensure the preservation of evidence related to the allegation of genocide. More strikingly, the ICJ sought to oversee the implementation of its provisional measures, directing Myanmar to submit a report to the court on all measures taken to give effect to the order, within four months from the date of the order, and thereafter every six months until the final decision.its otherwise unenviable record of adjudicating allegations of genocide..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "Hindustan Times " (India)
Date of publication: 2020-01-27
Date of entry/update: 2020-01-30
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: This tiny African country got the U.N.’s top court to investigate Myanmar for genocide
Sub-title: Why would Gambia step up for the Muslim minority Rohingya thousands of miles away?
Description: "On Thursday, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) issued a unanimous ruling that ordered Myanmar to “take all measures within its power” to protect its ethnic minority Rohingya population from genocide. The case — against which Myanmar’s civilian leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, argued unsuccessfully — ended up in front of the ICJ because of a tiny African country thousands of miles away. Here’s what you need to know about this story. How the case got started The case before the ICJ started a few weeks ago, when Gambia accused Myanmar of violating the United Nations’ 1948 Convention on Genocide. Suu Kyi flew to The Hague to defend her country, arguing that her government’s actions were legitimate counterinsurgency efforts against rebels in Rakhine state. Gambia requested immediate measures to prevent further harm to the Rohingya. Last week’s ruling was the ICJ’s response. The ICJ has not yet ruled whether genocide has been committed. The court demanded that Myanmar report back within four months on what steps it has taken and preserve any evidence relevant to the genocide case..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "The Washington Post" (USA)
Date of publication: 2020-01-29
Date of entry/update: 2020-01-30
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: U.N. Court’s Order on Rohingya Is Cheered, but Will Myanmar Comply?
Description: "The surprisingly strong ruling against Myanmar by the United Nations’ top court this week is sure to increase international pressure on the country to protect its Muslim Rohingya minority, who critics say have been the victims of a government-sanctioned genocide. But on Friday — a day after the International Court of Justice in The Hague ordered Myanmar to protect the Rohingya and report back regularly on the steps it has taken to do so — it was still unclear what the country’s response would be. The government has said almost nothing about the ruling, except to deny that the widely documented killing and persecution of the Rohingya by Myanmar’s military amounted to genocide. Rights lawyers and an attorney for the African nation of Gambia, which brought the case, said the unanimous decision by the 15-judge panel had gone beyond even what Gambia had asked for. Myanmar and Gambia were each allowed to appoint a member of the panel, and even Myanmar’s choice — Claus Kress, a German law professor — sided with Gambia..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "The New York Times" (USA)
Date of publication: 2020-01-24
Date of entry/update: 2020-01-30
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: ICJ Orders Preliminary Relief in Myanmar Genocide Case
Description: "For the first time, a court has ordered Myanmar to take actions to protect the Rohingya. Last Thursday, the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the United Nation’s highest court, issued an order in a case brought against Myanmar by Gambia claiming violations of the Genocide Convention. For more on Gambia’s filing in this case, as well as other efforts to bring accountability for the crimes against the Rohingya, see my previous post for Just Security here. Preceding its decision, the ICJ held oral arguments concerning Gambia’s request for what are known as “provisional measures” in early December. A request for provisional measures is in some ways comparable to a request for a preliminary injunction in U.S. courts. A party is requesting that the court issue an order to prevent further harm while the case is proceeding, which can be particularly important at the ICJ where cases can take years to conclude. A request for provisional measures typically comes early in the case, and well before the record is fully developed and the issues can be judged on their merit. However, the standard of proof for granting provisional measures is that of a prima facie showing, considerably less than that required for final judgment. In theory, determinations made at the provisional measures stage have no bearing on the ultimate decision reached on those issues later. While a request for provisional measures is not uncommon, what made the December oral arguments extraordinary is that Aung San Suu Kyi, the Nobel Peace Prize winner and the de facto head of Myanmar (albeit with the military retaining a great deal of power) chose to act as the “agent” for Myanmar. This meant she would be leading the delegation and defending Myanmar in court. Once a symbol for human rights, she had already been widely criticized for her actions and inactions in regards to the Rohingya people..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "Just Security"
Date of publication: 2020-01-28
Date of entry/update: 2020-01-29
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Myanmar Rohingya: Government rejects ICJ ruling
Sub-title: Myanmar has responded defiantly to a ruling by the UN's top court ordering measures to prevent the genocide of Rohingya Muslims.
Description: "The country's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said it presented a "distorted picture of the situation". Thousands of Rohingya died and more than 700,000 fled to Bangladesh during an army crackdown in 2017. The measures imposed by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) are binding and not subject to appeal. However the ICJ has no way of enforcing them. The case was lodged by the African Muslim majority nation of The Gambia. The ruling warned that genocidal actions could recur. The man who took Aung San Suu Kyi to the world court Myanmar Rohingya: What you need to know The Lady who fell from grace Myanmar's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said its own commission, the Independent Commission of Enquiry, found that there had been no genocide in Rakhine state. However it did say that war crimes had occurred, and were being investigated and prosecuted by Myanmar's national criminal justice system. It also blamed condemnation by "human rights actors" for affecting Myanmar's bilateral relations with some countries. "This has hampered Myanmar's ability to lay the foundation for sustainable development in Rakhine," it added in a statement..."
Source/publisher: "BBC News" (London)
Date of publication: 2020-01-23
Date of entry/update: 2020-01-29
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Real justice for Myanmar's Rohingya will require more than an ICJ ruling
Description: "Rohingya Muslims, described by the UN as one of the most persecuted minorities in the world, have finally seen a beacon of light in the fight for justice driven forward by Gambia. The historic decision by the UN's International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled that Myanmar is now legally bound to protect Rohingya Muslims from genocide, and stipulated four provisional measures they must take in doing so. This unprecedented ruling means that Myanmar's government must prevent any Rohingya Muslim in the country from being killed and reserve any evidence of a genocide that has already happened. In spite of this ground-breaking turning point in the path to justice, concerns still exist in the steps to seeking accountability to bring the perpetrators of the crimes against Rohingya to account. The Myanmar military crackdown in 2017 saw thousands of Rohingya Muslims killed, and 700,000 flee to neighbouring Bangladesh. Rohingya communities continue to be subjected to indiscriminate killing and gang rape. Pregnant women, babies, children and the elderly have not been spared. With so many accounts and evidence of human rights violations, it is shocking that Myanmar continues to evade accountability..."
