Narratives of Genocide Denial: The Rohingya ICJ Case

• In Event: WG Organized Crime and Criminal Networks Panel 6. Organized crime: criminal justice & policing

Abstract

The Government of Myanmar has consistently denied that the violence and forced displacement of the Rohingya ethnic minority constitutes a genocide. This denial is embedded in broader narratives of denial that reframe the violence as ambiguous, as symmetrical (committed by both/all sides), or as serving a higher purpose such as fighting militants. In its International Court of Justice (ICJ) interventions the very existence of the Rohingya people was largely refuted by Myanmar, with Aung Sun Suu Kyi refusing to use the term “Rohingya” in her lengthy statement before the court, other than in relation to the armed group the Rohingya Salvation Army. In analyzing Myanmar government narratives, I will focus particularly on the Myanmar/Rohingya case at the ICJ to problematize how narratives of denial are reproduced in the judicial sphere and how the law itself can serve as a tool of atrocity denial.

Author

• Kjell Anderson, University of Manitoba