International Court of Justice (ICJ) - General
Individual Documents
Description:
"United Nations - The International Court of Justice (ICJ) is the principal judicial organ of the United Nations and the world’s highest international court.
It has a dual role: to settle in accordance with international law the legal disputes submitted to it by UN Member States, and to give advisory opinions on legal questions referred to it by duly authorized international organs and agencies of the UN system.
This short film (available in over 50 languages) presents its main features.
Use of this file is free for non-profit and educational/editorial purposes. The ICJ encourages its use, reproduction and distribution for the same purposes. Sale or commercial use strictly prohibited..."
Source/publisher:
UNited Nations (New York)
Date of entry/update:
2019-12-13
[field_licence]
Type:
Individual Documents
Language:
Local URL:
more
Sub-title:
The ICJ today published a “Strategic Litigation Handbook for Myanmar.” In this, the ICJ seeks to offer an accessible, concise and substantial overview of the conceptual basis and purpose of strategic litigation.
Description:
"The Handbook shows the potential impacts of strategic litigation in Myanmar, by drawing on experiences from Myanmar and other countries, while recognizing the related challenges and opportunities, as expressed by legal professionals and civil society actors. It is intended to be useful to all legal practitioners and community activists in Myanmar.
While there is no universal definition or conception of ‘strategic litigation,’ the term is typically used to describe litigation whereby the interests may go beyond those of the primary litigants. The various adjudication processes it entails are sometimes referred to as ‘public interest litigation’, ‘impact litigation’, ‘test case litigation’, or ‘community lawyering’. What they all have in common is the idea that courts and the law can be used as part of a campaign to achieve broader change in relation to matters seen to be in the broader public interest. ICJ publishes “Strategic Litigation Handbook for Myanmar”
SEPTEMBER 30, 2019
The ICJ today published a “Strategic Litigation Handbook for Myanmar.” In this, the ICJ seeks to offer an accessible, concise and substantial overview of the conceptual basis and purpose of strategic litigation.
The Handbook shows the potential impacts of strategic litigation in Myanmar, by drawing on experiences from Myanmar and other countries, while recognizing the related challenges and opportunities, as expressed by legal professionals and civil society actors. It is intended to be useful to all legal practitioners and community activists in Myanmar.
While there is no universal definition or conception of ‘strategic litigation,’ the term is typically used to describe litigation whereby the interests may go beyond those of the primary litigants. The various adjudication processes it entails are sometimes referred to as ‘public interest litigation’, ‘impact litigation’, ‘test case litigation’, or ‘community lawyering’. What they all have in common is the idea that courts and the law can be used as part of a campaign to achieve broader change in relation to matters seen to be in the broader public interest.
Part one of the Handbook explores core aspects of strategic litigation, including its origins, key concepts, potential impacts, challenges and forums. In part two, areas of law are identified which offer potential options for strategic litigation actions, including procedures, legislation and constitutional writs. Practical steps for the planning and application of strategic litigation, such as media strategy and case selection, are outlined in part three. Finally, part four of the Handbook discusses related challenges in the Myanmar context, including a discussion of requisite reforms required in the justice sector more broadly.."
Source/publisher:
International Court of Justice (ICJ) (The Hague)
Date of entry/update:
2019-12-12
[field_licence]
Type:
Individual Documents
Category:
International Court of Justice (ICJ) - General, International Court of Justice (ICJ) - Myanmar
Language:
Format :
pdf
Size:
514.91 KB (34 pages)
more
Description:
"The creation of the Court represented the culmination of a long process of developing methods for the pacific settlement of international disputes, the origins of which can be traced back to classical times.
Article 33 of the United Nations Charter lists the following methods for the pacific settlement of disputes between States: negotiation, enquiry, mediation, conciliation, arbitration, judicial settlement, and resort to regional agencies or arrangements, to which should also be added good offices. Some of these methods involve the services of third parties. For example, mediation places the parties to a dispute in a position in which they can themselves resolve their dispute thanks to the intervention of a third party. Arbitration goes further, in the sense that the dispute is submitted to the decision or award of an impartial third party, so that a binding settlement can be achieved. The same is true of judicial settlement (the method applied by the International Court of Justice), except that a court is subject to stricter rules than an arbitral tribunal, particularly in procedural matters.
Historically, mediation and arbitration preceded judicial settlement. The former was known in ancient India and the Islamic world, whilst numerous examples of the latter can be found in ancient Greece, in China, among the Arabian tribes, in maritime customary law in medieval Europe, and in Papal practice..."
