Article: Rohingya Files - Part 4
Rohingya Files - Part 4
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The Gambia filed. The ICJ ordered. The US declared genocide. The ICC applied for a warrant. No one has been tried. No one has been convicted.
On November 11 2019 The Gambia filed a case against Myanmar at the International Court of Justice under the Genocide Convention, the first time a state had sued another state for genocide on behalf of a third population. The ICJ issued provisional measures on January 23 2020. The US formally declared genocide on March 21 2022. The ICC Prosecutor applied for an arrest warrant for Min Aung Hlaing in November 2024. The merits case at the ICJ is ongoing with no final ruling. The warrant application is pending. No one has been tried or convicted. The woman in this photograph is still in the camp. The Rohingya Files close here with the largest accountability file ever assembled for this people and the same question the series opened with unanswered.
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The Gambia v. Myanmar · ICJ November 11 2019 · First state v. state genocide case on behalf of third population · Provisional measures January 23 202002 / 07
November 11 2019. The Gambia filed at the ICJ against Myanmar. The first state to sue another for genocide on behalf of a third people.
On November 11 2019, the Republic of The Gambia, acting under Article IX of the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, filed an Application Instituting Proceedings against the Republic of the Union of Myanmar at the International Court of Justice. The case alleged that Myanmar had committed and was continuing to commit acts of genocide against members of the Rohingya group, in violation of its obligations under the Genocide Convention. This was the first time a state had brought a case against another state for genocide on behalf of a third population. The application cited the UN Fact-Finding Mission's findings. ICJ, The Gambia v. Myanmar, icj-cij.org, November 11 2019.
On January 23 2020, the ICJ issued its Order on Provisional Measures, requiring Myanmar to take all measures within its power to prevent the commission of acts under the Genocide Convention against Rohingya, to ensure its military and irregular armed units do not commit genocidal acts, and to preserve all evidence related to the allegations. The Order was adopted by 16 votes to 1. Myanmar was required to report to the Court within four months on steps taken to comply, and subsequently every six months. ICJ, Provisional Measures Order, January 23 2020, icj-cij.org.
Source: ICJ, The Gambia v. Myanmar, Application, November 11 2019, icj-cij.org · ICJ, Provisional Measures Order, January 23 2020, icj-cij.org
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ICJ provisional measures January 23 2020 · Preliminary objections dismissed July 22 2022 · Merits case ongoing · No final ruling03 / 07
January 23 2020. ICJ provisional measures. Myanmar ordered to prevent genocidal acts and preserve all evidence. Binding. No final ruling yet.
Myanmar filed preliminary objections contesting the ICJ's jurisdiction and the admissibility of The Gambia's application in January 2021. On July 22 2022 the ICJ issued its Judgment on preliminary objections, dismissing all of Myanmar's preliminary objections and confirming that it has jurisdiction to entertain the case and that the application is admissible. The case therefore proceeds to the merits phase. As of September 2026 no date has been set for the merits hearing and no final ruling has been issued. The provisional measures of January 2020 remain legally binding throughout the proceedings. ICJ, Judgment on preliminary objections, July 22 2022, icj-cij.org.
ICJ cases of this type typically take many years to reach a final ruling on the merits. The Nicaragua v. Colombia maritime delimitation case took fifteen years. The Bosnia v. Serbia genocide case took fourteen years from filing to judgment. The Gambia v. Myanmar was filed in 2019. The Rohingya who fled in 2017 will have spent well over a decade in the camps before any final ICJ ruling is possible. The merits proceedings require extensive written pleadings and oral hearings that have not yet been scheduled. ICJ procedural documentation · Bosnia and Herzegovina v. Serbia and Montenegro, ICJ 2007.
Source: ICJ, Judgment on preliminary objections, July 22 2022, icj-cij.org · ICJ, Provisional Measures Order, January 23 2020 · ICJ case history documentation
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ICC Prosecutor · Arrest warrant application · Min Aung Hlaing · November 2024 · ICC-01/19 · Pending04 / 07
November 2024. ICC Prosecutor applied for an arrest warrant for Min Aung Hlaing. He was named for genocide prosecution by the UN in 2019. He led the 2021 coup. He is now head of state.
The International Criminal Court opened a preliminary examination of the Bangladesh/Myanmar situation in September 2018, focused on the deportation of Rohingya from Myanmar to Bangladesh, a crime over which the ICC asserts jurisdiction because Bangladesh, as a state party to the Rome Statute, is the destination. The ICC Prosecutor's Office formally opened an investigation as situation ICC-01/19 in November 2019. In November 2024 ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan filed an application for a warrant of arrest for Myanmar junta chief Min Aung Hlaing for crimes against humanity, specifically deportation and persecution of the Rohingya. The application was pending before Pre-Trial Chamber I as of September 2026. ICC, icc-cpi.int, ICC-01/19.
