GENOCIDE CONVENTION

The Genocide Convention for the prevention of genocide and the punishment of the organizers of genocide arose out of a general reaction to the Nazi crimes against the Jewish people. Though several mass liquidations had already previously occurred in the history of mankind, none of these had reached the proportions and planning of the slaughter of European Jewry by the Third Reich. After World War ii, a movement developed demanding that such acts be condemned as an international crime, and their perpetrators be punished. This condemnation was to be upheld by the coordinated activity of all civilized nations. The term "genocide" was coined by the Polish-Jewish lawyer Raphael *Lemkin in his book Axis Rule in Europe (1944), 79–95. It was also due to a large extent to his personal efforts over the years that the Convention was later ratified.

The Genocide Convention was directly connected with the trials of the major Nazi war criminals at the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg, where the Nazi plan to exterminate Jews wherever possible was publicly revealed in all its brutality. The *United Nations, which in the preamble to its Charter had renewed the affirmation of basic human rights and the recognition of the value of human life, could not ignore what had happened in this sphere. Consequently, at its first session on Dec. 11, 1946, after it had confirmed Resolution No. 95 (i) on the principles of international law which had been introduced by the legislation of the Nuremberg tribunal, the General Assembly adopted Resolution No. 96 (i), condemning genocide as a crime in international law, and determining that all nations have an interest in punishing such cases. After two years of preparation the text of the Convention was unanimously adopted by the General Assembly of the u.n. (Dec. 8, 1948). By January 1969, 67 countries had ratified it, some with important reservations. As of 2000, 132 countries were party to the Genocide Convention.

The Convention outlaws not only mass murder but also several other actions of a less extreme nature, taken against groups of individuals. It does not give a legal definition of the term "genocide." The characteristic trend of all the actions which can be defined as genocide is their inherent intention to destroy, wholly or partially, a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group per se. The following actions are classified as genocide: the killing of persons belonging to the group; the causing of grievous bodily or spiritual harm to members of the group; deliberately enforcing on the group living conditions which could lead to its complete or partial extermination; the enforcement of measures designed to prevent birth among the group; the forcible removal of children from one group to another.

Since the Convention aims at the prevention as well as the punishment of genocidal action, it determines that not only those who carry out such actions are liable to punishment, but also those who take certain measures liable to bring about genocide, such as a plot to carry out genocide; direct and public incitement to genocide; an attempt at genocide; participation in such action. This list clearly shows that the activities included within the framework of genocide are related only to the biological and physical existence of the group in question.

One of the main achievements of the Convention is its application to every criminal, regardless of his status, i.e., it applies equally to rulers who bear the legislative responsibility for the act, on public functionaries, and on private individuals. This directive overrrules the argument of an "act of state," which contends that leaders of the state are free of responsibility, performing their action not in their own name but in the name of the state. Although the convention does not deal explicitly with the plea of "superior order," it is clear that this plea is invalid unless it refers to instances in which the intent to murder a group cannot be attributed to the accused. The Convention provided for national implementation (by local courts), for international implementation (by an international penal court, not yet in existence), and for prevention and suppression of genocide by the General Assembly which may be called upon to do so.

The effectiveness of the Convention had in the first 20 years of its existence not been put to the test. Claims of genocide being committed were made, inter alia, in regard to blacks in Southern Sudan, to Kurds in Iraq, to Nagas in India, and to communists, Chinese in Indonesia, and the Ibos in the Biafran War in Nigeria, but no attempt was made to "seize" the General Assembly with these claims.

bibliography:

N. Robinson, Genocide Convention (1960); P.N. Drost, Crime of State, 2 vols. (1959), incl. bibl.; Perlman, in: Nebraska Law Review, 30 (1950); Stanciu, in: Yad Vashem Studies, 7 (1968), 185–7; Lemkin, in: Revue internationale de droit pénal, 17 (1946); G. Percy, La Convention pour la prévention et la répression du crime de génocide (1950); Landsberg, in: Aussenpolitik (May 1953), 310–21; Société Internationale de Prophylaxie Criminelle, La prophylaxie du génocide, 1 no. 11–13 (1967); 2 no. 14–15 (1968); Fawcett, in: Patterns of Prejudice (Nov.–Dec. 1968), 23–25.

[Nehemiah Robinson]