Source/publisher:
Website
Date of entry/update:
2019-12-12
[field_licence]
Type:
Individual Documents
Language:
Local URL:
more
Description:
"“I call on each and every organ of the Myanmar State to ensure that absolutely no reprisals are taken against any group or individual that is advocating for justice and accountability in Myanmar,” said the independent expert in a statement issued on Tuesday, adding that those targeted include members of the Free Rohingya Coalition.
Legal proceedings begin
The Rohingya are a mainly Muslim population residing in northern Rakhine state in Myanmar, a majority Buddhist country.
More than 600,000 members of the minority group fled to neighbouring Bangladesh following a reported military crackdown in August 2017. Numerous alleged human rights abuses took place, with the then UN human rights chief describing it as bearing all the hallmarks of a “textbook example of ethnic cleansing”.
Ms. Lee recalled that The Gambia in November filed an application against Myanmar at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the main judicial organ of the United Nations.
The West African country brought the case to the world court on behalf of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC).
The ICJ proceedings began on Tuesday in The Hague, with Nobel peace laureate and Myanmar’s civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi also present in court to defend the country against accusations of genocide. She is due to address the court on Wednesday.
The International Criminal Court (ICC) has also authorized an investigation into alleged crimes against humanity committed against the Rohingya, while criminal complaints of genocide and crimes against humanity have been filed in Argentina under the principle of universal jurisdiction..."
Source/publisher:
UN News
Date of entry/update:
2019-12-11
[field_licence]
Type:
Individual Documents
Category:
International Court of Justice (ICJ) - Myanmar, International Court of Justice (ICJ) - General, Genocide
Language:
Local URL:
more
Sub-title:
World’s failure to act over Myanmar is ‘stain on collective conscience’, UN court told
Description:
"Aung San Suu Kyi has sat impassively through graphic accounts of mass murder and rape perpetrated by Myanmar’s military at the start of a three-day hearing into allegations of genocide at the UN’s highest court.
“I stand before you to awaken the conscience of the world and arouse the voice of the international community,” Abubacarr Marie Tambadou, the Gambia’s attorney general and justice minister, said as he opened his country’s case against Myanmar at the international court of justice (ICJ) in The Hague. “In the words of Edmund Burke: ‘The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.’
“Another genocide is unfolding right before our eyes yet we do nothing to stop it,” he said. “This is a stain on our collective conscience. It’s not only the state of Myanmar that is on trial here, it’s our collective humanity that is being put on trial.” Before dawn on Tuesday, a long queue had formed outside the Peace Palace in the Dutch city to witness the first of three days of hearings that will focus attention on military clearance operations in 2017 against the Rohingya Muslim minority, 700,000 of whom were forced to flee across the border to neighbouring Bangladesh..."
Source/publisher:
"The Guardian" (UK)
Date of entry/update:
2019-12-11
[field_licence]
Type:
Individual Documents
Category:
Arakan (Rakhine) State - reports etc. by date (latest first), About Aung San Suu Kyi, Discrimination against the Rohingya, Genocide, International Court of Justice (ICJ) - General, International Court of Justice (ICJ) - Myanmar
Language:
Local URL:
more
Title: Ethnic Groups Support ICJ Rohingya Genocide Lawsuit Against Burma Government And Its Military
Sub-title:
The International Court of Justice began its hearing on December 10 in The Hague, Netherlands on its genocide lawsuit filed by Gambia against Burma government.
Description:
"Prior to the court hearing, several ethnic Karen, Karenni and Shan civil society groups put out a joint statement supporting Gambia’s lawsuit.
On December 2, 2019 the Worldwide Karen Community issued a statement welcoming the filing of the genocide case against Burma at the ICJ and the decision by the International Criminal Court (ICC) to proceed with an investigation into the crime of deportation against the Rohingya.
The statement endorsed by 48 Karen civil society organizations around the world said that as the Rohingya case, Karen people suffered for decades from systematic human rights violations by the Burma Army.
The Worldwide Karen Community statement said; “this is a critical time for action. It is urgently needed for the international community to exert further pressure, including economic sanctions, to push for a complete halt to Burma Army offensives throughout the country – and to start a genuine, inclusive dialogue. Only a new federal constitution, granting the ethnic people their right to autonomy, and bringing the Burma Army under civilian control, can bring an end to the civil war and the ongoing crimes by the Burma Army.”
