UN Court to Rule on Rohingya Genocide Case as Myanmar Again Rejects Their Identity and Calls Them ‘Bengali’
The International Court of Justice will deliver its judgment on November 19 on whether Myanmar’s crackdown against the Rohingya breached the Genocide Convention. The ruling comes as Myanmar’s government has again rejected the community’s ethnic identity, this time in a protest over a CNA documentary.
Reading
In a Nutshell
- The UN’s highest court will rule on the case brought by The Gambia seven years ago, accusing Myanmar of violating the 1948 Genocide Convention through its treatment of the Rohingya.
- The case concerns Myanmar’s responsibility as a state, rather than the criminal guilt of individual leaders. Myanmar denies committing genocide and says its military operations targeted insurgents.
- A finding against Myanmar may increase international pressure on Min Aung Hlaing, who commanded the military during the crackdown and is now seeking greater diplomatic acceptance as president.
- In a separate development, Myanmar’s embassy in Singapore objected to CNA’s documentary Malaysia’s Rohingya Riddle. In an October 22 statement, it rejected “Rohingya” as an ethnic identity and instead described the community as “Bengali”. CNA reported the objection on November 4.
- CNA stood by its reporting, saying “Rohingya” reflects established international usage, including by the UN and the ICJ. It also said the documentary had explicitly included Myanmar’s position.
Context
The Gambia brought the case under the Genocide Convention, which allows a state party to raise allegations that another state has breached its obligations. The proceedings followed a crackdown that drove hundreds of thousands of Rohingya into Bangladesh, where survivors described mass executions and sexual violence. Myanmar has maintained that its operations responded to insurgent attacks and denies genocidal intent. Till today, more than one million Rohingya remain in Bangladesh.
In 2020, the ICJ ordered Myanmar to take measures to prevent acts prohibited by the convention. It subsequently rejected Myanmar’s challenge to the court’s jurisdiction, allowing the case to proceed. The November 19 judgment will address the genocide allegations.
Why It Matters
Myanmar’s latest rejection of the Rohingya identity makes that distinction especially important. Calling the community “Bengali” is not simply a disagreement over vocabulary. It frames them as outsiders rather than people claiming a home in Myanmar. Any return arrangement that leaves belonging and legal status unresolved risks moving people across a border without resolving the conditions of exclusion they would face there.
For Bangladesh, the stakes are immediate. It continues to shelter more than one million Rohingya while repeated diplomatic discussions have produced no sustainable route home. In September, the UN refugee chief said conditions for voluntary, safe, dignified and sustainable return did not exist. Now the court judgment may help with the demands for action.
What We Think
Myanmar’s continuous rejection of Rohingya’s identity and calling them ‘Bengali’exposes the central difficulty in return negotiations. Myanmar has, time and again, discussed accepting people while continuing to reject the identity under which they describe themselves. Meanwhile, displacement continues across generations.
Bangladesh’s hospitality is not the international community’s permanent substitute for resolving persecution in Myanmar. Rohingyas are not simply a population to be relocated. They are people seeking the chance to return home without having to surrender who they are.