Accountability for crimes against the Rohingya: possibilities for the general assembly where the security council fails

In 2018, the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar found that there were reasonable grounds to believe the Myanmar military had perpetrated war crimes, crimes against humanity and possibly genocide against the Rohingya people. It recommended that the Security Council refer the situation to the International Criminal Court, but that recommendation is unlikely to be acted upon. This article considers whether, if the Security Council fails to act, the General Assembly may establish an ad hoc international criminal tribunal. It considers first the competency of the General Assembly to consider and make recommendations on matters of international peace and security, as explicitly articulated in the UN Charter and as implied by the purposes and principles of the UN; it then considers the relevance and applicability of the General Assembly’s Uniting for Peace Resolution. It argues that the General Assembly has previously interpreted its powers to include the establishment of bodies it deems necessary for the maintenance of peace and security, and that in the case of Myanmar there is no reason it could not take the further step of establishing an ad hoc criminal tribunal – albeit one without coercive powers.