ICJ authorizes seven states to intervene in Gambia's alleged genocide case against Myanmar – JURIST

The ICJ unanimously decided on Wednesday to allow seven states to intervene in the genocide case brought by Gambia against Myanmar. The countries authorized to participate in the proceedings are Maldives, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom.

The Court held that their declarations of intervention were admissible under Article 63 of the Statute of the International Court of Justice. This article allows States parties to the convention whose interpretation is at issue to intervene in the proceedings. In the case before the ICJ, Gambia alleged that Myanmar’s actions against the Rohingya ethnic group in Rakhine State violated the provisions of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide. The Rohingya, a Muslim minority group in Myanmar, have reportedly faced decades of systematic discrimination, statelessness and targeted violence.

The Gambia first filed an application in November 2019 on behalf of the 57-member Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC). At the time, Myanmar argued that the applicant was in fact the OIC, which did not have standing to bring proceedings before the Court under Article 34. Myanmar also argued that The Gambia did not have standing to bring an application until the alleged acts of genocide had been committed outside its territory against non-Gambians.

However, the ICJ issued provisional measures in January 2020, ordering Myanmar to take steps to prevent acts of genocide against the Rohingya. The effectiveness of these provisional measures was also questioned at the time. Human Rights Watch (HRW) also claimed to have continued to document abuses against the Rohingya in Myanmar despite the provisional measures. Recently, on June 27, 89 civil rights groups also urged the UN Security Council to coordinate an intervention to stop the “rising violence and atrocities” and protect the Rohingya and other ethnic minorities in Myanmar. It is worth noting that two of the countries intervening at the ICJ, France and the United Kingdom, are permanent members of the UN Security Council. How much pressure their involvement puts on Myanmar’s military leadership remains to be seen.