In association with the International Commission of Jurists

Author: Priya Pillai

03 Sep

Yesterday, the Netherlands and Canada announced that they would be supporting The Gambia formally, in its application before the International Court of Justice. The full statement can be found here. This does not come as a complete surprise. There have been discussions regarding the role that other states may play for sometime now, and this is a welcome development. The last state...

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28 Aug

The contributions in the symposium this past week have brought up multiple issues and perspectives, pointing to challenges in the quest for justice and accountability for the Rohingya, and the role of international law. Rather than go over what has been highlighted already, here are a few reflections, linked to the international legal developments and the wider context.  There is little...

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24 Aug

[Priya Pillai is an international lawyer, head of the Asia Justice Coalition secretariat, and a contributing editor at Opinio Juris.] It has been three years since the forced exodus of the Rohingya from Myanmar was at its zenith, as a result of international crimes committed in Rakhine state. With close to a million individuals forced to flee to Bangladesh and other countries in the region, August 2017 and the...

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08 Aug

The Gambia initiated legal proceedings in the United States a few months ago against Facebook, in order to compel the company to hand over information related to its ongoing case against Myanmar, relating to the Rohingya, before the International Court of Justice.  This legal strategy is in accordance with a provision of U.S. law - §1782 of the U.S. Code, a federal statute which permits the compelling of testimony,...

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04 Aug

The United Nations Human Rights Committee has adopted General comment No. 37 on the right of peaceful assembly emanating from Article 21 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). The final document was made available last week, and can be found here.    The adoption of this general comment – which is in effect an explanation or translation of Article 21...

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17 Apr

This post looks at some of the issues and lessons that will impact the new prosecutor, emanating from the few situations related to Asia – a region that is often overlooked in the context of international justice. Other posts in our symposium have gone into details of the prosecutor’s position, responsibilities and qualifications. In this, I take a step back from the minutiae, and look at...

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05 Mar

On 3 March, news reports indicated that that the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (High Commissioner) filed an intervention at the Supreme Court of India, linked to petitions challenging the Citizenship Amendment Act of 2019 (CAA). This legislation – along with a population and citizenship register – has been the focus of nationwide protests across India.  In brief, the CAA seeks to ease a path...

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24 Jan

Yesterday, the International Court of Justice issued its decision relating to the request for provisional measures in the case brought by The Gambia against Myanmar, relating to the Genocide Convention and the Rohingya. This order is the result of an application filed by The Gambia on 11 November 2019 at the ICJ.  As I have previously written about the application, as well as days 1, 2 and 3 of the hearings held...

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21 Dec

The International Court of Justice has just last week commenced and concluded provisional measures hearings in a case between The Gambia and Myanmar. It is based on allegations of violations of the Genocide Convention and is the culmination of years of persecution of the Rohingya, an ethnic Muslim minority in Myanmar’s Rakhine state. While there have been waves of atrocities, in...

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