Asia, compared to other regions of the world, has had limited engagement with mechanisms of international justice and accountability. It has no regional legal institution or court and has among the fewest states per region that are signatories to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (19 at last count). There is a weak track record of pursuing accountability at the domestic, regional, or international level, exemplified by the status of transitional justice initiatives in South Asia.

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There is a gamut of legal mechanisms to ensure individual accountability and state responsibility for crimes under international law. Nationally, these could include prosecution in criminal courts, special war crimes courts, commissions of inquiry; regional mechanisms include inter-governmental commissions, and in the longer term, a regional court; international mechanisms include the International Criminal Court (ICC), ad-hoc or hybrid tribunals such as the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC), the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL), the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) and others; evidence preservation institutions such as the International Independent & Impartial Mechanism for Syria (IIIM Syria), the Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar (IIMM); international or mixed truth commissions, as well as International Commissions of Inquiry; and the International Court of Justice (ICJ) for state responsibility.

 

Since independence, the military in Myanmar has committed serious violations of international law. The discriminatory 1982 citizenship law systematically stripped the Rohingya, an ethnic minority in Rakhine State, of their citizenship and rendered them stateless. Since then, the Rohingya have been subjected to widespread human rights abuses, including killings, torture, arbitrary detentions, severe restrictions on freedom of movement, limited access to health, education, and sanitation, and forced displacement and labour. The so-called ‘clearance operation’ by the Myanmar military in Rakhine State have resulted in serious violations of international human rights law constituting crimes against humanity and may amount to genocide. In 2021, the military junta staged a coup d'état, toppled the civilian government, and has been committing crimes against humanity and war crimes against civilians, including the Rohingya, with impunity. Asia Justice Coalition (AJC) members have and continue to document atrocity crimes and advocate for accountability across various forums and institutions. There are multiple initiatives in regard to establishing accountability that need to be moved forward with greater coordination. These include reports and findings of the IIMM and the findings of the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Myanmar, the ICC case with Bangladesh as the basis of jurisdiction, focusing on deportation as a crime against humanity, and keeping the pressure up for a United Nations Security Council (UNSC) referral to the ICC. These have been some successes so far, including at the ICC and ICJ and the use of ‘universal jurisdiction,’ which members of the Coalition have been leading and supporting.

 

Furthermore, AJC is actively involved in exploring avenues for justice and accountability, including publication of briefs on available legislation and causes of action for survivors of atrocity crimes in 9 Asian jurisdictions; making sanctions a stronger tool for accountability; primers related to strategies to address refoulement; and examining the concept of political will through the lens of values and interests in three Asian States.

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In this collective push towards justice and accountability, the use of multiple legal forums to initiate cases for the violations of international law in Myanmar is key, and the Coalition will continue to coordinate to enhance the effectiveness of these strategies.