The luxury tourist destination of the Maldives has hired prominent human rights lawyer Amal Clooney to represent it at the UN’s highest court in seeking justice for Myanmar’s persecuted Rohingya Muslims.

Earlier on Wednesday, the Maldivian government said it will formally join the mainly Muslim African state of The Gambia in challenging Myanmar’s 2017 military crackdown that sent around 740,000 Rohingya fleeing into neighbouring Bangladesh.

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In January, this year, according to an unanimous ruling, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ordered Buddhist-majority Myanmar to implement emergency measures to prevent the genocide of Rohingya — pending a full case thatto  could take years.

Amal Clooney successfully represented former Maldives President Mohamed Nasheed and secured a UN decision that his 2015 jailing for 13 years was illegal.

Mohamed Nasheed is currently the atoll nation’s speaker in the national legislature.

The government said it welcomed the ICJ’s decision to order provisional measures to secure the rights of victims in Myanmar and prevent the destruction of evidence in the ongoing case.

“Accountability for genocide in Myanmar is long overdue and I look forward to working on this important effort to seek judicial remedies for Rohingya survivors,” Amal Clooney was quoted as saying by the Maldivian government.

According to the UN, as of May 24, 2018, more than 9,00,000 Rohingya Muslims fled Myanmar’s restive Rakhine State since 2017 after large-scale violence following a military crackdown. The exodus of refugees in large numbers has resulted in a major crisis in neighbouring Bangladesh.

Over 150 delegates from over 50 countries are taking part in the dialogue to discuss, ideate and debate the most pressing global imperatives.

Bangladesh Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen, ORF President Samir Saran and BIISS Director General Major General AKM Abdur Rahman also spoke at the function.

At the UN General Assembly in September, the Prime Minister had highlighted the issue of Rohingya refugees becoming a regional problem.

Myanmar is one of India’s strategic neighbours and shares a 1,640-km-long border with a number of northeastern states, including militancy-hit Nagaland and Manipur.

(With inputs from agency)