24 January,2020 08:21 AM IST | The Hague | Agencies
Abdulqawi Ahmed Yusuf (C) speaks during the ruling of the International Court of Justice in The Hague, on Friday. Pic/AFP
The Hague: In a sweeping legal victory for members of the Rohingya Muslim minority, the United Nations' top court on Thursday ordered Myanmar take all measures in its power to prevent genocide against the Rohingya people.
The court's president, Judge Abdulqawi Ahmed Yusuf, said the International Court of Justice "is of the opinion that the Rohingya in Myanmar remain extremely vulnerable."
The court added that its order for so-called provisional measures intended to protect the Rohingya is binding 'and creates international legal obligations' on Myanmar.
At the end of an hour-long sitting in the court's wood-panelled Great Hall of Justice, judges also ordered Myanmar to report to them in four months on what measures the country has taken to comply with the order and then to report every six months as the case moves slowly through the world court.
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"The ICJ order to Myanmar to take concrete steps to prevent the genocide of the Rohingya is a landmark step to stop further atrocities against one of the world's most persecuted people," said Param-Preet Singh, associate international justice director of New York-based Human Rights Watch.
Buddhist-majority Myanmar has long considered the Rohingya to be 'Bengalis' from Bangladesh even though their families have lived in the country for generations.
Nearly all have been denied citizenship since 1982, effectively rendering them stateless. They are also denied freedom of movement and other basic rights.
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