Source/publisher: "The New Arab" (London)
Date of publication: 2020-01-27
Date of entry/update: 2020-01-29
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Application of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (The Gambia v. Myanmar)
Description: "Present: President YUSUF; Vice-President XUE; Judges TOMKA, ABRAHAM, BENNOUNA, CANÇADO TRINDADE, DONOGHUE, GAJA, SEBUTINDE, BHANDARI, ROBINSON, CRAWFORD, GEVORGIAN, SALAM, IWASAWA; Judges ad hoc PILLAY, KRESS; Registrar GAUTIER. The International Court of Justice, Composed as above, After deliberation, Having regard to Articles 41 and 48 of the Statute of the Court and Articles 73, 74 and 75 of the Rules of Court, Makes the following Order: 1. On 11 November 2019, the Republic of The Gambia (hereinafter “The Gambia”) filed in the Registry of the Court an Application instituting proceedings against the Republic of the Union of Myanmar (hereinafter “Myanmar”) concerning alleged violations of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (hereinafter the “Genocide Convention” or the “Convention”)..."
Source/publisher: International Court of Justice (ICJ) (The Hague)
Date of publication: 2020-01-23
Date of entry/update: 2020-01-24
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language:
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Title: China, Russia under pressure from Myanmar Rohingya genocide ruling, Bob Rae says
Description: "China and Russia face pressure to prevent genocide in Myanmar after Thursday’s decision by an international court called on the South Asian country to stop the killing, says Canada’s special envoy to the crisis. The unanimous decision by the International Court of Justice is a strong signal to Russia and China, which have blocked the United Nations Security Council from referring the violence to the International Criminal Court, said Bob Rae, who the Liberal government tapped to take part in diplomatic efforts to address the deadly crisis. Rae and Foreign Affairs Minister François-Philippe Champagne both urged Myanmar to fully comply with the ruling from The Hague-based court, which demanded it protect its minority Muslim Rohingya population from genocide. Champagne said Canada will work with its allies to keep the pressure on Myanmar. The 17 judges on the panel called on Myanmar to do everything in its power to stop what it said was a genocide against the Rohingya. The court flatly rejected Myanmar’s plea — put forth by the country’s civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi — that the case be thrown out. Suu Kyi, a one-time icon of peace who has since been stripped of her honorary Canadian citizenship, denied there was a genocide..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "Toronto Star" ( Toronto)
Date of publication: 2020-01-23
Date of entry/update: 2020-01-24
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language:
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Title: ICJ orders Myanmar to protect Rohingya
Sub-title: Top UN court finds 'irreparable damage' caused to Rohingya; orders Myanmar to take steps to prevent genocide.
Description: "The Hague-based International Court of Justice has ordered Myanmar to take emergency measures to prevent genocide of the Rohingya. In a unanimously-ruled order issued by a panel of 17 judges, and read by presiding Judge Abdulaqawi Ahmed Yusuf, the court upheld the provisions of the 1948 Genocide Convention - saying Myanmar had "caused irreparable damage to the rights of the Rohingya". More: Myanmar finds war crimes but no genocide in Rohingya crackdown Myanmar to release its Rohingya crackdown investigation results ICJ to rule on emergency measures in Myanmar genocide case According to the Statute of the ICJ, the court has the power to order provisional measures when "irreparable prejudice could be caused to rights which are the subject of judicial proceedings". The court found that the condition of urgency had been met in this case. In November the Gambia filed a suit against Myanmar alleging it was committing "an ongoing genocide against its minority Muslim Rohingya population" and violating the 1948 Genocide Convention..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "Al Jazeera" (Qatar)
Date of publication: 2020-01-24
Date of entry/update: 2020-01-24
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language:
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Title: Myanmar ordered to prevent genocide against Rohingya by top UN court
Description: "The top court of the United Nations has ordered Myanmar to prevent acts of genocide against the country's persecuted Rohingya minority and to stop destroying evidence, in a landmark case at The Hague. The case was brought to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in the Netherlands by the tiny West African nation of Gambia, which in November alleged that Myanmar committed "genocidal acts" that "were intended to destroy the Rohingya as a group" through mass murder, rape, and destruction of communities. It asked the 15-judge court to enact provisional measures to compel the Myanmar government and military to end all acts that amount to or contribute to genocide, and to ensure Myanmar preserves evidence that could play a part in the case. The emergency measures act like an injunction while the main genocide case gets underway. That central case has not yet been heard and it could take years to reach a verdict..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "CNN" (USA)
Date of publication: 2020-01-23
Date of entry/update: 2020-01-24
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language:
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Title: Rohingya crisis: The Gambian who took Aung San Suu Kyi to the world court
Sub-title: Gambian Justice Minister Abubacarr Tambadou's actions brought Aung San Suu Kyi to The Hague to deny that her country's military was committing a genocide. As the UN's highest court orders measures to prevent further mass killings, Anna Holligan takes a look at the man taking on the Nobel laureate.
Description: "It was an unexpected detour that led Abubacarr Tambadou from his home in the tiny West African country of The Gambia to experience an epiphany on the edge of a refugee camp in Cox's Bazar. Listening to survivors' stories he said the "stench of genocide" began drifting across the border into Bangladesh from Myanmar. "I realised how much more serious it was than the flashes we'd seen on television screens," he told the BBC. "Military and civilians would organise systematic attacks against Rohingya, burn down houses, snatch babies from their mothers' arms and throw them alive into burning fires, round up and execute men; girls were gang-raped and put through all types of sexual violence." The Rohingya are a Muslim minority in mainly Buddhist Myanmar. 'Just like Rwanda' These chilling scenes reminded Mr Tambadou of events in Rwanda during the 1994 genocide that claimed the lives of about 800,000 people. "It sounded very much like the kind of acts that were perpetrated against the Tutsi in Rwanda. "It was the same modus operandi - the process of dehumanisation, calling them names - it bore all the hallmarks of genocide..."
Source/publisher: "BBC News" (London)
Date of publication: 2020-01-23
Date of entry/update: 2020-01-24
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language:
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Title: Will ICJ ruling help the Rohingya? I Inside Story
Description: "The International Court of Justice, the world's highest court, has ordered Myanmar's government to prevent it's military from committing acts of genocide against the Rohingya. The ICJ has also warned that the Rohingya Muslim minority remain at serious risk of genocide and ordered the country to abide by the genocide convention, and take all measures within its power to prevent further killings. The case brought by The Gambia last year accuses Myanmar of committing an ongoing genocide against its minority Muslim Rohingya population. Myanmar denies the allegations. Thursday's ruling comes just days after an inquiry backed by Myanmar's government dismissed allegations of genocide. Myanmar's leader Suu Kyi says the Rohingya have 'exaggerated' abuses. So what does this ruling mean and will Myanmar abide by the orders? ..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "Al Jazeera" (Qatar)
Date of publication: 2020-01-23
Date of entry/update: 2020-01-24
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language:
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Title: Will Myanmar respect ICJ order to stop genocide against Rohingya?
Sub-title: Experts celebrate landmark ruling, but have little hope that gov't which denies genocide will prevent further violence.
