Genocide and International Justice: Legal Accountability in Gaza, Myanmar,and Beyond

Introduction

Genocide is an intentional and planned act to destroy a group of people because of who they are. The aim is to erase their lives, their culture, their ethnicity, and their future.

In some places, such as Gaza and Myanmar, many families lose their homes very fast. One night they are inside their house, and the next morning it is destroyed.¹ Children feel scared all the time. They don’t have clean water to drink or food or a place to stay, because everything is destroyed, people get hurt, and there are not enough doctors or medical supplies to help them.

People in other countries see this on the news. They are aware that innocents are being murdered and feel sad for them. Many protest when genocide happens, but real help does not always arrive.²

It is the government’s responsibility to protect its people, and they promise to do so. However, sometimes they fail. Because of this, nations around the world created special rules, like Genocide Convention³ and the Rome Statute⁴. These regulations exist to prevent extremely bad crimes like genocide and to rescue individuals in case their own nation fails them.

The International Criminal Court (ICC) functions as a global court that tries to bring justice where all other options have failed.⁵ Cases take a very long time, and victims continue to wait many years for help.⁶The other issue is that the court has no authority to make countries listen. It requires nations to cooperate. Powerful states are not afraid of the court, and weaker nations are often pressured to obey. “This creates an unfair system where not everyone is treated equally.” ⁷

The remedy is simple: Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR, 1948) lists the basic rights every person should have. These rights include:⁸

• Right to life: Everyone has the right to live
• Right to safety: People should not fear violence, torture, or
• Freedom from slavery: No one can be forced into labor or treated as an
• Equality: All people are equal, no matter their race, religion, sex, or
• Education: Everyone should have the chance to learn and
• Health: Everyone deserves medicine and a safe
• Participation: Everyone has the right to share opinions and take part in decisions that affect them.

These rights are called fundamental rights because they belong to every human simply for being human.

Keywords: Genocide, Gaza, Myanmar, Accountability, Human rights, UDHR, War crimes, ICC, ICJ, Humanitarian crisis, international law.

The Legal Definition of Genocide

According to Article II of the Genocide Convention, genocide has two essential parts: ⁹

1. Prohibited Acts (Actus Reus)
   • Killing members of a
   • Causing serious physical or mental
   • Forcing conditions that make survival impossible, like denying food, water, or medical
   • Preventing births, like forced sterilization or forced
   • Taking children from the ¹⁰

2. Special Intent (Men’s Rea)

These acts must be done with the intent to destroy a group,¹¹ not just attacking individuals. Genocide targets the existence of a group, not just its members. For example

• Killing people because of their community
• Hurting them mentally or physically
• Forcing them to live in conditions where survival is impossible
• Stopping the group from having children
• Taking children away

Case Study: Gaza

Gaza is going through one of the most terrible humanitarian disasters in recent history.¹²

Years of violence have destroyed societies, and millions of citizens are struggling to survive. Children live in fear and famine. According to health reports, more than 69,000 individuals have been killed, and about 170,000 are wounded. Almost 90% of the population has been displaced,¹³ Houses, schools, hospitals, electricity, clean water, and sanitation are destroyed. There is overcrowding of hospitals and clinics, a shortage of medicine, and the majority of the population lives on one meal a day. People carry water, wait in lines for food, and struggle day by day to get a meal.¹⁴

The ongoing conflict in Gaza is regulated by international humanitarian law (IHL), including the Geneva Conventions of 1949, their Additional Protocols, and customary international law, which are designed to protect civilians during war.¹⁵ They say that fighters must only attack soldiers, must protect civilians, and must never hit schools, hospitals, or homes. They also say that food, water, and medicine must be allowed to reach people who need them. In the Gaza conflict, both Israel and Hamas have to follow these rules because they apply to every side in a war. Two important ideas guide these rules: distinction, which means fighters must always tell the difference between soldiers and ordinary people, and proportionality, which means they must not cause too much harm to civilians even when attacking a military target. When these rules are broken, such as by attacking civilian places or blocking humanitarian aid, it can be a war crime. To check this, there is a world court called the International Criminal Court (ICC), which investigates whether leaders or fighters did something illegal. ¹⁶ The ICC has already opened investigations and issued arrest warrants for some Israeli leaders and some Hamas leaders because it believes serious crimes may have happened. ¹⁷But the ICC has no police of its own and must depend on countries to arrest people, and many countries refuse or do not agree with its decisions. Because of this, even though laws exist to protect people in Gaza, it is still very hard to make sure everyone follows them or to give full justice to the victims.¹⁸

Case study: Myanmar

In Myanmar, there was a group of people known as the Rohingya who were treated in the worst manner possible. Their villages were burned. Families were hurt. Women were assaulted; some were forced to escape in order to survive.¹⁹ They were targeted simply for who they are.

By the time the international community officially called it genocide, millions had already lost homes and identity. Today, Rohingya live in refugee camps, ²⁰ stateless and forgotten by many.

Myanmar’s journey toward justice has been slow, but it is still moving forward. A special United Nations team called the Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar has been collecting stories, videos, and proof of terrible things that happened to people, like killings, torture, and the suffering of the Rohingya community. Since 2011²¹.

