Abstract
This chapter examines the Rohingya crisis of Myanmar from a Responsibility to Protect (R2P) lens and primarily reflects on the role of the international justice system as a non-coercive measure of R2P. After providing a historical overview of the case to shed light on the root causes of the conflict, the chapter continues to question how and to what extent R2P was implemented in the case of the Rohingya. While doing so, it places a special emphasis on judicial settlement as a peaceful measure under R2P and examines the actions taken under the international justice system as per this case. Such an analysis aims to determine the implications of the involvement of international tribunals in the Rohingya crisis with a specific focus on the concepts of justice and accountability under R2P. The chapter purports that the actions taken under the international justice system have raised awareness about the case and increased the prospects for the group to have access to protection, justice and accountability. Finally, it concludes that the international justice system can be instrumental in helping the protection of populations from mass atrocity crimes and that it complements the R2P norm in terms of achieving sustainable protection.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
- 1.
The ICC Prosecutor, in her request for authorisation, clearly states that the case is admissible on the basis of the principle of complementarity since national efforts and actions addressing the 2017 incidents, in particular, lack genuinity and aim at shielding the military and civilian leaders from any criminal responsibility.
References
Abdelkader, E. (2017). The history of the persecution of Myanmar’s Rohingya. The Conversation. https://theconversation.com/the-history-of-the-persecution-of-myanmars-rohingya-84040. Accessed on 18 June 2021.
Alam, S. (2019). Infographic—Top Rohingya-hosting countries. Anadolu Agency. https://www.aa.com.tr/en/asia-pacific/infographic-top-rohingya-hosting-countries/1563674. Accessed 19 June 2020.
Albert, E., & Maizland, L. (2020). The Rohingya crisis. https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/rohingya-crisis. Accessed 9 June 2020.
Aljazeera. (2019). Aung San Suu Kyi defends Myanmar against genocide allegations. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/12/myanmar-suu-kyi-stand-genocide-case-hague-191211054254397.html. Accessed 24 June 2020.
Amnesty International (AI). (2009). Ending impunity: Developing and implementing a global action plan using universal jurisdiction. https://www.amnesty.org/download/Documents/48000/ior530052009en.pdf. Accessed 10 June 2021.
Amnesty International (AI). (2017). Myanmar: Crimes against humanity terrorize and drive Rohingya out. https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2017/10/myanmar-new-evidence-of-systematic-campaign-to-terrorize-and-drive-rohingya-out/. Accessed 20 June 2020.
Amnesty International (AI). (2019). Myanmar: ICC decision to investigate Rohingya atrocities an important step towards justice. https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2019/11/myanmar-icc-referral/. Accessed 24 June 2020.
Aydın, N. (2019). Myanmar rejects jurisdiction of ICC for Rohingya Muslim. Anadolu Agency. https://www.aa.com.tr/en/asia-pacific/myanmar-rejects-jurisdiction-of-icc-for-rohingya-muslim/1648020. Accessed 24 June 2020.
Barany, Z. (2019). The Rohingya predicament: Why Myanmar’s army gets away with ethnic cleansing. IAI Papers, 19, 1–27. https://www.iai.it/en/pubblicazioni/rohingya-predicament. Accessed 20 June 2020.
Barelli, M. (2019). Why Aung San Suu Kyi is in The Hague defending Myanmar against allegations of genocide. The Conversation. https://theconversation.com/why-aung-san-suu-kyi-is-in-the-hague-defending-myanmar-against-allegations-of-genocide-125102. Accessed 25 June 2020.
BBC News. (2020a). Myanmar Rohingya: What you need to know about the crisis. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-41566561. Accessed 18 April 2020.
BBC News. (2020b). Rohingya crisis: The Gambian who took Aung San Suu Kyi to the world court. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-51183521. Accessed 24 June 2020.
Bellamy, A. J. (2015). The first response: Peaceful means in the third pillar of the responsibility to protect. The Stanley Foundation. http://www.stanleyfoundation.org/publications/pab/Bellamy3rdPillarPAB116.pdf. Accessed 18 April 2020.
Besheer, M. (2017). UN chief assails ‘ethnic cleansing’ of Myanmar’s Rohingyas. Voice of America. https://www.voanews.com/east-asia-pacific/un-chief-assails-ethnic-cleansing-myanmars-rohingyas. Accessed on 22 June 2020.
Beyrer, C., & Kamarulzaman, A. (2017). Ethnic cleansing in Myanmar: The Rohingya crisis and human rights. The Lancet, 390(10102), 1570–1573.
Blakemore, E. (2019). Who are the Rohingya people? https://www.nationalgeographic.com/culture/people/reference/rohingya-people/. Accessed 9 June 2020.
Burke, A. (2016). New political space, old tensions: History, identity and violence in Rakhine State, Myanmar. Contemporary Southeast Asia, 38(2), 258–283.
Chan, A. (2005). The development of a Muslim enclave in Arakan (Rakhine) State of Burma (Myanmar). SOAS Bulletin of Burma Research, 3(2), 396–420. https://www.soas.ac.uk/sbbr/editions/file64388.pdf. Accessed 8 June 2021.
