The International Criminal Court Authorizes the Investigation of Crimes Committed against Members of the Rohingya Community from Myanmar
On November 14, 2019, the Pre-Trial Chamber III of the International Criminal Court authorized the Prosecutor to open an investigation into crimes committed against the Rohingya community in Myanmar. The ICC’s decision relies heavily on, and cites to, the factual findings and legal analysis conducted by the Public International Law & Policy Group (PILPG), led by AUWCL Professor Paul Williams, with top-notch pro bono contributions from Dentons and Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP, summarized in the report titled Documenting Atrocity Crimes Against the Rohingya in Myanmar’s Rakhine State.
In March and April 2018, the PILPG undertook a large-scale and comprehensive human rights documentation investigation mission in the refugee camps and settlement areas in Eastern Bangladesh. The purpose of this investigation mission was to accurately document the patterns of abuse and atrocity crimes perpetrated against the Rohingya in Myanmar’s Rakhine State and to help inform the policy decisions related to accountability in Myanmar. PILPG’s investigation team conducted 1,024 interviews with Rohingya refugees to produce the Report, with more than 15,000 pages of documentation. After thorough review, PILPG identified more than 13,000 instances of documented grave human rights violations. Based on all of this information, PILPG drafted its initial Factual Findings Report to outline the factual findings and initial conclusions from PILPG’s investigation mission, which then was complemented with a section on legal analysis of the crimes committed. The legal analysis is intended primarily for policymakers to provide guidance on the international legal ramifications of the investigation mission’s factual findings and to facilitate the formulation of effective measures to respond to the documented atrocities.
Based on PILPG’s and other NGO’s investigative reports the ICC has concluded that credible evidence exists to warrant a full criminal investigation into the situation of the Rohingya. However, Myanmar is not a party to the Rome Statute. Only several neighboring countries are. For this reason, the ICC Pre-Trial Chamber’s authorization to investigate is limited to any crimes under the competence of the ICC that have been committed at least partially on the territory of those neighboring States, particularly Bangladesh, where most of the Rohingya fled. This international investigation is a pivotal step in ensuring accountability for the recent genocide against the Rohingya.