eurasiareview
Parvej Siddique Bhuiyan*
February 17, 2022
Rohingya refugees. Photo Credit: Tasnim News Agency
Following the military-led “clearance operation” that forced 750,000 Rohingya to flee neighboring Bangladesh, Gambia, a West African nation, in November 2019, brought a case to the International Court of Justice (ICJ), accusing Myanmar of violating the 1948 Genocide Convention.
In response to the court’s unanimously indicated legally binding provisional measures to protect the Rohingya from further atrocities, on January 2021, the then NLD government filed a preliminary objections to the jurisdiction of the Court and the admissibility of the Application. In this context, the ICJ recently announced that it will hold a fresh round of hearings from Feb. 21–28 in the Great Hall of Justice in which the regime’s leaders will be potential defendants, sparking speculation that the Court is implicitly taking a position in the ongoing civil war and legitimizing the unrecognized military regime. It is worth noting that the Junta-formed State Administrative Council (SAC) and the National Unity Government (NUG) have been struggling for recognition from the international community since the coup d’état in February 2021.
In response to the court’s unanimously indicated legally binding provisional measures to protect the Rohingya from further atrocities, on January 2021, the then NLD government filed a preliminary objections to the jurisdiction of the Court and the admissibility of the Application. In this context, the ICJ recently announced that it will hold a fresh round of hearings from Feb. 21–28 in the Great Hall of Justice in which the regime’s leaders will be potential defendants, sparking speculation that the Court is implicitly taking a position in the ongoing civil war and legitimizing the unrecognized military regime. It is worth noting that the Junta-formed State Administrative Council (SAC) and the National Unity Government (NUG) have been struggling for recognition from the international community since the coup d’état in February 2021.
