![\"Kampala,](\"https:\/\/www.manilatimes.net\/manilatimes\/uploads\/images\/2026\/01\/13\/897485.jpg\")
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\n Kampala, the capital of Uganda. Unsplash\/Keith Kasaija\n <\/p>\n
The proceedings, held at the Peace Palace in The Hague, mark the start of the merits phase in the case, after years of preliminary legal arguments.<\/p>\n
Over the next three weeks, ICJ<\/a> judges will hear oral arguments from both sides, examine witnesses and experts, and consider whether Myanmar breached its obligations under the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide<\/a>, to which the country is a party<\/a>.<\/p>\n Opening the hearings, Judge Iwasawa Yuji, President of the Court, outlined a detailed schedule that includes two rounds<\/a> of pleadings by Gambia and Myanmar, as well as closed sessions to hear testimony from witnesses called by the applicant State.<\/p>\n Get the latest news Sign up for The Manila Times newsletters<\/p>\n By signing up with an email address, I acknowledge that I have read and agree to the Terms of Service<\/a> and Privacy Policy<\/a>.<\/p>\n Speaking on behalf of Gambia, Attorney General and Minister of Justice Dawda Jallow told the court that his country brought the case \u201cafter reviewing credible reports of the most brutal and vicious violations imaginable\u201d committed against the Rohingya, a Muslim minority in Myanmar\u2019s Rakhine province.<\/p>\n \u201cBy all measures, this case is not about esoteric issues of international law,\u201d Mr. Jallow said. \u201cIt is about real people, real stories, and a real group of human beings.\u201d<\/p>\n A case years in the making<\/p>\n Gambia filed its application in November 2019, accusing Myanmar of breaching the Genocide Convention through acts allegedly committed during so-called \u201cclearance operations\u201d carried out by the Myanmar military, or Tatmadaw.<\/p>\n Those operations escalated sharply in 2017, prompting more than 700,000 Rohingya to flee to neighbouring Bangladesh amid widespread killings, sexual violence, village burnings and other abuses. Zeid Ra\u2019ad al-Hussein, the then UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, described the situation as a \u201ctextbook example of ethnic cleansing<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n A UN Human Rights Council<\/a>-mandated fact-finding mission said<\/a> in 2018 that it had reasonable grounds to conclude that serious crimes under international law<\/a>, including genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes, had been committed.<\/p>\n Nearly one million Rohingya remain living as refugees in camps in Bangladesh, while countless others are displaced or trapped inside Myanmar in dire conditions.<\/p>\n Provisional measures<\/p>\n
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