International Law Genocide Convention International Criminal Law International Crimes explained

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Genocide Crime International Law explained Lex Animata Hesham Elrafei

The term Genocide was invented in 1944 to describe the Holocaust.

The UN declared it an international crime, and in 1948 the Genocide Convention was adopted.

The Convention defines Genocide as the intention to destroy a group of people, by committing one of the following acts:

Killing members of the group;

Causing serious bodily or mental harm, to members of the group;
Intentionally inflicting on the group conditions of life, calculated to bring about its physical destruction, in whole or in part;

Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;
and transferring children of the group by force to another group.

The mass murder in Rwanda in 1994 of the Hutu by the Tutsi was clearly Genocide. The atrocities committed on the Turkish Armenians in 1915 would amount to Genocide, as there had been an intent to destroy, in whole or in part, the Armenian population.

Genocide is sometimes grouped together with crimes against humanity, and it can be committed in peacetime as well as during an armed conflict.

But what distinguishes it from crimes against humanity is that the acts must be committed ‘with intent to destroy’ a group.

The Genocide Convention places criminal responsibility on all individuals, making no exception for Heads of State or lesser public officials.

The Contracting Parties are obliged to enact legislation making
genocide a crime within their territories and to provide ‘effective penalties for persons guilty of genocide’ or of associated acts; such associated acts being conspiracy, direct and public incitement, attempt, and complicity.

The Convention leaves its enforcement to the courts of the country where the crime was committed, as Genocide shall not be considered a political crime for the purposes of extradition.

Seeing its seriousness and its universal condemnation, genocide is regarded as part of jus cogens as well as a crime in customary international law.