On December 8, the Karen Grassroots Women Network put out a statement supporting the ICJ lawsuit saying that for decades, women have experienced and witnessed the abuse of ethnic people in Burma taking place with impunity..."
Source/publisher:
"Karen News" (Myanmar)
Date of entry/update:
2019-12-11
[field_licence]
Type:
Individual Documents
Category:
International Court of Justice (ICJ) - General, International Court of Justice (ICJ) - Myanmar, Genocide
Language:
Local URL:
more
Description:
"A three-day hearing initiated after Gambia filed lawsuit in November on Rohingya crisis.
Aung San Suu Kyi arrived at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague on Tuesday for a highly anticipated genocide case against Myanmar.
The case, the first international legal attempt to bring Myanmar to justice over alleged mass killings of the Rohingya minority, comes after the Gambia on November 11 filed an application at the ICJ, accusing Myanmar of violating the 1948 Genocide Convention.
More than 700,000 Rohingya have fled to Bangladesh to escape the violence..."
Source/publisher:
"Al Jazeera" (Qatar)
Date of entry/update:
2019-12-11
[field_licence]
Type:
Individual Documents
Category:
International Court of Justice (ICJ) - Myanmar, International Court of Justice (ICJ) - General, Genocide
Language:
Local URL:
more
Description:
"The International Court of Justice (ICJ),[1] sometimes called the World Court, is the principal judicial organ of the United Nations (UN). The ICJ's primary functions are to settle international legal disputes submitted by states (contentious cases) and give advisory opinions on legal issues referred to it by the UN (advisory proceedings). Through its opinions and rulings, it serves as a source of international law.
The ICJ is the successor of the Permanent Court of International Justice (PCIJ), which was established by the League of Nations in 1920 and began its first session in 1922. After the Second World War, both the League and the PCIJ were succeeded by the United Nations and ICJ, respectively. The Statute of the ICJ draws heavily from that of its predecessor, and the latter's decisions remain valid. All members of the UN are party to the ICJ Statute.
The ICJ comprises a panel of 15 judges elected by the General Assembly and Security Council for nine-year terms. The court is seated in the Peace Palace in The Hague, Netherlands, making it the only principal U.N. organ not located in New York City.[2] Its official working languages are English and French. he first permanent institution established for the purpose of settling international disputes was the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA), which was created by the Hague Peace Conference of 1899. Initiated by Russian Czar Nicholas II, the conference involved all the world's major powers, as well as several smaller states, resulted in the first multilateral treaties concerned with the conduct of warfare.[3] Among these was the Convention for the Pacific Settlement of International Disputes, which set forth the institutional and procedural framework for arbitral proceedings, which would take place in The Hague, Netherlands. Although the proceedings would be supported by a permanent bureau—whose functions would be equivalent to that of a secretariat or court registry—the arbitrators would be appointed by the disputing states from a larger pool provided by each member of the Convention. The PCA was established in 1900 and began proceedings in 1902.
A second Hague Peace Conference in 1907, which involved most of the world's sovereign states, revised the Convention and enhanced the rules governing arbitral proceedings before the PCA. During this conference, the United States, Great Britain and Germany submitted a joint proposal for a permanent court whose judges would serve full-time. As the delegates could not agree as to how the judges would be selected, the matter was temporarily shelved pending an agreement to be adopted at a later convention.
The Hague Peace Conferences, and the ideas that emerged therefrom, influenced the creation of the Central American Court of Justice, which was established in 1908 as one of the earliest regional judicial bodies. Various plans and proposals were made between 1911 and 1919 for the establishment of an international judicial tribunal, which would not be realized into the formation of a new international system following the First World War..."
Source/publisher:
Wikipedia
Date of entry/update:
2019-12-11
[field_licence]
Type:
Individual Documents
Language:
Local URL:
more
Description:
"The sight of more than a dozen young men armed with machetes walking out of a burning village in Western Myanmar is the moment I realized that I was witnessing a genocide in progress.
In the eight years I spent documenting a campaign of oppression against the country's ethnic minority Rohingya Muslims, I had heard countless tales from victims who had endured or witnessed atrocities committed by Myanmar's security forces.
Now, I was witnessing it in real time during the tail end of a government-approved press tour to Rakhine state’s conflict zone in September of 2017.
Two men, barefoot and wearing traditional longyis, stopped briefly on a dirt footpath in front of me as I filmed the destruction.
