BILIA holds symposium on rohingya crisis
On January 19, 2019, the Bangladesh Institute of Law and International Affairs (BILIA) organised a symposium titled "Prosecution for Violation of Human Rights: The Rohingya Crisis in Context" at BILIA Auditorium.
The symposium was presided over by Professor Dr. Rahmat Ullah, Dean, Faculty of Law, University of Dhaka. Barrister Tapas Kanti Baul, Advocate, Supreme Court of Bangladesh and Prosecutor, International Crimes Tribunal, Bangladesh, and Tapos Kumar Das, Assistant Professor, Department of Law and Justice, Jahangirnagar University were the designated discussants. The programme was launched as Dr. Rumana Islam, Assistant Director of BILIA addressed a welcome speech to the audience.
Two papers were presented pertaining to the symposium title. Mr. Md. Mostafa Hosain, Assistant Professor, School of Law, BRAC University presented a paper on “Situation in Myanmar: Questing avenues under International Criminal Law.” In his paper, Mr. Mostafa tried to shed lights on multifarious international criminal laws and globally recognised norms under which the perpetrators can be held liable. The author found it difficult to bring the culprits to book under the Rome Statute of International Criminal Court, 1998 since the Myanmar is not a party to the Statute. It seemed more instrumental to the author to prosecute the offenders under the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, as there is genocidal intent behind the ethnic cleansing and Myanmar is a party to the Convention. After that, Mr. Quazi Omar Foysal, an independent researcher, presented a paper titled “ICC’s Decision on the Jurisdiction over Rohingya Deportation: Prospects and Challenges.” Mr. Foysal showed the roadmap of ICC’s ruling declaring its jurisdiction over Rohingya Deportation, the triggering factors of ICC’s jurisdiction, legality of its regime, clarification by the ICC regarding its competency to investigate and try the perpetrators.
Barrister Tapas Kanti Baul has, after the presentation of papers, suggested taking ICTR as model in order to try the offences as it is more close to the ongoing Rohingya crisis. The other discussant, Mr. Tapos Kumar Das suggested taking 4th Geneva Convention into consideration as ethnic cleansing, in his view, can be regarded as armed conflict.
In the concluding remarks as Chair of the Symposium, Dr. Rahmatullah observed that the co-operation rather than confrontation and meticulous role of diplomats can be the possible way out to this long-lasting problem. The Symposium was overwhelmed by the Participants from different sectors like lawyers, judges, human rights activists, journalists and students.
The event was covered by Muhammad Zubair, Research Assistant (Law), BILIA.