On July 22, 2022, the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the principal judicial organ of the United Nations, has delivered its judgment on the preliminary objections raised by the Republic of the Union of Myanmar in the case concerning Application of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (Genocide Convention), finding that it has jurisdiction and that the said Application is admissible.

On November 11, 2019, The Gambia initiated proceedings against Myanmar at the ICJ alleging that the Government of Myanmar has been involved in atrocities against the Rohingya Muslims, including “killing, causing serious bodily and mental harm, inflicting conditions that are calculated to bring about physical destruction, imposing measures to prevent births, and forcible transfers, are genocidal in character because they are intended to destroy the Rohingya group in whole or in part” in violation of the Genocide Convention. The Application further stated that “from around October 2016 the Myanmar military (the ‘Tatmadaw’) and other Myanmar security forces began widespread and systematic ‘clearance operations’ – the term that Myanmar itself uses – against the Rohingya group. The genocidal acts committed during these operations were intended to destroy the Rohingya as a groupin whole or in part, by the use of mass murder, rape and other forms of sexual violence, as well as the systematic destruction by fire of their villages, often with inhabitants locked inside burning houses. From August 2017 onwards, such genocidal acts continued with Myanmar’s resumption of ‘clearance operations’ on a more massive and wider geographical scale.” The Gambia has also requested the implementation of several provisional measures to take effect as a matter of urgency, including measures within the Burmese government’s power to “prevent all acts that amount to or contribute to the crime of genocide” and “not destroy or render inaccessible any evidence related to the events.”