World Court to hear Myanmar genocide case in January

The court’s ruling may guide future genocide cases, including Gaza

Rohingya refugee children pose for a picture at the Balukhali camp in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, Nov 15, 2018. REUTERS/Mohammad Ponir Hossain

The International Court of Justice will hear a landmark case accusing Myanmar of committing genocide against its minority Muslim group, the Rohingya, on January 12-29, the United Nations' top court said on Friday.

The proceedings are expected to set precedents that could affect South Africa’s case against Israel over the war in Gaza, as this will be the first genocide case the ICJ has heard on its merits in more than a decade.

In the first week of the hearings, Gambia -- a predominantly Muslim West African country -- will outline its case from January 12 to 15. Backed by the Organisation for Islamic Cooperation, Gambia filed the case at the ICJ in 2019, accusing Myanmar of committing genocide against the Rohingya.

Myanmar, which has denied genocide, can present its side from January 16 to January 20.

In an unusual move, the Court -- also known as the World Court -- has also allocated three days for hearing witnesses. These hearings will be closed to the public and media.

UN MISSION CONCLUDED MYANMAR 2017 CAMPAIGN INCLUDED 'GENOCIDAL ACTS'

A UN fact-finding mission concluded that a 2017 military campaign by Myanmar that drove 730,000 Rohingya into neighbouring Bangladesh had included "genocidal acts".

Myanmar rejected the UN findings as "biased and flawed". It says its crackdown was aimed at Rohingya rebels who had carried out attacks.

The case is being brought under the 1948 Genocide Convention, enacted in the wake of the mass murder of Jews in the Nazi Holocaust, which defines genocide as "acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group".

Both Myanmar and Gambia have signed the Genocide Convention, which gives the top UN court jurisdiction in the case.

Acts of genocide named in the convention include killing members of the group, causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group and deliberately inflicting conditions of life calculated to bring about the destruction of the group in whole or in part.

Since the 1948 Genocide Convention, the ICJ has only confirmed one episode of genocide, the 1995 Srebrenica massacre of some 8,000 Muslim men and boys by Bosnian Serb troops during the 1990s war that tore apart the former Yugoslavia.

The findings of the ICJ in this case could become important in any future genocide case, specifically as Gambia and a number of intervening states in the case including Canada, France, Germany and the United Kingdom have argued that genocide is not limited to only mass killings.

The intervening countries said in written filings that the court should not only focus on the number of dead to establish genocidal intent, but also look at forced displacement, crimes against children and sexual and gender-based crimes.