Description: "In a ruling that the Rohingya minority have celebrated, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) has ordered Myanmar to take urgent measures to protect the mostly Muslim minority. On Thursday, a panel of 17 judges unanimously decided that Myanmar should take "all measures within its power" to prevent genocide, following a case filed by The Gambia in November. Presiding Judge Abdulqawi Ahmed Yusuf said Myanmar has "caused irreparable damage to the rights of the Rohingya", referring to a military campaign of violence in Rakhine state that saw more than 740,000 members of the ethnic minority flee to neighbouring Bangladesh in 2016 and 2017. More: ICJ orders Myanmar to protect Rohingya Myanmar finds war crimes but no genocide in Rohingya crackdown 'Justice served': Rohingya in Bangladesh hail ICJ order While academics and Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh welcomed the judgement, others have urged caution - now, they say, there must be increased international scrutiny on Myanmar's treatment of the minority..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "Al Jazeera" (Qatar)
Date of publication: 2020-01-24
Date of entry/update: 2020-01-24
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: World Court Rules Against Myanmar on Rohingya
Topic: International Justice
Sub-title: International Court of Justice Unanimously Orders Measures to Prevent Genocide
Topic: International Justice
Description: "The International Court of Justice (ICJ) order on January 23, 2020, directing Myanmar to prevent all genocidal acts against Rohingya Muslims is crucial for protecting the remaining Rohingya in Rakhine State, Human Rights Watch said today. The court unanimously adopted “provisional measures” that require Myanmar to prevent genocide and take steps to preserve evidence. Myanmar’s military committed extensive atrocities against the Rohingya, including murder, rape, and arson, that peaked during its late 2017 campaign of ethnic cleansing, forcing more than 740,000 Rohingya to flee to Bangladesh. In September 2019, the United Nations-backed International Independent Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar found that the 600,000 Rohingya remaining in Myanmar “may face a greater threat of genocide than ever.” “The ICJ order to Myanmar to take concrete steps to prevent the genocide of the Rohingya is a landmark step to stop further atrocities against one of the world’s most persecuted people,” said Param-Preet Singh, associate international justice director at Human Rights Watch. “Concerned governments and UN bodies should now weigh in to ensure that the order is enforced as the genocide case moves forward.”..."
Source/publisher: "Human Rights Watch" (USA)
Date of publication: 2020-01-23
Date of entry/update: 2020-01-24
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Title: Court to rule in case accusing Myanmar of Rohingya genocide
Sub-title: The International Court of Justice decision comes in a case brought by the African nation of Gambia on behalf of an organization of Muslim nations...At public hearings last month, lawyers for Myanmar's accusers used maps, satellite images and graphic photos to detail what they call a campaign of murder, rape and destruction.
Description: "The United Nations' highest court is set to rule Thursday on whether to order Myanmar to halt what has been described as a genocidal campaign against the country's Rohingya Muslim minority. The International Court of Justice decision comes in a case brought by the African nation of Gambia on behalf of an organization of Muslim nations that accuses Myanmar of genocide in its crackdown on the Rohingya. At public hearings last month, lawyers for Myanmar's accusers used maps, satellite images and graphic photos to detail what they call a campaign of murder, rape and destruction amounting to genocide perpetrated by Myanmar's military. The hearings drew intense scrutiny from around the world as Myanmar's former pro-democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi defended the campaign by military forces that once held her under house arrest for 15 years. Suu Kyi, who as Myanmar's state counselor now holds an office similar to prime minister, was awarded the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize for championing democracy and human rights under Myanmar's then-ruling junta. Buddhist-majority Myanmar has long considered the Rohingya to be "Bengalis" from Bangladesh even though their families have lived in the country for generations. Nearly all have been denied citizenship since 1982, effectively rendering them stateless. They are also denied freedom of movement and other basic rights..."
Source/publisher: Arab News (Saudi Arabia)
Date of publication: 2020-01-23
Date of entry/update: 2020-01-23
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: International court to rule in Myanmar Rohingya genocide case
Sub-title: Momentous pronouncement follows Hague hearing at which Aung San Suu Kyi gave evidence
Description: "The United Nations’ highest tribunal is to deliver its decision on whether emergency measures are required to prevent Myanmar conducting genocide against its Rohingya Muslim minority. The momentous pronouncement on Thursday follows a three-day hearing at the international court of justice in The Hague last month at which the Nobel peace prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi defended her country against accusations of systematic human rights abuses and war crimes. The ruling on the need for “provisional measures” will be read out at 10am local time by the court’s president, Abdulqawi Ahmed Yusuf, and may take more than an hour to deliver. The hearing will be broadcast live on the ICJ website. The case was brought by the Gambia, a predominantly Muslim west African state that alleges Myanmar has breached the 1948 genocide convention enacted after the Holocaust. It argues that the violence is continuing..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "The Guardian" (UK)
Date of publication: 2020-01-23
Date of entry/update: 2020-01-23
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Rohingya refugees pray for justice as court to rule in genocide case
Description: " Rohingya refugees who fled persecution and violence in Myanmar are praying for justice as the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague prepares to deliver an initial verdict on Thursday in a genocide case filed against Myanmar. More than 730,000 Muslim Rohingya fled an army offensive in Myanmar’s Rakhine state in 2017. The United Nations says gang rapes and mass killings were carried out with “genocidal intent”. Hundreds of villages were burned to the ground and later razed. Myanmar denies the charges of genocide. Gambia has asked the ICJ to order “provisional measures” to prevent more harm, a first step in a legal case that is expected to run for years. It has also asked judges to order Myanmar to ensure any evidence of atrocities is preserved. At the world’s largest refugee camp in Bangladesh, where the Rohingya who fled are settled, many hope for a ruling in their favor after years of persecution. “The Burmese (Myanmar) government and the army tried to wipe out the entire Rohingya community. We want justice,” said 30-year-old refugee Nurul Amin, who fled to Bangladesh with his pregnant wife during the 2017 army crackdown..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "Reuters" (UK)
Date of publication: 2020-01-22
Date of entry/update: 2020-01-23
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Will the ICJ order Myanmar to stop the Rohingya genocide?
Sub-title: The International Court of Justice is set to decide on emergency measures to stop the genocide of the Rohingya.
Description: "The highest court of the United Nations, the International Court of Justice, will on Thursday be issuing its much-anticipated decision on a request for "emergency measures" in a landmark genocide case against Myanmar. The case against Myanmar was filed by The Gambia in November, alleging that Myanmar was committing "an ongoing genocide" against its minority Muslim Rohingya population. Myanmar denies those allegations. The appearance of Myanmar's political leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, at the ICJ - also known as the "World Court" - in The Hague in December brought the case into the international spotlight. Experts describe the case as an "historic legal challenge" - but have expressed concerns about whether Myanmar will comply with whatever the court orders..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "Al Jazeera" (Qatar)
Date of publication: 2020-01-23
Date of entry/update: 2020-01-23
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: World Court to rule on emergency measures in Rohingya genocide case
Description: "The International Court of Justice will rule on Thursday on a request by Gambia for emergency measures in Myanmar to halt violence immediately against Rohingya Muslims, to protect the ethnic minority and to preserve evidence of past abuses. The small, mostly Muslim West African country launched the lawsuit in November at the United Nations’ highest body for disputes between states, accusing Myanmar of genocide against Rohingya in violation of a 1948 convention. The case has not yet been heard in full and Thursday’s ruling deals only with Gambia’s request for so-called preliminary measures, the equivalent of a restraining order for states. It gives no indication of the court’s final decision, which could take years to reach. Gambia has requested that Myanmar take action to prevent violence, including murder, rape, or other atrocities that could constitute genocide. It has also asked judges to order Myanmar to grant access to U.N. bodies investigating alleged crimes against Rohingya. The World Court’s rulings are final and without appeal, but it has no real way of enforcing them..."