The ICC cannot try individuals without either their presence before the court or the cooperation of the state in which they are located. Myanmar is not a state party to the Rome Statute and has rejected ICC jurisdiction. The Security Council has not referred the Myanmar situation to the ICC under Chapter VII, which would extend jurisdiction. The warrant application for Min Aung Hlaing, if granted, would create a legal obligation for all ICC member states to arrest him if he travels to their territory, but would not result in a trial without his surrender. The accountability gap between the warrant application and a trial is structural. Georgetown Journal of International Law, ICC accountability gap documentation, 2022.
Source: ICC, ICC-01/19, Bangladesh/Myanmar situation, icc-cpi.int · UN Fact-Finding Mission, A/HRC/42/50, September 2019, ohchr.org
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US State Department · Blinken genocide declaration · March 21 2022 · USHMM · No mandatory action triggered05 / 07
March 21 2022. US Secretary of State Blinken formally declared the Myanmar military's actions genocide at the US Holocaust Memorial Museum.
On March 21 2022, Secretary of State Antony Blinken delivered a formal statement at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington DC declaring that the Myanmar military committed genocide against the Rohingya. The full text of the determination is published at state.gov. This was the first formal US genocide determination for Myanmar under the Biden administration. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had used the term genocide in connection with Myanmar in January 2021 before leaving office, but the Biden administration determination was framed as a formal, legally considered determination under US law. US Department of State, March 21 2022, state.gov.
A US genocide determination carries political and diplomatic weight and triggers certain reporting obligations under US law, but does not automatically impose sanctions, create legal liability for Myanmar or mandate military or judicial intervention. The determination came five years after the August 2017 clearance operations. It followed the UN Fact-Finding Mission's conclusion of 2019 and preceded the ICC warrant application by over two years. The Rohingya who fled in 2017 were in their fifth year in Cox's Bazar when the United States formally used the word genocide. No prosecution of any Myanmar military commander followed directly from the US determination. US Department of State, state.gov · USHMM, March 21 2022.
Source: US Department of State, Secretary Blinken remarks, March 21 2022, state.gov · US Holocaust Memorial Museum, March 21 2022, ushmm.org
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Still in the camp · ICJ ongoing · ICC pending · US declaration made · No one tried · The accountability gap06 / 07
ICJ. ICC. US genocide declaration. UN Fact-Finding Mission. The largest accountability file ever assembled for this people. She is still in the camp.
The accountability architecture assembled around the Rohingya genocide is, in volume and institutional diversity, the most extensive of any conflict UNSILENCED has documented. The UN Fact-Finding Mission report of September 2019. The ICJ case filed November 2019 with provisional measures binding since January 2020. The ICC investigation opened November 2019 with a warrant application filed November 2024. The formal US genocide declaration of March 2022. UNHCR documentation of over one million displaced. WFP documentation of the food crisis in the camps. UNICEF documentation of the education gap. Amnesty International documentation of conditions in Rakhine State as of August 2025. All of it is on the public record. None of it has produced a conviction.
The woman in the final photograph of the Rohingya Files fled the clearance operations of August 2017. The accountability system was activated: ICJ in 2019, ICC in 2019, US genocide declaration in 2022, ICC warrant application in 2024. She has been in Cox's Bazar for the full duration of each of those proceedings. She does not have access to the court records. She does not have citizenship in any country. She has watched the rations cut and the schools close and the coup restore the generals who committed what the UN called genocide. The question of what the accountability system is for, when the person it was built to protect is still waiting after nine years, is not a rhetorical question. It is the question the Rohingya Files document and leave open.
Source: ICJ, icj-cij.org · ICC, icc-cpi.int · US State Department, state.gov · UN FFM ohchr.org · Amnesty International, August 2025
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The question. Not a claim. Series complete.07 / 07 · Series Final
The Gambia filed. The ICJ ordered. The UN said genocide. The US declared it. The ICC applied for a warrant. The building is still standing. The flags are still there. No one has been tried. What is the system actually for?
Rohingya Files complete. Four episodes. The making of statelessness. August 25 2017. The camps. The reckoning. The case is open and on the public record. UNSILENCED has documented Armenia, Yemen, Sudan and Rohingya across eight series. The documentation exists. The institutions are still standing. The gap between the two is what every episode has been asking about. The question is still open.
Some stories are buried on purpose. We dig.
Rohingya Files complete. Two new stories every week.Follow UNSILENCED.