Genocide, state responsibility, and obligations erga omnes in the case of the Gambia v. Myanmar before the International Court of Justice

Abstract

The thesis purports to ascertain the relevance of obligations erga omnes in the pending case of Application of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (The Gambia v. Myanmar) before the International Court of Justice in the light of the unprecedented invocation of State responsibility for genocide by a non-injured State. The study identifies a number of points of interest pertaining to (i) the further development of the concept of obligations erga omnes; (ii) the clarification of the nature of the rights and obligations contained in the Genocide Convention; (iii) the mutually complementary regimes of State responsibility erga omnes and of provisional measures of protection; (iv) the complementarity of State responsibility for genocide, particularly State responsibility erga omnes, and individual criminal responsibility; and (v) the enforcement of obligations erga omnes, including the use of countermeasures, all grounded in the emergence of a set of norms shared by the entire international community of States. As the case progresses, these elements will constitute a part of the core of the legal and political questions that are going to define the course of the law of State responsibility more generally and State responsibility for genocide more specifically for decades to come