Source/publisher: "Reuters" (UK)
Date of publication: 2020-01-23
Date of entry/update: 2020-01-23
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Atrocities against Rohingyas: ICC starts investigation
Sub-title: 'As far as I am aware an ICC team is currently visiting Bangladesh'
Description: "The International Criminal Court (ICC) has begun its investigation into the alleged crimes against humanity and other atrocity crimes committed by Myanmar against hundreds of thousands of Rohingya people sheltered in Bangladesh, said sources in Dhaka and The Hague, the Dutch capital, the house of the court. “Yes, the investigation has already begun. Multiple visits by experts from the office of the ICC Prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, to Bangladesh have already taken place,” a source in The Hague familiar with the investigation told Dhaka Tribune. “As far as I am aware an ICC team is currently visiting Bangladesh,” he said. The purpose of the visits of the ICC teams is to gather necessary evidence from different sources, he added. “They (ICC teams) are coming and going. They work independently without any alignment with the government. We will only provide any support if we are asked,” a source at the Foreign Ministry told this correspondent, adding, “I don’t know if any team from the ICC is currently visiting Bangladesh.” The activities of the ICC will mostly be focused on Cox’s Bazar for obvious reason, said the sources. The Prosecutor’s office did not respond to the emails from Dhaka Tribune seeking its comments in this regard. The ICC is an intergovernmental organisation and international tribunal with jurisdiction to prosecute individuals for the international crimes of genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and the crime of aggression..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "Dhaka Tribune" (Bangladesh)
Date of publication: 2020-01-17
Date of entry/update: 2020-01-22
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: OPINION - Myanmar gov't doggedly continues with its genocide denial
Sub-title: 'Myanmar's de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi and her partners in crimes should know that denial is a part of genocide'
Description: "After having co-presided with the visiting Chinese president Xi Jinping over the signing of 33 agreements, including bilateral trade deals, Memorandums of Understanding, strategic partnership agreements, and technical cooperation, Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi was all smile again this Monday. On the official website of Myanmar's Independent Commission of Enquiry, smiley Ms Suu Kyi was seen posing for cameras as the former Deputy Foreign Minister of the Philippines Ms Rosario Manalo presented her with the final report of the Myanmar-established Independent Commission of Enquiry which the Philippines diplomat chaired. The Free Rohingya Coalition, an international network of Rohingya refugee activists and their supporters, issued a statement, refuting the findings of the commission that there is “no” or “insufficient” evidence to establish the genocidal intent behind Myanmar’s destruction of the Rohingya community in Rakhine state and the mass deportations of estimated 800,000 Rohingya into Bangladesh in 2016-2017..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "Anadolu Agency" (Ankara)
Date of publication: 2020-01-21
Date of entry/update: 2020-01-22
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Myanmar finds war crimes but no genocide in Rohingya crackdown
Sub-title: ICOE report comes days before UN's top court issues ruling on whether urgent measures are necessary to stop genocide.
Description: "A commission set up to investigate the 2017 crackdown in Rakhine that led hundreds of thousands of mostly Muslim Rohingya to flee Myanmar, has concluded that while some soldiers probably committed war crimes there was no genocide. The Independent Commission of Enquiry (ICOE) released the findings of its investigation, but not the full report, to the country's president on Monday, a few days before the United Nations' top court is set to rule on whether to impose urgent measures to stop the alleged continuing genocide in Myanmar. More: Transcript: Aung San Suu Kyi's speech at the ICJ in full Rohingya refugees reject Aung San Suu Kyi's 'lies on genocide' Top court to rule on emergency measures against Myanmar on January 23 The ICOE conceded some security personnel had used disproportionate force and committed war crimes and serious human rights violations, including the "killing of innocent villagers and destruction of their homes". But the crimes did not constitute genocide, the panel decided..."
Source/publisher: "Al Jazeera" (Qatar)
Date of publication: 2020-01-21
Date of entry/update: 2020-01-21
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Myanmar panel: Security forces likely committed war crimes
Description: "An independent commission established by Myanmar’s government has concluded there are reasons to believe that security forces committed war crimes in counterinsurgency operations that led more than 700,000 Rohingya Muslims to flee to neighboring Bangladesh. However, the commission, headed by a Philippine diplomat, said in a report given Monday to President Win Myint that there is no evidence supporting charges that genocide was planned or carried out against the Rohingya. The Independent Commission of Enquiry announced its findings in a statement posted on its Facebook page and the full report does not appear to have been publicly released. Nevertheless, it went further than any public statements issued by Myanmar’s government in suggesting government forces were guilty of major abuses. “Although these serious crimes and violations were committed by multiple actors, there are reasonable grounds to believe that members of Myanmar’s security forces were involved” in war crimes, serious human rights violations, and violations of domestic law in 2017, it said. “The killing of innocent villagers and destruction of their homes were committed by some members of the Myanmar’s security forces through disproportionate use of force during the internal armed conflict,” it said..."
Source/publisher: "Associated Press" (USA)
Date of publication: 2020-01-21
Date of entry/update: 2020-01-21
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Myanmar Has Blazed a Path to Democracy Without Rights
Description: "The paradox at the heart of the Rohingya genocide has always been Myanmar’s leader Aung San Suu Kyi. Just a few short years ago, the Rohingya regarded the international democracy icon as their champion and defender in an increasingly hostile Myanmar. Last month, she was standing before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) at The Hague, defending the soldiers and politicians who erased the Rohingya from their native lands in Myanmar. Her history is a lesson for the optimists who thought democracy would also bring liberalism—and a disturbing portent of the compatibility of democracy and oppression that’s playing out from New Delhi to Budapest. The Rohingya Muslim minority have been a favorite target for successive Buddhist central governments in Myanmar, previously known as Burma, for almost the entire post-imperial history of the country. But they have been far from the only target. Other, smaller, Muslim groups have always been on the radar of the Theravada nationalist military juntas that ruled the country between 1962 and 2011. Christian groups and a plethora of borderland ethnic groups such as the Chin, Kachin, Shan, and Karen were also oppressed under the juntas..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "Foreign Policy" (USA)
Date of publication: 2020-01-16
Date of entry/update: 2020-01-17
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Rights group denounces Japanese envoy for comments on Myanmar Rohingya
Description: "Tokyo-based human rights activists on Wednesday decried recent remarks by Japan's ambassador to Yangon, who told local media he did not think the Myanmar military committed genocide on the Rohingya Muslim minority in the country. More than 730,000 Rohingya fled the Southeast Asian nation to Bangladesh in 2017 after a military-led crackdown. The United Nations has said the campaign was executed with "genocidal intent" and included mass killings and rape. The military offensive has sparked a series of ongoing legal cases filed in recent months at courts across the globe, including the International Criminal Court (ICC) and the International Court of Justice (ICJ), both based in the Hague. Zaw Min Htut, vice president of an advocacy group, Burmese Rohingya Association in Japan, said the ambassador's remarks were "disturbing". "I am very disappointed and appealing again to the Japanese government. Please try to help Rohingya people and don't side with criminals," Zaw Min Htut told foreign correspondents in Tokyo..."
