On Monday, a group of Nobel Peace laureates issued a remarkable public statement not only condemning Aung San Suu Kyi for actively denying that Myanmar has committed international crimes against the Rohingya, but also calling for her to be prosecuted for those crimes herself: As Nobel Peace laureates, we call on Aung San Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize recipient, to...
On 11 December 2019, Myanmar presented its case before the International Court of Justice, in the matter of provisional measures brought by The Gambia in relation to the Rohingya, under the Genocide Convention. Even though the hearings were for a specific determination – that of provisional measures – the arguments presented by Myanmar are a glimpse of the legal strategy...
Yesterday The Gambia commenced its arguments in the case against Myanmar at the International Court of Justice, relating to the application of the Genocide Convention and the Rohingya. After filing its application on 11 November, in which The Gambia initiated the case at the ICJ and also asked the court to order interim measures of protection, the hearings over three days are for a specific purpose – to...
[Alexandra Lily Kather, is a Legal Advisor, International Crimes and Accountability Program, European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR). Silvia Rojas Castro is a ECCHR Critical Legal Trainee, International Crimes and Accountability Program, and Vandita Khanna is ECCHR Critical Legal Training Alumn*, International Crimes and Accountability Program.] 75 years after the Malaya Lolas (“Free Grandmothers”) were sexually enslaved by the...
The past week has been a momentous one for the Rohingya, in their quest for justice and accountability. On Monday 11 November, The Gambia filed an application at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) alleging violations of the genocide convention against Myanmar. On 13 November, a case was filed in Argentine domestic courts on the basis of what is termed ‘universal jurisdiction’ against members...
On 11 November 2019, The Gambia filed an application at the International Court of Justice against Myanmar, alleging violation of obligations under the Genocide Convention. This legal step has been in the works for some time now, with the announcement by the Gambian Minister of Justice that instructions had been given to counsel in October to file the application. As a result, the application has been...
At the International Conclave on Justice and Accountability for the Rohingya organized by the Centre for Peace and Justice (BRAC University), the Asia Justice Coalition and the International Institute of Social Studies on 18 October 2019, the Minister of Justice for The Gambia announced that he had instructed counsel on 4 October to proceed to file an application at the International Court of Justice (ICJ)...
[Prabhash Ranjan is a Senior Assistant Professor, Faculty of Legal Studies, South Asian University, India.] Reportedly, the Regional Comprehensive Economic Cooperation (RCEP) – a free trade and investment agreement comprising of 16 big Asian and Australian economies - will not have an investor-State dispute settlement (ISDS) mechanism. This is a huge decision and is consistent with the backlash that one has been witnessing against...
A couple of weeks ago, a group of Yezidi women kidnapped, enslaved, and raped by the Islamic State (IS) lost what could have been a landmark case at the New South Wales Civil and Administrative Tribunal. The women sought damages from an Australian-born IS fighter, Khaled Sharrouf, under the terms of New South Wales' victim compensation scheme. Sharrouf himself is...
[Peter H. Corne is the Managing Partner of Dorsey & Whitney’s Shanghai Office, NYU Global Adjunct Professor of Law, and Mediator of the Shanghai Commercial Mediation Center. Matthew S. Erie is an Associate Professor of Modern Chinese Studies and Associate of the Centre for Socio-Legal Studies of the University of Oxford, and Principal Investigator of the “China, Law and Development”...
[This piece was translated and published by BBC India (Hindi) on 22 August. It is for a non-legal audience mainly, and is only focussed on the potential International Court of Justice case on Kashmir.] Pakistan has indicated publicly that it plans to approach the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in relation to Kashmir. The news of a potential ICJ case on Kashmir arises...
[Anji Manivannan is the Legal Director at People for Equality and Relief in Lanka (PEARL) and a Senior Programs Officer at the World Federalist Movement - Institute for Global Policy (WFM-IGP).] Introduction May 18th marked the tenth anniversary of the end of the 26-year-long armed conflict between the Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). The GoSL’s victory came with the deaths of 70,000–140,000...