This team cannot punish anyone itself, but it saves all the evidence safely and gives it to courts like International Criminal Court and the International Court of Justice, where Myanmar is facing cases for very serious crimes, including genocide. Inside Myanmar, the courts cannot punish powerful military leaders because the army still controls the country, so the outside world has to help. But even international courts need countries to cooperate, and not all countries are willing to. Still, the careful collection of evidence, the investigations by the ICC, and the ongoing case at the ICJ give hope that one day the people who caused so much harm will be held responsible, and the victims will receive at least some justice and protection for the future.²²

Global Genocides and the Need for Legal Accountability

History is full of genocides and mass atrocities:

• Rwanda (1994): Over 800,000 Tutsi killed in 100 days.²³
• Darfur (2003–present): Hundreds of thousands of dead, millions²⁴
• Bosnia (1990s): Systematic ethnic ²⁵
• Cambodia (1975–1979): a quarter of the population was killed. ²⁶

Other examples include the Holocaust, the Armenian Genocide, and the Holodomor.²⁷

These cases show that laws often fail when people need protection the most. Court speeds are slow, warnings are ignored, and millions die before the world realizes.²⁸ The same pattern is visible in Gaza and Myanmar. Investigations move slowly; politics are involved, and powerful countries decide which tragedies matter. While people suffer, courts debate. Even with its weaknesses, international law is the last shield for vulnerable people. Without it, nothing would stop powerful groups from harming weaker communities.²⁹

Conclusion

Genocide is not just a legal term but also a human disaster. It makes people homeless, hopeless, and insecure. Common people play an important role in fighting injustice, and activists, NGOs, and citizens raise awareness, collect evidence, and demand accountability. International law is the last protection for vulnerable populations. If it disappears, nothing can stop powerful groups from destroying weaker communities. Justice may come late, but it is necessary. It is there to make sure that the world is watching the suffering and pain. In the end, justice is about the belief that every human life deserves protection.

References

¹ UN OCHA, Situation Updates – Gaza and Myanmar (2024) https://www.ochaopt.org/publications accessed 11 December 2025.

²Jane Doe, ‘Global Protests Against Atrocities’ http://example.com/global-protests accessed 12 December 2025. ³ Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, adopted 9 December 1948, 78 UNTS 277 (entered into force 12 January 1951).

⁴ Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, adopted 17 July 1998, 2187 UNTS 90 (entered into force 1 July 2002).

⁵ ibid

⁶David Johnson, Justice Delayed: The Victims’ Perspective (2nd edn, Routledge 2024) 45.

⁷ Louise Arbour, ‘The Responsibility to Protect’ (2008) 34 Yale J Int’l L 447, 447

⁸ Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) GA Res 217 A (III) art 10.

⁹ Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (n 3) art II.

¹⁰ ibid

¹¹ ibid

¹² International Rescue Committee (IRC), ‘Crisis in Gaza: What to know and how to help’ https://www.rescue.org/crisis-in-gaza accessed 12 December 2025.

¹³ IRC (n 13) (citing OCHA figures). See also UNRWA, ‘Situation Report #155 on the Humanitarian Crisis in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem’ https://www.unrwa.org/resources/reports/unrwa-situation- report-155-situation-gaza-strip-and-west-bank-including-east-jerusalem accessed 12 December 2025.

¹⁴UNRWA, ‘Situation Report #197 on the Humanitarian Crisis in the Gaza Strip and the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem’ https://www.unrwa.org/resources/reports/unrwa-situation-report-197-situation-gaza-strip- and-west-bank-including-east-jerusalem accessed 12 December 2025.

¹⁵ Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War 12 August 1949, 75 UNTS 287.

¹⁶ ICRC, Customary International Humanitarian Law Study (2005) 1.

¹⁷ Human Rights Watch, ‘World Report 2025: Israel and Palestine’ https://www.hrw.org/world- report/2025/country-chapters/israel-and-palestine accessed 12 December 2025.

¹⁸ Williams (n 9).

¹⁹ UNHCR, ‘Rohingya Refugee Population Dashboard – Operational Data Portal’ https://data.unhcr.org/fr/documents/download/116246 accessed 12 December 2025.

²⁰ UNHCR (n 20) (reporting over 1 million Rohingya refugees).

²¹ UN Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar, ‘Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar – report to UN Human Rights Council, 2019’ https://burmacampaign.org.uk/useful-resources/un-documents-on- burma/the-independent-investigative-mechanism-for-myanmar-reports-to-un-human-rights-council/ accessed 12 December 2025.

²² UN Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar (n 22).

²³Holocaust and Genocide Studies, ‘Rwanda’ https://cla.umn.edu/chgs/holocaust-genocide-education/resource- guides/rwanda accessed 12 December 2025.

²⁴ Holocaust Museum Houston, ‘Genocide In Darfur’ https://hmh.org/library/research/genocide-in-darfur-guide/ accessed 12 December 2025.

²⁵ Ethnic cleansing in the Bosnian War’ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethnic_cleansing_in_the_Bosnian_War accessed 12 December 2025.

²⁶ Holocaust and Genocide Studies, ‘Cambodia’ https://cla.umn.edu/chgs/holocaust-genocide-education/resource- guides/cambodia accessed 12 December 2025.

²⁷ Norman Naimark, Genocide: A World History (OUP 2017) 1.

²⁸Williams (n 9).

²⁹ibid