UN Greets ICJ Order Expecting Myanmar's Cooperation

Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, welcoming the decision of the highest UN judge, said he expects that Myanmar will fully cooperate with the court's order.

"In accordance with the Statute of the Court, the Secretary-General will promptly transmit the notice of the provisional measures ordered by the Court to the Security Council," said Farhan Haq, Deputy Spokesperson for the UN chief.

Briefing media at UN headquarters in New York on Thursday, Farhan said the UN Secretary-General recalled that the Court's rulings are final in keeping with the Charter and the Statute of the Court.

In a major judicial win for leaders of the Muslim minority in Rohingya, the top court of the United Nations ordered Myanmar to take all steps 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.

"I can say that the Secretary-General welcomes the Order of the International Court of Justice, indicating provisional measures in the case of The Gambia against Myanmar on the alleged breaches of the Genocide Convention," Farhan said.

The Secretary-General strongly supports the use of peaceful means to settle international disputes, he added.

At the end of an hour-long sitting in the court's wood-paneled 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.

The unanimous decision was quickly accepted by rights activists.

Source: UNB