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The International Court of Justice (ICJ) will deliver its judgment on November 19 in a landmark case accusing Myanmar of committing genocide against the Rohingya Muslim minority.
The court announced the date on Tuesday, November 3, saying judges would begin reading out the verdict at 10am local time (8am GMT) at the Peace Palace in The Hague, the Netherlands.
The Gambia filed the case against Myanmar in 2019, alleging that the country’s 2017 military crackdown on the Rohingya constituted genocide.
The military operation forced at least 730,000 Rohingya to flee across the border into Bangladesh.
Rohingya refugees have reported killings, mass rape and the burning of villages during the crackdown.
A United Nations fact-finding mission also concluded that the military operation involved genocidal acts.
Myanmar has denied the allegations, maintaining that its military operation was a legitimate counter-terrorism campaign.
The upcoming ruling will mark only the third time the ICJ has delivered a judgment in a genocide case and the first in more than a decade.
The verdict could also set an important legal precedent for future genocide cases, including South Africa’s case against Israel over its military campaign in Gaza.
The ICJ, also known as the World Court, is the United Nations’ highest judicial body. It settles disputes between states and deals with alleged violations of international treaties, including the 1948 Genocide Convention.
The court’s judgments are final and cannot be appealed.
Sources: Reuters and the ICJ. Reuters +2