4 A NATION LEFT BEHIND while ethnic health organizations serving on multiple fronts in Shan, Karen, Rakhine and conflict-affected communities are sidelined by Chin States during the COVID-19 pandemic, existing humanitarian aid structures. despite calls for a nationwide ceasefire by civil It is critical to emphasize that the repression society and nearly every political actor in the and violence outlined here are not new tactics country except, notably, the NLD government. used by the Myanmar government or the The military dismissed the demands until 10 Myanmar military. The state has long been May, when it finally declared its own ceasefire accused by civil society and UN investigatory – but, like previous declarations, it was bodies of violating international law and accompanied by preconditions that effectively humanitarian law during its seven decades of excluded the country’s primary battlegrounds. civil war. Most recently, Myanmar is facing a This paper provides an overview of the case brought against it by The Gambia at the strategies in which the military has taken ad- International Court of Justice (ICJ) in violation vantage of the COVID-19 outbreak to terror- of the Genocide Convention for its grave ize civilians in conflict areas and silence critics human rights violations against the Rohingya in in an effort to ensure its long-term vision for a 2017. At the same time, Myanmar is also facing Bamar-Buddhist hegemony. At best, the NLD alleged crimes of deportation, persecution and administration has remained a silent partner in other crimes that have been committed, which these crimes – at worst, it has offered up legal fall under the jurisdiction of the International statutes that facilitate continued human rights Criminal Court (ICC). Despite these cases that abuses by the Myanmar military during the are being brought against Myanmar, Myanmar greatest public health crisis of our time. military offensives and clashes have continued