- Steps Leading to Adoption by the United Nations
- Raphael Lemkin
- The International Court of Justice and Genocide
- The International Criminal Court and Genocide
- Ad-Hoc Tribunals
- On-Line Resources
- Further Reading
The Genocide Convention was adopted in 1948 in response to the many atrocities – most profoundly the Holocaust – committed by Germany during World War II. Adoption followed UN General Assembly Resolution 180(II), 21 Dec 1947, in which it was recognized that “genocide is an international crime which entails the national and international responsibility of individual persons and states.” The Convention came into force on 12 Jan 1951. It has since been widely accepted by the international community and ratified by the overwhelmingly majority of States. As of 21 Jan 2020, 153 states are parties to the Convention.
Notwithstanding the widespread adoption of the Convention, genocide has continued to plague the world community. The website Promise lists eleven genocides since 1962. Another website, The Combat Genocide Association (available through the Wayback Machine), listed ten genocides beginning in 1971:
- Bangladesh 1971
- Biafra 1966-1970
- Bosnia 1992-1995
- Burundi 1972
- Cambodia 1975-1979
- Darfur 2003-?
- Guatemala 1981-1983
- Rwanda 1994
- Somalia 1988-1989
- Uganda 1971-1985
The last three entries in the Further Reading section below raise a variety of concerns about the ultimate utility of the Genocide Convention. A primary criticism is the lack of an adequate mechanism for prevention of genocide.
The steps leading to adoption by the United Nations
The central figure bringing about international recognition of genocide as a crime is Raphael Lemkin, a lawyer of Polish-Jewish descent. He escaped Poland shortly after the Nazi and Soviet invasion in 1939. Most of his family perished in the Holocaust. Lemkin coined the term “genocide” in 1943 and was one of three experts who prepared the first draft of the Genocide Convention. Key writings of his on genocide [adapted from the website Prevent Genocide International]:
♦ “Les actes constituant un danger general (interétatique) consideres comme delites des droit des gens” Explications additionelles au Rapport spécial présentè à la V-me Conférence pour l’Unification du Droit Penal à Madrid (14-2O.X.1933).
English translation: “Acts Constituting a General (Transnational) Danger considered as Crimes under International Law” Translation by James T.Fussell
♦ “Akte der Barbarei und des Vandalismus als delicta juris gentium” (Acts of Barbarism and Vandalism under the Law of Nations), Anwaltsblatt Internationales, Vienna,Vol. 19, No. 6, (Nov. 1933), p. 117-119
Lemkin wrote this German language article as an abbreviated version of the report ‘General (Transnational) Danger’ he originally presented in French at the 5th Conference for the Unification of Penal Law in Madrid, Spain in October 1933. The article was published in Anwaltsblatt Internationales (Lawyer Gazette International), a legal monthly based in Vienna, Austria and edited by Dr. Rudolf Braun.
♦Axis Rule in Occupied Europe: Laws of Occupation – Analysis of Government – Proposals for Redress, Chap. 9, Washington, D.C.: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 1944.
Axis Rule in Occupied Europe, published in November 1944, was the first place where the word “genocide” appeared in print. Raphael Lemkin coined the new word “genocide” in 1943 both as a continuation of his 1933 Madrid proposal and as part of his analysis of German occupation policies in Europe.
French translation: Le règne de l’Axe en Europe occupée, Le premier paragraphe de Chapitre IX: “Génocide” de Raphaël Lemkin, 1944
Spanish translation: Las Reglas del Eje sobre la Europa Ocupada, Primer párrafo de Capítulo IX: “Genocide” de Raphael Lemkin, 1944. Translation by Carlos Mario Molina Arrubla, May 2000
♦ “Genocide – A Modern Crime” Free World (New York), Vol. 9, No. 4, (April 1945), p. 39-43
This article is a summary for the general public of the concepts and proposals Lemkin originally presented in Chapter 9: “Genocide” of Axis Rule in Occupied Europe. Free World was a wartime “Non-Partisan Magazine devoted to the United Nations and Democracy.”
♦ “Genocide” American Scholar, Vol. 15, No. 2 (April 1946), p. 227-230
♦ “Le crime de génocide” La Documentation Francaise, 24 septembre 1946, Notes Documentaires et Etudes No 417 (Serie Textes et Documents. – L)
Spanish translation: “Genocidio” Translation by Carlos Mario Molina Arrubla, August 1999
♦ “Genocide as a Crime under International Law” American Journal of International Law, Vol. 41, No. 1 (1947), p.145-151
The International Court of Justice and Genocide
The jurisprudence of the International Court of Justice, which recognizes that the principles underlying the Genocide Convention are principles recognized by civilized nations binding on States, considers the prohibition of genocide a peremptory norm of international law (See, Reservations to the Convention on Genocide, 1951 I.C.J. Rep. 15, 23; see also Case Concerning Barcelona Traction, Light and Power Co. (Belg. v. Spain), 1970 I.C.J., Rep. 3, 32). (See, the ICJ’s pages on the Reservations case, and on the Barcelona Traction case)
In Application of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (Bosnia and Herzegovina v. Serbia and Montenegro), the ICJ addressed several issues concerning the Genocide Convention, in a proceeding that spanned a period of almost 14 years, from 1993 to 2007. These issues included jurisdiction, determinations of guilt, state responsibility, and reparations. There are extensive court records for both the 1993 Application, the 2001 Application for Revision of the Judgment of 11 July 1996, which sought to challenge the basis for jurisdiction over Yugoslavia, and the proceedings leading up to the final Judgment issued on 26 Feb 2007.