Source/publisher: "Japan Today" (Japan)
Date of publication: 2020-01-16
Date of entry/update: 2020-01-16
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Why Myanmar’s genocide denial will come back to haunt it
Description: "Maung Zarni is the co-founder of FORSEA, a grass-roots organization of Southeast Asian human rights defenders, and the co-author of “Essays on Myanmar’s Genocide of Rohingyas.” Last month, Myanmar’s de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi took the stand at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in the Hague to rebut allegations that her country’s systematic persecution of its Rohingya population amounts to genocide. Aung San Suu Kyi, once lionized for her stand against an oppressive military dictatorship, strenuously denied the charges — despite reams of evidence and the presence of nearly 1 million Rohingyas in refugee camps in Bangladesh. They ended up there after fleeing a so-called counterterrorism campaign by the Myanmar military in 2017 that left uncounted thousands dead..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "The Washington Post" (USA)
Date of publication: 2020-01-16
Date of entry/update: 2020-01-16
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: ICJ to rule on emergency measures in Myanmar genocide case
Sub-title: UN court's decision on measures to prevent more harm against Myanmar's Rohingya minority expected on Jan 23.
Description: "The International Court of Justice, the United Nations' highest court, will issue a decision on a request for emergency measures in a genocide case against Myanmar on January 23, the Gambian Ministry of Justice said on Twitter on Monday. The mainly Muslim West African country filed the suit in November, alleging Myanmar was committing "an ongoing genocide" against its minority Muslim Rohingya population. More: Myanmar: New Al Jazeera documentary uncovers Rohingya abuse Myanmar: Defending genocide at the ICJ Myanmar cannot be trusted to put own soldiers on trial: Gambia The ICJ did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Gambia has accused Myanmar of violating the 1948 Genocide Convention in a military campaign that expelled more than 730,000 Rohingya from the country. It asked the ICJ to order "provisional measures" to prevent more harm, a first step in a legal case that is expected to go on for years..."
Source/publisher: "Al Jazeera" (Qatar)
Date of publication: 2020-01-15
Date of entry/update: 2020-01-15
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: World Court to Rule on Emergency Measures in Myanmar Genocide Case on January 23: Gambia
Description: "The International Court of Justice, the United Nations' highest court, will issue a decision on a request for emergency measures in a genocide case against Myanmar on Jan. 23, the Gambian Ministry of Justice said on Twitter on Monday. The mainly Muslim west African country filed the suit in November, alleging Myanmar was committing "an ongoing genocide" against its minority Muslim Rohingya population. The ICJ did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Gambia has accused Myanmar of violating the 1948 Genocide Convention in a military campaign that expelled more than 730,000 Rohingya from the country. It asked the International Court of Justice to order "provisional measures" to prevent more harm, a first step in a legal case that is expected to go on for years..."
Source/publisher: "The New York Times" (USA)
Date of publication: 2020-01-14
Date of entry/update: 2020-01-15
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: In Myanmar’s Game of Thrones, Aung San Suu Kyi’s moral failure invites ugly comparisons
Sub-title: She was once a beacon of democracy standing up to the country’s military but the genocide against the Rohingya has left Suu Kyi painfully exposed...Nobody denies the intractable difficulties she and her country face. But she ought to have used her moral authority to address the ethnic divide.
Description: "Is she Cersei Lannister: cold, cynical and deadly? Or Sansa Stark: noble, long-suffering and genuine? Myanmar’s Aung San Suu Kyi – the general’s daughter presiding over a desperately fragile state – has been transformed from being the military’s nemesis into its leading apologist or, worse yet, its enabler. As the proceedings at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) gear up and Myanmar again comes under global scrutiny, many have asked how she could have become so reviled? She has allowed the darkest forces in her nation to wreak violence against the long oppressed Muslim Rohingya minority, whom she refuses to acknowledge..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "South China Morning Post" (Hong Kong)
Date of publication: 2019-12-16
Date of entry/update: 2020-01-12
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Myanmar: Has Suu Kyi’s Position Been Enhanced After Her Return From ICJ? – Analysis
Description: "Suu Kyi returned from the Hague on 14th December. She was received at the airport by enthusiastic colleagues and the people that included Members of Parliament, Locals, teachers and students. Significantly, no Senior Army Official was present. At the court, in her final submission, Suu Kyi said that the case filed by Gambia should be dismissed or alternatively, the provisional measures requested by Gambia should be dismissed. It should be noted that decisions on both the counts of “intent of Genocide” or “provisional measures” to protect the Rohingyas from future threats of violence will take a long time and are not enforceable also unless it is brought to the Security Council again for action. Here again both China and Russia may come to Myanmar’s rescue. It is in this connection, Joe Kumbum’ (an analyst from Kachin under a pseudonym) has suggested that Myanmar should keep in touch with the Western powers lest it does not go over to the Chinese. My response would be that it is the Western Powers including the USA that should take the initiative. Suu Kyi while conceding that excesses may have taken place said that the country has had one Court Martial to try the guilty officers and one more is also in the offing. Surprisingly she even undertook that more Court Martials will be pursued once the report of the ICOE- Independent Commission of Enquiry submits its proposal that is expected in a few days..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "Eurasia Review"
Date of publication: 2019-12-24
Date of entry/update: 2020-01-12
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Xi to Make First China State Visit to Myanmar in 19 Years
Description: "Chinese President Xi Jinping will travel to Myanmar on January 17 for his first state visit of the year, Vice Foreign Minister Luo Zhaohui announced. During the two-day trip, Xi will meet with the country’s defacto leader, State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi, and the commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces, General Min Aung Hlaing, Luo said at a press conference on Friday. The trip, which coincides with the 70th anniversary of the establishment of China-Myanmar diplomatic relations, comes as Myanmar faces widespread condemnation over its treatment of its minority Muslim population in western Rakhine State. In an effort to develop already deepening ties, Luo said both sides will seek closer economic cooperation through China’s pan-Eurasian Belt and Road Initiative. He also said Xi plans to raise the repatriation of Rohingya refugees -- more than 730,000 of whom remain in squalid camps just across the border in Bangladesh following what the UN has termed genocidal acts by the military since 2017..." Last month, Suu Kyi appeared in front of the International Court of Justice at the Hague to defend the country’s military against accusations of genocide and crimes against humanity for the killing and rape of thousands of people. “It is an issue between Myanmar and Bangladesh and indeed it is an old question,” Luo said. “At the request of the two countries China has played a constructive role in this regard, including trilateral talks on early repatriation.”..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "Bloomberg News" (New York)
Date of publication: 2020-01-10
Date of entry/update: 2020-01-10
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Myanmar, Though Suspicious of China, Edges Closer to Beijing for Safety
