The ICC Rohingya Case: Radical or Routine?


The talk will begin at 13:15, light sandwich lunch will be served from 13:00

Myanmar’s mass-atrocities against the Rohingya minority, qualified by UN sources as a genocide, is one of the most pressing accountability challenges of our time. It has resulted in a mass-exodus of up to 1 million refugees in neighbouring Bangladesh with harrowing stories of violence. Given the failure of the UN Security Council to make a Chapter VII referral to the ICC, what options are available for eradicating impunity? On April 9th, the ICC Prosecutor submitted a controversial Request for a decision on whether the crime against humanity of deportation falls within the Court’s jurisdiction in regard to the mass-exodus of the Rohingya from Myanmar (a non-State party) to Bangladesh (a State party). On September 6th, a Pre-Trial Chamber ruled that the ICC has jurisdiction and called for an expeditious investigation. Is this a radical or routine interpretation of territorial jurisdiction under the Rome Statute, and what potential implications will it have for both the ICC and the Rohingya?