GENOCIDE

crime without a name

Raphael Lemkin

 Before

1944, no term existed to describe a coordinated assault on civilian populations. That year, Raphael Lemkin introduced the term genocide to give the crime a name. was a Polish-Jewish legal scholar who had fled Nazi-occupied Poland and arrived in the United States in 1941.

Lemkin

Greek word GENOS race or tribe Latin suffix CIDE killer or act of killing

Thus was born

GENOCIDE

 Genocide

was the intentional destruction of national groups on the basis of their collective identity. Physical killing was an important part of the picture, but it was only a part:

By genocide we mean the destruction of a nation or an ethnic group. . . Generally speaking, genocide does not necessarily mean the immediate destruction of a nation, except when accomplished by mass killings of all members of a nation.

 It

is intended rather to signify a coordinated plan of different actions aiming at the destruction of essential foundations of the life of national groups, with the aim of annihilating the groups themselves objectives of such a plan would be disintegration of the political and social institutions of culture, language, national feelings, religion, and the economic existence of national groups, and the destruction of the personal security, liberty, health, dignity, and even the lives of the individuals belonging to such groups.

The

 Genocide

is directed against the national group as an entity, and the actions involved are directed against individuals, not in their individual capacity, but as members of the national group

 Lemkin

played an important role in the Nuremberg International Military Tribunal trials of Nazi war criminals. He also lobbied at the UN during its debate on genocide, which concluded with the General Assembly resolution that "genocide is a crime under international law which the civilized world condemns, and for the commission of which principals and accomplices are punishable."

1948
AN

INTERNATIONAL PROMISE TO PREVENT AND PUNISH GENOCIDE IS MADE

Photo: On October 14, 1950, the number of countries that signed the Genocide Convention surpassed the 20 necessary for the Convention to come into effect, which it did in January 1951. Pictured are several delegates from signatory nations: (front, from left) Korea, Haiti, Iran, France, and Costa Rica; (rear, from left) Assistant Secretary General for Legal Affairs, Secretary General, a representative from Costa Rica, and Raphael Lemkin, the Conventions chief proponent. UN Photo

Due in no small part to the efforts of Raphael Lemkin, the UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide was unanimously adopted on December 9, 1948. The Convention entered into force on January 12, 1951, after more than 20 countries from around the world ratified it.

Article I. The Contracting Parties confirm that genocide, whether committed in time of peace or in time of war, is a crime under international law which they undertake to prevent and to punish.

Definition
Genocide means any of the following acts committed with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:
a.) Killing members of the group b.) Causing serious bodily or mental harm

to members of the group

c.) Deliberately inflicting on the group the

conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;

GENOCIDE (Definition)
d.) Imposing measures intended to

prevent births within the group

e.) Forcibly transferring children of

the group to another group

The intent to destroy particular groups is unique to the definition of genocide. A closely related category of international lawcrimes against humanityis defined as widespread or systematic attacks against civilians.

 PERPETRATOR

is not necessarily a states government or its military, but may be an international organization of under what authority genocide is done, it is formulated, planned, and conducted by individuals, and it is individuals that the ICC will prosecute for the crime of genocide

Regardless

Genocide means any of the following acts committed with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:

Perpetrators

INTENT is critical.

The

limitation of genocide to only NATIONAL, ETHNICAL, RACIAL or RELIGIOUS groups is to group that one is born into.

Genocide means any of the following acts committed with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:

The

term AS SUCH is important in the definition of genocide.

- the define groups are by intention explicitly targeted for destruction, and such destruction is not the unintended outcome, by product, or spillover of the intent to achieve some other goal, such as in defensive operations to attacks on military targets during a war or rebellion.

Genocide means any of the following acts committed with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:

DESTROY

They excludes attempts

IN

WHOLE OR IN PART

-there is no lower limit to the number of

people on which these acts may be committed.

a.) Killing members of the group b.) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group

Acts

(b) (e) make clear genocide may also involve the intent to destroy a group by means other that killing one or more of its members. BODILY HARM OR MENTAL HARM may include acts of torture, rape, sexual slavery, or other inhuman or degrading treatment.

SERIOUS

c.) Deliberately inflicting on the group the conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part d.) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group

CONDITIONS

OF LIFE may include deliberate deprivation of resources indispensable for survival, such as food or medical services, or systematic expulsion from homes. - not restricted to physical force, but may include threat of force or coercion, such as that caused by fear of violence, duress, detention, psychological oppression or abuse of power; taking advantage of a coercive environment

FORCIBLY

Jurisdiction over the crime of Genocide

In

1998, 120 countries voted to adopt the treaty establishing the International Criminal Court (ICC). With its Statute signed by 139 states and ratified by 76, the ICC formally came into existence on July 1, 2002 at The Hague, in the Netherlands International Criminal Court (ICC) is a permanent judicial body created by the international community of States to prosecute individuals for the gravest crimes under international law, namely Genocide, Crimes against Humanity, War Crimes and Aggression

The

 This

shows a clear international desire that the crime of genocide not go unpunished regardless of where it occurs. ICC has automatic jurisdiction over the nationals of State Parties, and over nationals of countries that are not parties to the Statute "if either the state of the territory where the crime was committed or the state of nationality of the accused consents."

The

 Thus,

the nationals of states that are not parties to the Stature and who committed genocide on the territory of states that are also not parties to the Statute may go unpunished.

 Another

limitation on jurisdiction is that the trial by domestic courts for genocide takes precedence if carried out in good faith (the domestic criminal law of over 70 states, with some modifications of the definition, make genocide a domestic crime). And prosecution of genocide in domestic courts is becoming more frequent.

 Therefore,

although the scope of the ICC is far reaching, it still has limited jurisdiction. Clear cases of genocide may go untried and unpunished, as it did under the Genocide Convention of 1948 for Saddam Hussein's systematic destruction of the Iraqi Kurd minority in 1988, during which he used poison gas on them.

Top Five Worst Genocide in History

1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

Mao Zedong (Responsible for 34,300,00063,784,000 deaths) Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin ( Responsible for 23,000,000-60,000,000 deaths) Adolf Hitler ( Responsible for 6,000,000 deaths) Hideki Tojo (Responsible for 5,000,000 deaths) Pol Pot (Responsible for 2,500,000 deaths)