Dear Editor,
When Reed Brody speaks about The Gambia’s case against Myanmar before the International Court of Justice, he highlights two hard truths: the persistent double standards of powerful states, and the enduring potential of international law when principled actors choose to use it. The Gambia’s action proves the latter.
Let me therefore commend the Gambian legal team led by the Minister of Justice Dawda Jallow. The excellent presentations they demonstrated before the world’s top court is nothing short of remarkable.
By instituting proceedings against Myanmar under the Genocide Convention, The Gambia did something transformative. It affirmed that preventing and punishing genocide is not the privilege of powerful or directly affected states, but a shared legal obligation. Anchored in the legal principle ‘erga omnes partes’, or shared responsibility of all parties to an international law, the case turned the Genocide Convention into a practical enforcement tool rather than a symbolic promise.
That innovation did not stop with Myanmar. It cleared the legal and political path for South Africa to bring its case against Israel. The principles, procedures, and requests for urgent provisional measures followed a route the that Gambia had already mapped, and the Court had already accepted. South Africa did not invent a new strategy; it relied on a precedent.
The discomfort of many Western governments with the South Africa case exposes the double standards Brody warns against. A near-identical legal approach was tolerated, or welcomed, when directed at Myanmar, yet questioned when Israel was the respondent. The law did not change; the politics did.
Still, something irreversible has happened. The Gambia demonstrated that moral authority does not depend on size, wealth, or force. It showed that states from the Global South can activate international law to defend universal values and, in doing so, lower the barrier for others to act.
The legacy of The Gambia v. Myanmar therefore reaches far beyond one people or one case. It reshaped genocide jurisprudence, empowered new actors, and challenged selective accountability. From Banjul to The Hague, the Gambia reminded the world that international justice, however imperfect, can still be claimed, and that accountability begins when someone dares to act.
For the Gambia Our Homeland
Madi Jobarteh
Kembujeh