Council on Foreign Relations (CoFR). (2020). Global conflict tracker. https://www.cfr.org/global-conflict-tracker/conflict/rohingya-crisis-myanmar. Accessed 20 June 2020.
Dussich, J. P. J. (2018). The ongoing genocidal crisis of the Rohingya minority in Myanmar. Journal of Victimology and Victim Justice, 1(1), 4–24.
Fisher, J. (2017). UN failures on Rohingya revealed. BBC News. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-41420973. Accessed 23 June 2020.
Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect (GCR2P). (2019). Q&A: The Gambia v. Myanmar Rohingya Genocide at the International Court of Justice. https://www.globalr2p.org/publications/myanmarqav2/. Accessed 7 July 2021.
Human Rights Council (HRC). (2019). Detailed findings of the independent international fact-finding mission on Myanmar. A/HRC/42/CRP.5.
Human Rights Watch (HRW). (2019). Questions and answers on Gambia’s genocide case against Myanmar before the International Court of Justice. https://www.hrw.org/news/2019/12/05/questions-and-answers-gambias-genocide-case-against-myanmar-international-court. Accessed 24 June 2020.
Ibrahim, A. (2020, May 21). No place for optimism: Anticipating Myanmar’s first report to the International Court of Justice. https://newlinesinstitute.org/rohingya/no-place-for-optimism-anticipating-myanmars-first-report-to-the-international-court-of-justice/. Accessed 19 May 2021.
Ibrahim, H., & Nordin, R. (2015). The principle of responsibility to protect: The Case of Rohingya in Myanmar. Pertanika Journal of Social Sciences & Humanities, 23(S), 1–18.
International Court of Justice (ICJ). (2020, January 23). Application of the convention on the prevention and punishment of the crime of genocide (The Gambia v. Myanmar). https://www.icj-cij.org/files/case-related/178/178-20200123-ORD-01-00-EN.pdf. Accessed 24 June 2020.
International Criminal Court (ICC). (2019, November 22). Statement of the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Fatou Bensouda, following judicial authorisation to commence an investigation into the situation in Bangladesh/Myanmar. https://www.icc-cpi.int/Pages/item.aspx?name=20191122-otp-statement-bangladesh-myanmar. Accessed 24 June 2020.
Islam, M. S. (2019). Understanding the Rohingya crisis and the failure of human rights norm in Myanmar: Possible policy responses. Jadavpur Journal of International Relations, 23(2), 158–178.
Jati, I. (2017). Comparative study of the roles of ASEAN and the organization of Islamic cooperation in responding to the Rohingya crisis. Indonesian Journal of Southeast Asian Studies, 1(1), 17–32.
Joy, A. (2018). Understanding China’s response to the Rakhine crisis. United States Institute of Peace Special Report, 419. https://www.usip.org/sites/default/files/2018-02/sr419-understanding-chinas-response-to-the-rakhine-crisis.pdf. Accessed 28 February 2021.
Khaliq, R. (2020, November 24). Myanmar submits 2nd Rohingya report to top UN court. Anadolu Agency. https://www.aa.com.tr/en/asia-pacific/myanmar-submits-2nd-rohingya-report-to-top-un-court/2054175#:~:text=Myanmar%20has%20submitted%20a%20second,order%20to%20protect%20Rohingya%20community.&text=The%20second%20report%20was%20filed,elections%20held%20early%20this%20month. Accessed 19 May 2021.
Khan, M. T., & Ahmed, S. (2020). Dealing with the Rohingya crisis: The relevance of the general assembly and R2P. Asian Journal of Comparative Politics, 5(2), 121–143.
Khin, T. (2020). Universal jurisdiction, the International Criminal Court, and the Rohingya genocide. http://opiniojuris.org/2020/10/23/universal-jurisdiction-the-international-criminal-court-and-the-rohingya-genocide/. Accessed 20 July 2021.
Kibler, T. (2019). The Nuremberg trials and their profound impact on International Law. https://home.heinonline.org/blog/2019/10/the-nuremberg-trials-and-their-profound-impact-on-international-law/. Accessed 9 June 2021.
Kingston, L. N. (2015). Protecting the world’s most persecuted: The responsibility to protect and Burma’s Rohingya minority. The International Journal of Human Rights, 19(8), 1163–1175.
Kipgen, N. (2019). The Rohingya crisis: The centrality of identity and citizenship. Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs, 39(1), 61–74.
Kyaw, N. N. (2017). Unpacking the presumed statelessness of Rohingyas. Journal of Immigrant & Refugee Studies, 15(3), 269–286.
Lee, R. (2019). Myanmar’s citizenship law as state crime. A case for the International Criminal Court. State Crime Journal, 8(2), 241–279.
Lee, R. (2021). Myanmar’s Rohingya genocide: Identity, history and hate speech. I.B. Tauris.
Limsiritong, N. (2017). Why ASEAN fails to play role in the Rohingya situation from the perspective of ASEAN Charter. Asian Political Science Review, 1(2), 73–79.