Description: "Myanmar has crafted a neutral foreign policy since its colonial years to avoid leaning too much on any foreign power, but a spiraling political crisis at home is pushing it toward China as a buffer against international outrage. Western leaders say the poor but quickly developing Southeast Asian country is trying to wipe out Muslim Rohingya people near its border with Bangladesh. Myanmar’s state counselor, Aung San Suu Kyi, met Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi to discuss the issue days before going before the International Court of Justice on December 11. Myanmar faces charges of genocide against the mainly Muslim Rohingya minority group in Rakhine state. China had backed Myanmar in the U.N. Security Council when a military junta ruled the country before 2011. China is grappling with international criticism over perceived repression of ethnic Uighur people who oppose living under Beijing’s rule..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "VOA" (Washington, D.C)
Date of publication: 2019-12-25
Date of entry/update: 2020-01-08
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Top Eight Developments in International Law 2019
Description: "For those who support and believe in the power of international law to effect positive change in the world, 2019 was difficult. There were however a number of important bright sparks, in the form of efforts to negotiate treaties on the protection of marine biodiversity, business and human rights, and the elimination of work place harassment; as well as spotlights shone by national and international courts on the plight of some of the world’s most vulnerable people. The past 12 months have both highlighted the political limits within which international law operates, and the good it can achieve within those boundaries. This post reflects on some of the most important new cases, treaties, and events; as well as the international legal order’s most difficult challenges. 1) Climate change and loss of biodiversity accelerate Climate emergency is Oxford’s word of the year and, as we are closing out the warmest decade on record, evidence of global warming seemed to be everywhere. The ferocity of forest fires both in the Amazon and in areas of Australia, fuelled by extreme drought, are but one worrying example. They also illustrate the limits of international law’s ability to force change on governments who are unwilling to accept it. Against this dark backdrop, the 2015 Paris Agreement’s achievements look modest. Climate change poses an existential challenge to international law, in that it affects almost everything it regulates. International cooperation is our only hope of tackling it, but it is difficult not to question whether the existing international legal architecture is up to the challenge..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: Oxford University Press (Oxford)
Date of publication: 2020-01-03
Date of entry/update: 2020-01-06
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Why is Suu Kyi defending the military?
Description: "On Dec 11, Myanmar's State Counsellor-cum-Foreign Minister Aung San Suu Kyi stood at the podium of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) at the Hague and defended her country against the accusation of violating the 1948 Genocide Convention over the military's clearance operations in northern Rakhine state, which caused more than 700,000 Rohingya to flee the Southeast Asian country for Bangladesh. On behalf of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) countries, Gambia filed a case at the ICJ to order for"provisional measures to "protect and preserve the rights" of the Rohingya minority. The ICJ's ruling can possibly have two outcomes. If the ruling goes in favour of Gambia, there may be a new wave of violence targeting not only the Rohingya, but the larger Muslim population in Myanmar. And if the court dismisses the case, it may provoke anger among the Rohingya and their supporters across the globe -- including the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army.The legal process has triggered global attention and understandably it also divides the international community largely into two groups -- those who support Ms Suu Kyi and others who criticise or condemn her. Among others, those who criticise Ms Suu Kyi have argued that she has transformed herself from an international democratic icon and a champion of human rights to a denier of genocidal acts..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "Bangkok Post" (Thailand)
Date of publication: 2020-01-06
Date of entry/update: 2020-01-06
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Domestic politics drives Suu Kyi’s genocide denial
Sub-title: Myanmar nominal leader’s defense of Rohingya crackdown at ICJ boosts her re-election chances
Description: "To much of the world, Myanmar’s nominal leader Aung San Suu Kyi is a Nobel Peace Prize laureate turned genocide denier. At home, she is seen as a heroine who went to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to defend and uphold her country’s honor, though not necessarily in defense of the powerful military with which she has been at loggerheads for years. The case brought to the ICJ by Gambia “to protect and preserve the rights” of Myanmar’s Muslim Rohingya minority under the United Nations Genocide Convention will likely be a drawn-out and inconclusive legal process. That’s in part because all five permanent members of the UN’s Security Council may veto the enforcement of any verdict, which Myanmar allies China and Russia will likely do. Neither is an investigation ordered by the International Criminal Court (ICC) in November into alleged “crimes against humanity” committed during a Myanmar army campaign against the Rohingyas in 2017, which killed thousands and forced hundreds of thousands to flee across the border into neighboring Bangladesh, expected to succeed in prosecuting the perpetrators..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "Asia Times" (Hong Kong)
Date of publication: 2019-12-20
Date of entry/update: 2020-01-05
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Has Myanmar Lost Sight Of Justice, Accountability And Truth?
Sub-title: After decades and decades of iron-fisted rule by one of the most repressive military regimes the world has ever seen, its people deserve better. At least, Justice, accountability, truth, and national reconciliation are aspirations that many have fought and died for many years. Myanmar cannot lose sight of them.
Description: "As 2019 draws to a close, with no positive progress on the situation of human rights, Myanmar[1] has drawn international attention regarding allegations of genocide at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) for crimes committed against the Rohingya. However, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s decision to represent the country as the Agent at the ICJ court proceedings in the Hague in defense of “the national interest”, has caused and continues to cause deep divisions amongst diverse people of Myanmar inside and outside of the country. Meanwhile in Rakhine State, clashes between the Arakan Army (AA) and the Myanmar military has displaced more than 5,800 people in one week while in some parts of Rakhine State people are still unable to access the internet, making it six months since it was shut down by the government. On Saturyday, twenty civil society organizations in Myanmar issued a joint statement – initiated by Free Expression Myanmar and joined by others including Progressive Voice – condemning this continued shut down of internet access in parts of Rakhine State. In her capacity as the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi took the stand at the ICJ over the course of 10 – 12 December 2019 as the Agent of Myanmar. Although she denied the genocidal intent of the crimes, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi admitted at the world court that atrocity crimes have been committed by the Myanmar military. In her statement she admitted that “it cannot be ruled out that disproportionate force was used by members of the Defence Services in some cases in disregard of international humanitarian law.” The Myanmar military can no longer hide its brutal human rights violations against the Rohingya and other ethnic minorities. However, what is troubling is that a number of public rallies were held across the country in support of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi without a clear understanding of the public hearings at the Hague. The Myanmar military and the National League for Democracy government has taken advantage of this lack of clarity, falsely claiming that the people of Myanmar are on trial, rather than the State, for violating the Genocide Convention. Therefore, many of those who gather at the rallies in support of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi believe that they have a duty to support their leader for “defending the country.”..."