A journalist asked what they were doing. Speaking a local dialect, one replied that they had been ordered by Myanmar's Border Guard Forces (BGF) to burn the village.
At their feet lay plastic jugs with diesel fuel. Behind them, orange flames devoured the bamboo huts in the now-empty hamlet of Gaw du Thara.
Source/publisher:
"VOA" (Washington, D.C)
Date of entry/update:
2019-12-11
[field_licence]
Type:
Individual Documents
Category:
Arakan (Rakhine) State - reports etc. by date (latest first), Genocide, Discrimination against the Rohingya, International Court of Justice (ICJ) - General, International Court of Justice (ICJ) - Myanmar
Language:
Local URL:
more
Sub-title:
In an unprecedented move, former human rights icon defends Myanmar generals over mass killings, rape, and displacement.
Description:
"Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi will defend genocide allegations against Myanmar's military on Wednesday amid accusations of mass killings, rape, and expulsion of the Rohingya Muslim minority.
The Gambia, a small West African country, launched the case against Myanmar at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the United Nations's highest court, alleging it violated the 1948 Genocide Convention.
More:
New Rohingya book tells of the 'slow burn of genocide'
Aung San Suu Kyi arrives at ICJ as Myanmar faces genocide case
US slaps sanctions on Myanmar military chief over Rohingya abuses
Aung San Suu Kyi - once a human rights icon who fought against the powerful military for democracy - shocked critics and galvanised supporters at home by travelling to The Hague to head her country's delegation. Her office said she was going to "defend the national interest".
She listened impassively on Tuesday as lawyers for The Gambia detailed graphic testimony of suffering of Rohingya at the hands of Myanmar's security forces, including gang rape, torture, and murder.
"It was very important to see her have to sit inches away from people who were describing - in really painfully excruciating detail - all the horrible crimes of the Burmese military that happened on her watch," Brad Adams, of New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW), told Al Jazeera..."
Source/publisher:
"Al Jazeera" (Qatar)
Date of entry/update:
2019-12-11
[field_licence]
Type:
Individual Documents
Category:
International Court of Justice (ICJ) - Myanmar, International Court of Justice (ICJ) - General, Genocide, Discrimination against the Rohingya
Language:
Local URL:
more
Description:
"The International Court of Justice (ICJ) kicked off its first hearings on The Gambia's case against Myanmar over accusations of genocide against the Rohingya people in The Hague on Tuesday.
The Nobel Peace Prize winner, and one-time champion for human rights, Myanmar State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi attended Tuesday's hearing at the ICJ, representing Myanmar, in a move which has been widely criticised.
"All that The Gambia asks is that you tell Myanmar to stop these senseless killings, to stop these acts of barbarity that continue to shock our collective conscience, to stop this genocide of its own people." Gambia's Attorney General and Justice Minister Abubacarr M. Tambadou said during the hearing.
The Gambia is seeking provisional measures to protect the rights of Rohingya people under the 1948 UN Genocide Convention..."
Source/publisher:
"Ruptly" (Berlin)
Date of entry/update:
2019-12-11
[field_licence]
Type:
Individual Documents
Category:
International Court of Justice (ICJ) - General, International Court of Justice (ICJ) - Myanmar, Genocide
Language:
Local URL:
more
Description:
"The Contracting Parties ,
Having considered the declaration made by the General Assembly of the United Nations in its resolution 96 (I) dated 11 December 1946 that genocide is a crime under international law, contrary to the spirit and aims of the United Nations and condemned by the civilized world,
Recognizing that at all periods of history genocide has inflicted great losses on humanity, and
Being convinced that, in order to liberate mankind from such an odious scourge, international co-operation is required,
Hereby agree as hereinafter provided :
Article I
The Contracting Parties confirm that genocide, whether committed in time of peace or in time of war, is a crime under international law which they undertake to prevent and to punish.
Article II
In the present Convention, genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:
(a) Killing members of the group;
(b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;
(c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;
(d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;
(e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.
Article III
The following acts shall be punishable:
(a) Genocide;
(b) Conspiracy to commit genocide;
(c) Direct and public incitement to commit genocide;
(d) Attempt to commit genocide;
(e) Complicity in genocide..."
Source/publisher:
ICJ, United Nations
Date of publication:
1948-12-09
Date of entry/update:
2017-10-18
[field_licence]
Type:
Individual Documents
Language:
English
Local URL:
more