Myanmar has submitted a second report to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in compliance with its order to protect the Rohingya community, the Daily Sabah reported.
The report was filed by a representative of the Myanmar government on Monday in compliance with the court’s order to protect Rohingya from genocide. However, the report will not be made public at this time, a U.S.-based rights group Global Justice Center said in a statement.
In November 2019, Gambia opened the case at the ICJ against Myanmar for failing to prevent or punish acts of genocide against Rohingya Muslims.
Earlier in January, the ICJ issued its “provisional measures” to Myanmar which required the Buddhist-majority country to prevent genocidal acts, ensure military and police forces do not commit genocidal acts, preserve all evidence of genocidal acts and report on the compliance with the provisional measures.
Myanmar is supposed to file the reports to the court every six months. The first one was filed in May.
Grant Shubin, legal director of Global Justice Center, said: “We welcome Myanmar’s second report, but merely meeting the court’s technical deadlines is not enough.”
“Since the provisional measures order was issued, Myanmar has done nothing to address the root causes of discrimination and impunity that give rise to the ongoing risk of genocide against the Rohingya,” he said.
The second report was filed by Myanmar amid allegations that the minority Rohingya community was excluded from the country’s second general elections held early this month.
“In fact, the government has ramped up discrimination with this month’s election that disenfranchised Rohingya voters and blocked Rohingya candidates from running for office. Meaningful compliance with the order requires comprehensive legal reform to dismantle systemic discrimination against the Rohingya and to strip the military of its supremacy and autonomy,” said Shubin.