In March 2017, the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar (UNFFMM) was established by the UN Human Rights Council.’228 In 2018, the UNFFMM found that Myanmar had committed four out of the five underlying acts of genocide enumerated in the Genocide Convention, namely killings members of the Rohingya group, causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group, deliberately inflicting conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part, and imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group.229 It further concluded that genocidal intent to destroy the Rohingya people in whole or in part could be inferred from the State’s pattern of conduct.230 On 11 November 2019, The Gambia filed a case against Myanmar before the International Court of Justice (ICJ), alleging that Myanmar has committed genocide against the Rohingya people. The ICJ is the principal judicial organ of the United Nations. It deals with disputes between States, not the individual criminal responsibility of particular perpetrators. The legal basis for the case is the Genocide Convention, to which both States are a party. The Gambia has also accused Myanmar of continuing to commit genocidal acts and of violating its other obligations under the Convention by failing to prevent and punish genocide. Establishing that genocide has taken place under the Genocide Convention requires demonstrating both the commission of genocidal acts and genocidal intent – namely the intent to destroy a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group in whole or in part. The Gambia’s initial filing primarily focused on the first three genocidal acts enumerated in the Convention perpetrated by the Myanmar military and other State actors with the intent to destroy the Rohingya in whole or in part: 1) killing members of the group; 2) causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the Rohingya group; and 3) deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part by destroying or otherwise denying access to food, shelter and other essentials of life.231 The Gambia’s case against Myanmar marks the first time that a State without a direct connection to the alleged crime of genocide has brought a case before the ICJ under the Genocide Convention.232 In doing so, The Gambia has emphasised the importance of the legal concepts of erga omnes obligations (owed to the international community as a whole) and erga omnes partes obligations (owed by any State party to all the other States parties to a convention), both of which apply to the crime of genocide.233 The ICJ’s provisional measures order Provisional measures are the equivalent of a legal injunction or court order, instructing a State to immediately take certain steps prior to a final ruling on the case.234 As part of its original case filing, 228 UN Human Rights Council Resolution 34/22, adopted 24 March 2017 (3 April 2017) UN Doc A/HRC/RES/34/22. The UNFFMM mandate was to “establish the facts and circumstances of the alleged recent human rights violations by military and security forces…in Myanmar, in particular in Rakhine State...with a view to ensuring full accountability for perpetrators and justice for victims.” The UNFFM published two seminal reports of its detailed findings in 2018 and 2019. 229 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (adopted 9 December 1948, entered into force 1 January 1951) 78 UNTS 277 art II. 230 UNFFMM (17 September 2018) op. cit. 364 [1441]. 231 The Gambia v. Myanmar, International Court of Justice ‘Application Instituting Proceedings and Request for Provisional Measures’ (11 November 2019) 38 [113] 4 [2] 55-56 [99-110] 58 [114]. 232 The case was brought with the support of the other 56 States belonging to the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation. Final Communiqué of the 14th Islamic Summit Conference (31 May 2019) 10 [47] OIC/SUM-14/2019/FC/FINAL. 233 The ICJ has held that “the rights and obligations enshrined by the [Genocide] Convention are rights and obligations erga omnes”. See Application of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (Bosnia and Herzegovina v. Serbia and Montenegro), Preliminary Objections, Judgment, 11 July 1996 [31]. 234 Global Justice Center and Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect, ‘Q&A: The Gambia v. Myanmar - Rohingya Genocide at the International Court of Justice’ (May 2020). 41