After evolving developments in the previous hearings on February 21, 23 and 25 in a case accusing Myanmar of Rohingya genocide during the 2017 military crackdown, the World Court will complete hearing arguments in the suit on Monday.
The hearing is scheduled at local time 3pm, according to the court's website.
The jurisdictional hearing by the UN court—formerly known as the International Court of Justice (ICJ)-- carries additional significance because of concerns over who the Southeast Asian country has sent to represent it.
Filed in late 2019, the Rohingya case at the ICJ has been complicated by the February 1, 2021 coup that ousted Suu Kyi and her civilian government, triggering mass protests and a bloody military crackdown.
On February 21, Myanmar's junta demanded that the court drop the case because Gambia was “acting as a proxy for others and had no legal standing to file a case”.
Two days later, Gambia urged judges to reject the challenge by Myanmar, saying the West African state was "no one's proxy".
If the court rejects Myanmar's objection, the court is expected to rule on the issue of jurisdiction over the case by the end of the year.
If the case does proceed, a final ruling is likely to take at several years to reach.
The ruling junta, which has not been recognised by the UN General Assembly, has appointed an eight-member team that includes Attorney General Thida Oo.
Rights groups and overseas representatives of Myanmar's parallel civilian National Unity Government (NUG) feared that the hearing, which will deal with events that took place before the coup, could give the junta some diplomatic legitimacy.
But the court, determined the hearing could proceed as planned.
The case was brought in 2019 by Gambia, a predominantly Muslim African country, backed by the 57-nation Organisation for Islamic Cooperation.
Gambia sued Myanmar for alleged violation of the Genocide Convention, citing events in 2017 when more than 730,000 Rohingya Muslims fled Myanmar into neighbouring Bangladesh after a military-led crackdown. A UN fact-finding mission concluded that the military campaign had included "genocidal acts."
Myanmar's then leader Aung San Suu Kyi attended preliminary hearings in the case in 2019 the Hague, denying genocide had taken place and arguing the court did not have jurisdiction. She has been in detention in Myanmar since the coup.
In a 2020 decision, the court ordered Myanmar to take measures to protect the Rohingya from harm, given the urgency of the matter.
Should the court rule that it has jurisdiction to hear the case, a decision on the merits of Gambia's allegation could take years more to reach.
