In association with the International Commission of Jurists

Organizations

11 Sep

[Brian McGarry is Assistant Professor of Public International Law at Leiden University.] On 2 September, Canada and the Netherlands issued a Joint Statement indicating their intention to intervene in the ongoing ICJ proceedings instituted by The Gambia against Myanmar. The Joint Statement is ambiguous in regards to certain details which are key to understanding the intervention’s likelihood of success. While it remains to be seen whether...

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11 Sep

[Richard Mackenzie-Gray Scott is a consultant at the Bingham Centre for the Rule of Law.] Reading further might disappoint those interested in investor-state dispute settlement. I will not be analysing the minimum standard of treatment with which the ISDS aficionados are familiar. Instead, I offer some thoughts relating to a minimum standard of treatment in the context of labour practices, specifically those of entities within the international law community....

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04 Sep

[Neela Ghoshal is a senior LBGT rights researcher at Human Rights Watch.] People whose identities do not fit into a rigid female/male gender binary have, in many countries, been on a years-long quest to obtain official documents that reflect their identities by using a non-binary “X” marker in lieu of the typical “F” or “M.”   If you have never questioned your assigned gender, you may...

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04 Sep

[Tanishk Goyal & Dhruv Gupta are students at The West Bengal National University of Juridical Sciences, Kolkata.] Introduction Of the multiple threats that climate change poses to the word order we live in, the rise in global sea level remains its most significant manifestation. While the rise in sea level has become a growing concern for States all over the world, its implications concern some States more than...

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04 Sep

[Dhananjay Dhonchak is a student in law at The National Academy of Legal Studies And Research in Hyderabad, India.] Introduction The International Olympic Committee (IOC) issued guidelines in January 2020, expressly stating that gestures like kneeling would constitute a ‘protest’ within the meaning of rule 50 of the Olympic Charter (OC). The contentious rule 50 prohibits any ‘kind of demonstration or political, religious or racial propaganda’ at all Olympic venues...

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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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28 Aug

[Laetitia van den Assum is a diplomatic expert who has served as Netherlands ambassador on four continents. She was also a member of the Rakhine Advisory Commission, chaired by the late Kofi Annan.] Myanmar’s reluctance to embrace its rich ethnic, religious and cultural diversity remains the biggest stumbling block towards peace, stability and development.  It stands in the way of other major challenges, particularly high inequality and an...

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27 Aug

[Param-Preet Singh is associate international justice director at Human Rights Watch.] Three years ago, my organization reported on the brutal campaign of Myanmar’s military, also known as the Tatmadaw, as it committed countless atrocities and forced more than 740,000 Rohingya Muslims to flee to Bangladesh. In September 2018, the UN’s Independent International Fact-Finding Mission urged the investigation of the Tatmadaw’s generals for war crimes, crimes against humanity and...

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27 Aug

[Simon Adams is the Executive Director of the Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect.] “We believe that mass killings and ethnic cleansing are underway across Rakhine State, and that there may be genocidal intent on behalf of the authorities.” That was my concluding comment at an informal briefing for members of the UN Security Council on the morning of 8 September 2017. The meeting took place...

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26 Aug

[Akila Radhakrishnan (@akilaGJC) is the President of the Global Justice Center, where she directs GJC’s work to establish legal precedents protecting human rights and ensuring gender equality.] This August marks not only the 3rd anniversary of the start of the Rohingya genocide, but also the 6th anniversary of the start of the Yazidi genocide. Beyond starting in the same month, these...

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26 Aug

[Shannon Raj Singh is a member of Guernica 37 International Justice Chambers and a Visiting Fellow of Practice at the Oxford Programme on International Peace and Security.] The seat of the International Criminal Court, in the rain-soaked Hague, is located approximately 8,000 kilometers from Cox’s Bazar, as the crow flies. For many Rohingya victims of atrocities located in the refugee camps there, that distance is simply...

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