ICJ is due to rule on the Rohingya genocide case. Here’s what you need to know

The International Court of Justice will rule on 19 November whether Myanmar is responsible as a state for genocide against the Rohingya. The judgment will be final and binding, and could mark the first time the court has found a state responsible for genocide, with potential implications for other cases alleging breaches of the Genocide Convention.

The Gambia brought the case in 2019 over the Myanmar military’s 2017 campaign in Rakhine State, which forced more than 700,000 Rohingya to flee to Bangladesh amid reports of killings, rape and village burnings. Myanmar says its forces were responding to attacks by the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army; the case concerns state responsibility, not the guilt of individual leaders. About 1.2 million Rohingya now live in camps around Cox’s Bazar, and a UN fact-finding mission said in 2018 there was sufficient information to infer genocidal intent.