Gambia v. Myanmar: establishing the crime of genocide at the international court of justice

In a highly unusual move, The Gambia on 11 November 2019 with the full support of the 57-member Organization for Islamic Cooperation (OIC), filed a lawsuit at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), accusing Myanmar of perpetrating a genocide on ethnic Rohingya Muslims which forced hundreds of thousands to flee the Asian nation. This case is the first time a State with no direct link to the alleged atrocities has instigated proceedings under the Genocide Convention. The article begins by considering the origins of the Rohingya Muslims crisis. It then looks at whether the ICJ has jurisdiction to consider the case on its merits and critically analyses the specific challenge of Gambia’s extensive reliance on UN fact-finding reports to establish the crime of Genocide at the ICJ. The article proffers that although Article 50 of the United Nations Charter empowers the ICJ to entrust any individual, bureau, or commission to carry out an enquiry or give an expert opinion, the ICJ will almost certainly not feel bound by the legal conclusions of the Fact Finding Mission or any other fact-finding body.