The International Court of Justice (ICJ), the UN's highest court, will deliver its judgment on November 19 on whether Myanmar violated the UN Genocide Convention in its treatment of the Rohingya Muslim minority. The court announced on Tuesday that the ruling will be read at 10am local time in The Hague.
The case was brought by the West African state of Gambia in 2019, with 11 other states intervening in the proceedings. It accuses Myanmar of breaching its obligations under the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide during military operations against the Rohingya. Myanmar has rejected the accusations.
The Rohingya are a stateless Muslim minority who have faced decades of discrimination and displacement in Myanmar. More than 700,000 fled Rakhine State after a military crackdown in August 2017, most of them to neighbouring Bangladesh. The UN has described them as the world's most persecuted minority.
Rohingya community members hailed Gambia's decision to take the case to the world court as a historic achievement, and the judgment is now expected to set an important precedent for genocide cases under international law.