Massey, H. (2010). UNHCR and de facto statelessness. https://www.unhcr.org/4bc2ddeb9.pdf. Accessed 28 February 2021.
Mills, K. (2015). International responses to mass atrocities in Africa: Responsibility to protect, prosecute, and palliate. University of Pennsylvania Press.
Nishikawa, Y. (2018). The reality of protecting the Rohingya: An inherent limitation of the responsibility to protect. Asian Security, 16(1), 90–106.
Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR). (2017, December 5). Human Rights Council opens special session on the situation of human rights of the Rohingya and other minorities in Rakhine State in Myanmar. https://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=22491&LangID=E. Accessed 19 May 2021.
Rahman, Z., Anusara, J., Chanthamith, B., Hossain, S., & Amin, A. (2018). Rohingya crisis: Identity of Rohingya Muslim in Myanmar. International Research Journal of Social Sciences, 7(12), 12–16.
Robertson, G. (2005). Ending impunity: How international criminal law can put tyrants on trial. Cornell International Law Journal, 38(3), 649–671.
Rosenberg, S. P. (2015). Audacity of hope: International criminal law, mass atrocity crimes, and prevention. In S. Rosenberg, T. Galis, & A. Zucker (Eds.), Reconstructing atrocity prevention (pp. 151–174). Cambridge University Press.
Rosenthal, G. (2019). A brief and independent inquiry into the involvement of the United Nations in Myanmar from 2010 to 2018. https://www.un.org/sg/sites/www.un.org.sg/files/atoms/files/Myanmar%20Report%20-%20May%202019.pdf. Accessed 23 June 2020.
Seth, A. (2018). Myanmar’s armed forces and the Rohingya crisis (Peaceworks No. 140). https://www.usip.org/publications/2018/08/myanmars-armed-forces-and-rohingya-crisis. Accessed 28 February 2021.
Smith, M. (2002). Burma (Myanmar): The time for change. Minority Rights Group International. https://www.refworld.org/pdfid/469cbf8cd.pdf. Accessed 10 June 2020.
Taufiq, H. A. (2019). China, India, and Myanmar: Playing Rohingya roulette? In I. Hussain (Ed.), South Asia in global power rivalry inside-out appraisals from Bangladesh (pp. 81–99). Palgrave Macmillan.
The Guardian. (2019). Myanmar’s Aung San Suu Kyi faces first legal action over Rohingya crisis. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/nov/14/myanmars-aung-san-suu-kyi-faces-first-legal-action-over-rohingya-crisis. Accessed 26 July 2021.
Ullah, A. K. M. A. (2016). Rohingya crisis in Myanmar: Seeking justice for the “stateless.” Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice, 32(3), 285–301.
UN News. (2017). UN human rights chief points to ‘textbook example of ethnic cleansing’ in Myanmar. https://news.un.org/en/story/2017/09/564622-un-human-rights-chief-points-textbook-example-ethnic-cleansing-myanmar. Accessed on 18 April 2020.
United Nations General Assembly (UNGA). (2005, October 24). Resolution adopted by the general assembly on 16 September 2005, 60/1. 2005 World Summit Outcome, A/Res/60/1.
United Nations General Assembly (UNGA). (2009, January 12). Implementing the responsibility to protect (Report of the Secretary-General, A/63/677).
United Nations General Assembly (UNGA). (2013, April 8). Resolution adopted by the General Assembly on 24 December 2012. A/RES/67/233.
United Nations General Assembly (UNGA). (2017, October 31). Draft resolution on the situation of human rights in Myanmar. A/C.3/72/L.48.
United Nations General Assembly (UNGA). (2018, September 12). Report of the independent international fact-finding mission on Myanmar. A/HRC/39/64.
United Nations General Assembly (UNGA). (2019a, August 8). Report of the independent international fact-finding mission on Myanmar. A/HRC/42/50.
United Nations General Assembly (UNGA). (2019b, July 19). Report of the Secretary-General on the work of the Organization. A/74/1.
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). (n.d.). Rohingya refugee crisis. https://www.unrefugees.org/emergencies/rohingya/. Accessed 18 April 2020.
United Nations Secretary-General (UNSG). (2018, August 28). Secretary-General’s remarks to the Security Council on Myanmar [as delivered]. https://www.un.org/sg/en/content/sg/statement/2018-08-28/secretary-generals-remarks-security-council-myanmar-delivered. Accessed 25 June 2020.
United Nations Security Council (UNSC). (2017, November 6). Statement by the President of the Security Council, S/PRST/2017/22.
Yegar, M. (2018). The plight of the Rohingya in Myanmar. Israel Journal of Foreign Affairs, 12(2), 197–207.
Walton, M. J. (2008). Ethnicity, conflict and history in Burma: The myths of Panglong. Asian Survey, 48(6), 889–910.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2022 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Kapucu, V.T. (2022). The Rohingya of Myanmar: R2P, International Justice and Accountability. In: Gözen Ercan, P. (eds) The Responsibility to Protect Twenty Years On. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-90731-0_11
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-90731-0_11
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-90730-3
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-90731-0
eBook Packages: Political Science and International StudiesPolitical Science and International Studies (R0)