After the historic ruling given by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to protect the Rohingyas from genocide, we hope the international community will now exert pressure on Myanmar to comply with the court orders and take meaningful steps to resolve the Rohingya crisis. Although the court has not given its final verdict (it may take years to complete the trial) and for now has only ordered Myanmar to take some provisional measures to protect the Rohingyas from genocidal violence, this is a big achievement for the persecuted community as well as Bangladesh. It is also a big achievement that the world court has recognised the ethnic community as Rohingya, meaning that Myanmar can no longer claim that they are illegal migrants from Bangladesh.    

Now the question is, how to ensure that the Myanmar authorities implement the provisional measures? The ICJ ordered Myanmar to prevent destruction of evidence of any crimes since August 2017 and asked the country to submit a report on the steps taken to implement the court orders in four months. Afterwards, it has to submit its report every six months. Since the emergency measures ordered by the court are legally binding, we hope the Myanmar authorities will have no scope to disregard the orders. Here, we expect the UN Security Council to play the role of an overseeing body. The international community, including India and China, also has to play their part by making Myanmar comply.

Since the military crackdown in Rakhine in 2017, around 740,000 Rohingyas fled to Bangladesh and an estimated 600,000 who still remain in Myanmar have been routinely and systematically denied their most basic rights. In the last two years, Bangladesh seemed to be fighting a losing battle, with little help from other countries. Myanmar couldn’t be brought to answer for its actions or take back its citizens. While the issue was gradually getting lost in the avalanche of humanitarian crises across the world, the lawsuit filed by The Gambia with the world court in November gave it a momentum and finally gave us some hope.

Now that the international court has given its ruling, we hope the whole world will speak up in support of the Rohingyas and their fight for justice and also act accordingly to keep the momentum going. It is also high time that Bangladesh strongly negotiated the issue with Myanmar and its allies and together found a sustainable solution to the Rohingya crisis.