On 14 November 2019, Pre-Trial Chamber III of the International Criminal Court (ICC) authorised the ICC Prosecutor to proceed with an investigation for the alleged crimes within the ICC’s jurisdiction in the situation in Bangladesh/Myanmar. This authorisation followed the Prosecutor’s request to open an investigation into crimes related to the forced deportation of Rohingya from Rakhine State in Myanmar, which is not party to the Rome Statute of the ICC, across the border into Bangladesh, which has ratified the Rome Statute. According to the Prosecutor, an estimated 600,000 to one million Rohingya were forcibly displaced from Myanmar to neighbouring Bangladesh as a result of the alleged coercive acts.
It is important to note that, in comparison with the ICC, the Mechanism is not limited to investigating crimes related to forced deportation from Myanmar to Bangladesh but rather will be collecting evidence and building case files regarding serious international crimes and violations of international law committed anywhere in Myanmar since 2011, regardless of the ethnicity, nationality, race or religion of either the victims or the perpetrators.
On 22 June 2020, in resolution 43/26, the Human Rights Council called “for close and timely cooperation between the Mechanism and any future investigations by national, regional or international courts or tribunals, including by the International Criminal Court or the International Court of Justice.”
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