The International Court of Justice is reportedly going to rule in the coming weeks in The Gambia v. Myanmar, the genocide case against Myanmar.

In 2019, The Gambia filed an application at the ICJ alleging that Myanmar had violated the United Nations’ 1948 Genocide Convention in its treatment of the Rohingya people.

The Rohingya aren’t from The Gambia, and no atrocities against them took place there. But, under international law, any state can file a case with the ICJ if it believes a country has violated the convention. This was confirmed by the court in a 2022 decision against Myanmar’s attempt to block the case on jurisdictional grounds.

Who are the Rohingya?

The Rohingya are an ethnic minority group that have long lived in the Arakan region of western Myanmar, which today corresponds to the Rakhine state.

As Muslims in an overwhelmingly Buddhist country, the Rohingya have often experienced discrimination and persecution. Most notably, in 1982, Myanmar passed a law that removed the Rohingya from a list of ethnic groups eligible for citizenship.

As a result, most Rohingya lost their citizenship, and with it, their most basic rights and freedoms. The ICJ case, however, concerns the campaign of violence conducted by the Myanmar military against the Rohingya that began in 2016.

Read more: 7 years after genocide, plight of........

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