Lawyer, Vol. 54 No. 106, 2020.
Review article
Modern age genocide - case study: Rohingya group of Western Myanmar
Maja Kampić
orcid.org/0000-0003-4511-4098
Petra Sarić
orcid.org/0000-0002-5263-254X
Abstract
The Nobel Peace Prize winner and Myanmar is de facto Prime minister, Aung San Suu Kyi, is currently defending her country before ICJ against the charges of possibly committed genocide against the Rohingya Muslim minority of Western Myanmar. Genocide itself is commonly perceived as the gravest among all international crimes. Legally, this crime consists of several constitutive elements, the most problematic one being the genocidal intent to destroy a certain group. The first part of this case study examines the origins and presents a legal analysis of this crime, highlighting the issue of defining its required scope along with the difficulties when trying to differentiate it from “ethnic cleansing”. Secondly, it is proposed that by applying Gregory Stanton’s ten stage genocide model it is in fact possible to predict whether this crime will be committed or not. A comparative analysis of the recent events in Myanmar to those that took place in Srebrenica in the 1990s demonstrates a striking number of similarities, which should further influence the international community to continue its efforts on prosecution of perpetrators. In addition to that, different transitional justice mechanisms, that could possibly be applied in this case and which help to victims of this crime could be crucial, were also taken into account.
Keywords
genocide; genocidal intent; stages of genocide; International Court of Justice; United Nations’ activities
Hrčak ID:
245129
URI
Publication date:
21.10.2020.
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