sayed-mohammad-abu-daud
In order to understand how International Humanitarian Law can be complied with and implemented, the Rohingya crisis provides a case study on how Myanmar violated its obligations under the Geneva Conventions, Customary IHL and the Genocide Convention; it was through Myanmar's military "clearance operations" in 2017 that the Rohingya suffered extreme violence, including mass killings, rape, and forced exile. Although Myanmar has signed relatively few treaties and has refused repeated requests by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and the International Criminal Court (ICC) to collaborate, the UN Security Council has been unable to take action because of Myanmar's own geopolitical interests. The ICJ and ICC have made significant contributions to developing mechanisms for holding individuals accountable for violations of IHL through their jurisprudence, but enforcement of these mechanisms is made much harder by regional interests, such as those of China, India and Russia, and by ASEAN's policy of non-interference. As a result of Myanmar's actions, the lives of nearly one million Rohingya people currently living in refugee camps in Bangladesh continue to be at risk. The Rohingya do not want to go back to Myanmar until the humanitarian assistance they need is provided in adequate quantities. The author uses examples of Darfur, Rwanda, and Sierra Leone to demonstrate the broader problem of enforcing IHL and identifies the need for a coherent framework that will provide greater protection for humanitarian operations, improve regional cooperation, and strengthen mechanisms for legal accountability.
