The UN International Court of Justice recognized the right of the Rohingya people for genocide protection. The Government of Myanmar is obliged to take all possible measures to protect the Rohingya. Thus, the judges rejected the arguments of the leader of Myanmar, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.

Four months later, the country's authorities will have to report to the UN on the measures taken, and after that - report on them every six months until the court makes a final decision on the case.

The current decision was unanimously supported by all 17 judges. It is formally legally binding and not appealable. However, the court essentially has no mechanisms for its implementation, BBC reported.

In announcing the decision, President of the Court Abdulqawi Yusuf said that the court took note of the evidence of the disproportionate use of force against the Rohingya by the military of Myanmar in 2017 in violation of international law. The court also referred to evidence that the military did not prevent the looting of Rohingya settlements by civilians after they conducted cleansing operations in these settlements.

The pending lawsuit filed by the Gambia refers to ethnic cleansing conducted by the Myanmar military in Rakhine State from October 2016 to December 2017.

The decision does not mean that the court recognized the events in Rakhine State as genocide. Nevertheless, it was adopted in accordance with the second article of the International Convention on the Prevention of the Crime of Genocide, which refers to harm to an ethnic group, intentional deterioration of the living conditions of this group and measures to reduce the birth rate within the group.