Why The Gambia Is the Country Suing Myanmar

The International Court of Justice is reportedly set to rule in the coming weeks in The Gambia v. Myanmar, the genocide case against Myanmar. The unusual part is the applicant: The Gambia is not the country where the alleged violations occurred, and it has no obvious national stake of its own in the outcome. Under international law, that does not disqualify it — any state can file a case at the ICJ if it believes a country has violated the convention. Myanmar tried to shut the case down on jurisdictional grounds, and in a 2022 decision the court rejected that attempt. That permission is doing a great deal of work: it is why a country with no direct connection can ask the court to rule on another government's conduct.