GENOCIDE

Introduction:
Genocide is the intentional destruction of a people[a] in whole or in part.
In 1948, the United Nations Genocide Convention

The key international law article defining genocide is Article II of the Convention on the
Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, adopted in 1948 [UN Office on
Genocide Prevention]. This article provides the specific acts that constitute genocide and the
group targeted for destruction.

The Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC) also adopts the same definition
of genocide in its Article 6 [NGM Lawyers].

The Genocide Convention defines genocide as any act that aims to destroy a national, ethnic,
racial, or religious group, either in whole or in part. The act must include:

 Killing members of the group Article II(a)

 Causing serious mental or bodily harm to members of the group Article II(b)
 Deliberately inflicting conditions of life on the group that will cause its physical destruction
Article II(c)
 Imposing measures to prevent births within the group Article II(d)
 Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group Article II(e)

The United Nations defines genocide as a crime under international law, regardless of
whether it occurs during peacetime or wartime. The term "genocide" was coined by Polish
lawyer Raphael Lemkin in his 1944 book Axis Rule in Occupied Europe. Lemkin combined
the Greek word genos ("race, people") with the Latin suffix -caedo ("act of killing").

The Genocide Convention notes that genocide has occurred throughout history. The United
Nations defined the crime of genocide under international law after Lemkin coined the term
and the prosecution of Holocaust perpetrators at the Nuremberg Trials.

The Genocide Convention establishes five prohibited acts that, when committed with the
requisite intent, amount to genocide. Genocide is not just defined as wide scale massacre-
style killings that are visible and well-documented. International law recognizes a broad
range of forms of violence in which the crime of genocide can be enacted.