Source/publisher: "Progressive Voice" (Thailand)
Date of publication: 2019-12-22
Date of entry/update: 2020-01-05
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Myanmar: Defending genocide at the ICJ
Sub-title: With facts on the ground established, the Myanmar government's defence against the genocide charge can hardly stand.
Description: "On December 9, the world marked the anniversary of the adoption of the 1948 UN Genocide Convention: a covenant signed in the wake of the Holocaust not only to punish genocide but to prevent it. And yet, the tatters of the shredded promise of "never again" were on display the very next day at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which from December 10 to 12 held its first hearings in the case against Myanmar for the genocide of the Rohingya. The case was brought by The Gambia, under a provision of the Genocide Convention that permits state parties to bring a case against any other party for violations, even if they themselves are not directly affected - a reflection of the extreme gravity of the crime. The hearings - in which The Gambia requested "provisional measures" to mitigate further deterioration of the Rohingya's situation while the wheels of justice grind slowly forward - were just the preliminary stage of a long process which will take several more years to determine whether Myanmar bears state responsibility for genocide..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "Al Jazeera" (Qatar)
Date of publication: 2019-12-22
Date of entry/update: 2020-01-05
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Understanding the Myanmar military’s genocidal mind
Sub-title: Recent atrocities committed against Rohingya Muslims were business as usual for Myanmar’s war-hardened army
Description: "In her defense of Myanmar against charges of genocide at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in the Hague last week, State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi was at pains to stress the complexity of the ethnic conflict in Rakhine state and her country’s stumbling efforts to implement its own process of accountability and military justice. As Myanmar’s de facto political leader and foreign minister, she was clearly hobbled by her inability to articulate what would have been a far more persuasive line of argument: the 2017 atrocities perpetrated on the Rohingya Muslims of Rakhine were hardly an exceptional campaign of genocide, but rather what for the Myanmar Army, or Tatmadaw, was simply business as usual – in military jargon “standard operating procedure” (SOP) – that has not normally garnered international attention, let alone global outrage. The sickening specifics of the Tatmadaw’s SOP in Rakhine have been spelled out in voluminous reports from a United Nations (UN) Fact Finding Mission and leading international human rights organizations. Some were again recounted by lawyers for the Gambia, which lodged the accusation of genocide with the court..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "Asia Times" (Hong Kong)
Date of publication: 2019-12-17
Date of entry/update: 2020-01-05
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Why is most of Asia looking away from Myanmar?
Description: "The latest resolution passed by the United Nations General Assembly condemning rights abuses against Rohingya Muslims and other minority groups in Myanmar was the third such resolution on the subject. It was approved by 134 votes in favour and nine against while 28 nations abstained. A vote so close to the hearing at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) over a petition seeking interim measures to prevent further killings and abuses with genocidal intent demands closer scrutiny to understand global community’s attitude towards the Rohingya crisis. China and Russia’s opposition to any international condemnation of Myanmar was not unexpected as both of them in the past had supported so-called security operations against alleged insurgency. Had these two veto-wielding nations allowed the UN Security Council to find a way forward to resolve the crisis or at the least refer Myanmar to the International Criminal Court (ICC), victims of those atrocities carried out by Myanmar security forces would have gotten some hope for justice. Apparently, there’s too little Bangladesh can do to win them over. The other seven nations who voted against the resolution were Belarus, Cambodia, Peoples Democratic Republic of Lao, Philippines, Vietnam, Zimbabwe and Myanmar. Records show that these nations too have consistently sided with Myanmar. All these countries for decades have been criticised for their human rights records. Among them, Cambodia has bitter experience of dealing with genocide. It had cooperated fully with international jurists and experts to hold some of the perpetrators to justice. But, the current authoritarian regime’s appalling human rights records in the domestic front and reliance on China for military and economic aid explain its inability to support international actions against Myanmar..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "The Daily Star" (Bangladesh)
Date of publication: 2020-01-05
Date of entry/update: 2020-01-05
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Myanmar Rohingya: UN condemns human rights abuses
Topic: Aung San Suu Kyi, Asia migrant crisis, International Court of Justice, Myanmar, Rohingya
Topic: Aung San Suu Kyi, Asia migrant crisis, International Court of Justice, Myanmar, Rohingya
Description: "The UN resolution passed on Friday expressed alarm at the continuing influx of Rohingya to Bangladesh over the past four decades "in the aftermath of atrocities committed by the security and armed forces of Myanmar". It highlighted the findings of an independent international mission "of gross human rights violations and abuses suffered by Rohingya Muslims and other minorities" by Myanmar's security forces, which the mission described as "the gravest crimes under international law". The resolution called on Myanmar to protect all groups and to ensure justice for all violations of human rights. It was passed by a total of 134 countries in the 193-member world body, with nine votes against and 28 abstaining. UN General Assembly resolutions are not legally binding but can reflect world opinion. The UN ambassador for Myanmar, Hau Do Suan, called the resolution "another classic example of double-standards [and] selective and discriminatory application of human rights norms". He said it was designed to exert "unwanted political pressure" on Myanmar and did not attempt to find a solution to "the complex situation in Rakhine state"..."
Source/publisher: "BBC News" (London)
Date of publication: 2019-12-28
Date of entry/update: 2020-01-04
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: UNGA resolution condemns abuses against Myanmar's Rohingya
Sub-title: UN member states voted 134-9 with 28 abstentions to call for urgent action to stop racial hatred against the Rohingya.
Description: "The UN General Assembly (UNGA) approved a resolution on Friday strongly condemning human rights abuses against Myanmar's Rohingya and other minorities, including arbitrary arrests, torture, rape and deaths in detention. The 193-member body voted 134-9 with 28 abstentions in favour of the resolution, which also calls on Myanmar's government to take urgent measures to combat incitement of hatred against the Rohingya and other minorities in Rakhine, Kachin and Shan states. More: Transcript: Aung San Suu Kyi's speech at the ICJ in full Rohingya refugees reject Aung San Suu Kyi's 'lies on genocide' At top court, Myanmar urged to 'stop genocide of own people' UNGA resolutions are not legally binding but they reflect world opinion. Buddhist-majority Myanmar has long considered the Rohingya to be "Bengalis" from Bangladesh, in spite of their families having lived in the country for generations. Nearly all have been denied citizenship since 1982, effectively rendering them stateless; they are also denied freedom of movement and other basic rights..."
