The Guernica Centre filed an amicus curiae brief with the Pre-Trial Chamber of the International Criminal Court, analyzing whether the Court had jurisdiction over the crime of forced deportation of the ethnic Rohingya minority from Myanmar to Bangladesh.  

 

The Court, referring to our submission no less than seven times in its decision, ruled that it could exercise jurisdiction over the crime against humanity of forced deportation, as —although Myanmar is not a State party to the Rome Statute— certain elements of the crime were committed in Bangladesh, which has ratified the jurisdiction of the ICC. The Court also confirmed that it could exercise jurisdiction over two other crimes, “persecution” and “other inhumane acts”.

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In addition, The Guernica Centre has partnered with five civil society organizations in Myanmar to develop and deliver a comprehensive training program to those organizations. The training will focus on international investigatory standards, including the retention, storage and presentation of evidence before investigatory panels and tribunals. Thereafter, the work undertaken by those organizations will be used in the drafting of further detailed evidence-based submissions to the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court and to other existing international human rights mechanisms, focusing on forced disappearance, persecution, and other inhumane acts.