In Application of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (The Gambia v. Myanmar), the violence committed against the Rohingya population of Myanmar is the subject of the proceeding. Gambia filed its Application on 11 Nov 2019. The Court imposed several provisional measures in its Order of 23 Jan 2020, and subsequently ruled that it has jurisdiction over the case in a Judgment issued on 22 Jul 2022. Several states have intervened (Press Release of 16 Nov 2023) and the case is currently pending, pursuant to the schedule set by the Court in its Order of 16 Oct 2023.
In Allegations of Genocide under the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (Ukraine v. Russian Federation), Ukraine denies Russia’s claim that it has committed acts of genocide in the Donbas region of Ukraine, and accuses Russia of “planning acts of genocide in Ukraine.” Ukraine filed its Application and Request for Provisional Measures on 26 Feb 2022. The Court imposed several provisional measures in its Order of 16 Mar 2022, including a demand that Russia immediately suspend its military operations in Ukraine, a demand that Russia has ignored. Multiple states submitted Declarations of Intervention to which Russia objected. The Court, as detailed in its Summary of 9 Jun 2023, rejected Russia’s objections, except for that concerning the United States. In addition, Russia had raised a series of preliminary objections to the proceeding. Except for one, the Court, as detailed in its Summary of 2 Feb 2024, rejected those objections. The case thus remains open, pending further proceedings.
In Application of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide in the Gaza Strip (South Africa v. Israel), the proceedings are detailed and documented in a separate page on this website.
In Application instituting proceedings and request for the indication of provisional measures (Nicaragua v. Germany), Nicaragua accuses Germany of facilitating genocide in Gaza. As in the South African case, the proceedings are detailed and documented in a separate page on this website.
Background on the ICJ can be found on this page and the Court’s website.
The International Criminal Court and Genocide
Genocide is defined in the same terms in the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (Article 6) as in the Genocide Convention.
Situation in Darfur, Sudan. The situation was referred to the ICC by the United Nations Security Council: March 2005.
The ICC investigation, which opened in June 2005, has produced several cases with suspects ranging from Sudanese Government officials, Militia/Janjaweed leaders, and leaders of the Resistance Front, and has involved charges that include the following crimes:
♦ genocide: genocide by killing; genocide by causing serious bodily or mental harm; and genocide by deliberately inflicting on each target group conditions of life calculated to bring about the group’s physical destruction;
♦ war crimes: murder; attacks against the civilian population; destruction of property; rape; pillaging; and outrage upon personal dignity; violence to life and person; intentionally directing attacks against personnel, installations, material, units or vehicles involved in a peacekeeping mission; and
♦ crimes against humanity: murder; persecution; forcible transfer of population; rape; inhumane acts; imprisonment or severe deprivation of liberty; torture; extermination; and torture.
Background on the ICJ can be found on this page and the Court’s website.
The United Nations has established ad-hoc international tribunals designed to address specific conflicts and cases.
The International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) was established by the UN Security Council in 1993 to try those responsible for crimes of genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes committed during the conflict of the 1990s in the former Yugoslavia.
The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) was established by the UN Security Council in 1994 to prosecute genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes occurring between January 1 and December 31, 1994, in Rwanda.
The Special Court for Sierra Leone and the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia are hybrid domestic-international courts set up to try those responsible for atrocity crimes committed during Sierra Leone’s civil war and the genocide in Cambodia during the Khmer Rouge rule, respectively.
UN Office on Genocide Prevention
UN Audiovisual Library on International Law
Genocide under Municipal Laws
Prevent Genocide International
Strengths and Flaws of the Genocide Convention
- Hirad Abtahi and Phillippa Webb, The Genocide Convention: Travaux Préparatoires, 2 vols. (2008)
- George J. Andreoupolos, Encyclopedia Britannica, Genocide
- Jacob Dolinger, The Case for Closing the UN: International Human Rights – A Study in Hypocrisy, Chap. 8, “The Modern Succession of Genocides” (2016)
- Paola Gaeta, The UN Genocide Convention: A Commentary, (2009)
- Hilly Moodrick-Even Khen, Genocide in International Law: Revisiting the Definition of Genocide in the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (1948), Justice, Vol. 69 (2023)
- Matthew Lippman, The Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide: Fifty Years Later, Ariz. J. Int’l & Comp. L., Vol 15, p. 415 (1998)
- Orie L. Phillips and Eberhard P. Deutsch, Pitfalls of the Genocide Convention, Amer. Bar Ass’n J., Vol. 56, No. 7 (July, 1970)
- Steven R. Ratner, B.G. Ramcharan, Payam Akhavan and Delissa Ridgway, The Genocide Convention after Fifty Years, Proceedings of the Annual Meeting (A.S.I.L.), Vol. 92, pp. 1-19 (1998)
- Anton Weiss-Wendt, Documents on the Genocide Convention from the American, British, and Russian Archives, 2 vols. (2018)
- B. Whitaker, Revised and updated report on the question of the prevention and punishment of the crime of genocide, UNECOSOC, E/CN.4/Sub .2/1985/6 (1985)