Source/publisher: "Al Jazeera" (Qatar)
Date of publication: 2019-12-28
Date of entry/update: 2020-01-04
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Legal Team Defended Myanmar to ‘Best of Their Ability’ at ICJ, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi Says
Description: "State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi said on Wednesday evening that Myanmar’s delegation defended the country “to the best of their ability” against genocide charges at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), in her first briefing to the nation since she returned from The Hague on Saturday. The Gambia accused Myanmar of violating the 1948 Genocide Convention over military clearance operations in northern Rakhine State, which caused more than 730,000 Rohingya to flee the Southeast Asian country for Bangladesh. The African country asked the ICJ to order “provisional measures” to prevent more violations. Daw Aung San Suu Kyi led the country’s legal team in presenting oral arguments before the court from Dec. 11 to 12. In her 15-minute-long speech on Wednesday she said representing Myanmar at the ICJ was an honor but also “a grave responsibility”, as the case submitted by The Gambia accused Myanmar of the most serious of crimes, genocide. However, she said, the delegation constantly kept in mind the honor of Myanmar, the aspirations of its people, and its obligations as a member of the international community..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "The Irrawaddy" (Thailand)
Date of publication: 2019-12-19
Date of entry/update: 2019-12-20
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Myanmar's Suu Kyi says supporters a 'source of strength' during genocide hearings
Description: "Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi on Wednesday thanked supporters who staged large rallies on her behalf as she defended the country against genocide charges at The Hague, speaking to the nation for the first time since she returned on Sunday. Gambia accused Myanmar of violating the 1948 Genocide Convention over a military campaign that drove more than 730,000 Rohingya Muslims from Myanmar to Bangladesh. It has asked the International Court of Justice to order “provisional measures” to prevent more harm. “The support of our people, given generously and unquestioningly ... was a great source of strength to us when we presented our case at the ICJ,” Nobel laureate Suu Kyi said in a televised address screened by the state broadcaster. Suu Kyi led a team to the Netherlands for three days of hearings last week, during which she denied genocide and argued the U.N. court should not have jurisdiction. “Every country passes through difficult times and Myanmar is no exception. Such trials provide us with an opportunity to assess our strengths and weaknesses, to reinforce one and rectify the other,” she said..."
Source/publisher: "Reuters" (UK)
Date of publication: 2019-12-18
Date of entry/update: 2019-12-20
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Explainer: Genocide case against Myanmar at the top U.N. court
Description: "Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi was due to leave the Netherlands on Friday after defending her country against accusations of genocide during three days of hearings at the International Court of Justice. The west African country of Gambia filed a case in November, alleging Myanmar was committing “an ongoing genocide” against its minority Muslim Rohingya population. As a first step, Gambia asked the court to order emergency measures to protect the Rohingya and keep the conflict from getting worse. These are meant as a kind of restraining order while the 17-judge panel looks at the full case on its merits, which usually takes several years to complete. The court said it would rule on the request as soon as possible, but did not set a specific date. A ruling is expected within weeks. These hearings are expected to have been the first in a long process. The genocide case against Bosnian Serbs in Srebrenica in 1995 took almost 15 years to complete..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "Reuters" (UK)
Date of publication: 2019-12-13
Date of entry/update: 2019-12-16
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Suu Kyi warns UN not to reignite Rohingya crisis
Description: "Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi urged United Nations (UN) judges on Thursday to throw out a genocide case against Myanmar, warning it risked reigniting the crisis that forced nearly three quarters of a million Rohingya Muslims from their homes. In her closing arguments after a three-day hearing at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), Myanmar's de facto civilian leader issued a stark warning to judges that allowing Gambia's case against Myanmar to go ahead could "undermine reconciliation". Suu Kyi, whose defence of the same generals she once defied has shredded her reputation abroad as a rights icon, even showed pictures of a football match recently played in the area affected by the violence in 2017 as evidence that was peace was returning "I pray that the decision you make with the wisdom and vision of justice will help us to create unity out of diversity," said Suu Kyi, who wore traditional Burmese dress and flowers in her hair..."
Source/publisher: "The ASEAN Post" (Malaysia)
Date of publication: 2019-12-15
Date of entry/update: 2019-12-16
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: “ACT NOW AND JOIN GAMBIA”
Description: "As the world looked on in lead up to the proceedings of Myanmar’s[1] violation of the Genocide Convention in case of Rohingya at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in the Hague, the Myanmar National Human Rights Commission’s (MNHRC) stated that they did not “find any evidence that the military tortured them or violated their human rights”– refusing to call them “Rohingya” and instead by the derogatory term “Bengali” – spoke to the complete lack of will by the domestic human rights institution to address accountability or to work to protect human rights. Since its establishment by a presidential decree in 2011 and the passing of its 2014 MNHRC Enabling Law that set its formal mandate, the MNHRC has continued to suffer from a huge public trust deficit. The insitution’s work to promote and protect human rights has consistently been hampered by two interlinked issues: commissioners who lack the human rights sensitivity and mindset as well as relevant experiences, and the structural and procedural issues at the heart of the MNHRC law that ensures the commissioners’ selection process is not independent, but aligned to the Myanmar government and the military – the institution which has committed genocide and continues to act with total impunity. Like most institutions set up by the government in Myanmar, the MNHRC has never recognized the identity of the Rohingya, and rather than upholding the principles of human rights, it has worked to deflect the egregious violence committed against them. The Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar (IIFFMM) in its report, condemned the role of the MNHRC, stating that at no point has the commission worked to “address the systemic discrimination against Rohingya, despite this falling within its mandate.” This was again made clear by commissioner Yu Lwin Aung who stated, “We found that those Bengalis only killed and troubled our ethnic groups such as Mro, Khami, Rakhine and Dainet as well as Hindus. They violated the human rights. We found no evidence that the military did it.” The statement was made in a timely lead up to the proceedings currently taking place at the international court in the Hague on the case of Myanmar’s violation of the Genocide Convention filed at the ICJ by The Gambia..."
Source/publisher: "Progressive Voice" (Thailand)
Date of publication: 2019-12-13
Date of entry/update: 2019-12-16
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Aung San Suu Kyi: Why defend the indefensible?
Description: "This week, the world was treated to an extraordinary sight. Aung San Suu Kyi, the Nobel Peace Prize winner once hailed as “the bravest and most moral person in the world ... the immaculate heroine who allows us all to feel a little better about human nature”, sat in the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague and defended her country against charges of genocide. The brutal “clearance operations” by Myanmar’s security forces against the Muslim Rohingya population in Rakhine State between October 2016 and the end of 2017 have been extensively documented by governments and international organisations. In 2018, for example, an independent UN fact-finding mission released a 444-page report that described in horrific detail case after case of murder, torture, sexual assault and the destruction of property by the armed forces (known as the Tatmadaw) and the police. The UN Human Rights Council stated that these operations demonstrated “genocidal intent”. A more politically nuanced US State Department investigation conducted at the same time stopped short of calling the atrocities in Myanmar genocide, but recorded broadly similar findings. Both reports noted that there were almost one million Rohingya refugees living in squalid camps in Bangladesh who stood as evidence of the crimes against humanity perpetrated against them..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "The Interpreter"
Date of publication: 2019-12-12
Date of entry/update: 2019-12-15
Grouping: Individual Documents
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