ICJ Orders Myanmar to Take Step Preventing Rohingya Genocide

The Hague, MINA – The International Court of Justice (ICJ) on Thursday ordered Myanmar to implement certain preventive measures against the genocide of Myanmar Muslims.

Thus, the court accepted the Islamic Cooperation Organization (OIC) lawsuit filed by Gambia on behalf of the OIC.

ICJ President Judge Abdulqawi Ahmed Yusuf who declared a four-month deadline for Myanmar to take preventive measures and ensure that Rohingya in the country would not be harmed, Anadolu Agency reported.

It asked Myanmar to ensure no Rohingya is harmed and to submit a report to ICJ in four months.

Gambia was allowed to receive one such copy for its review and comments to the court.

In the court’s view, the ICJ order read, Rohingya in Myanmar appear to constitute a protected group within the meaning of Article 2 of the genocide convention.

The top UN court also observed that the relevant provisions in the convention against torture were “similar” to those in the genocide convention.

The court also held that in accordance with Article 1 of the convention, all state parties there to have undertaken “to prevent and to punish” the crime of genocide.

The 1948 Convention describes genocide 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 mentally 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.

The Court further observed that the provisions of the convention were intended to protect the members of a national, ethnical, racial or religious group from acts of genocide or any other punishable acts enumerated in Article 3.

It said there was a correlation between the rights of members of groups protected under the genocide convention, the obligations incumbent on states parties thereto, and the right of any state party to seek compliance therewith by another state party.

Since Myanmar has been signatory to the UN’s 1948 Prevention of Genocide Convention, Myanmar is obliged to adhere to preventive measures issued by the ICJ. But the ICJ order does in no way prejudges merits of the case or its admissibility. (T/R6/RE1)

Mi’raj News Agency (MINA)