When Interpol Comes Calling…™

When Interpol Comes Calling…

You may be charged with: Genocide Crimes

The word genocide was first used by Raphael Lemkin in his book published in 1944 about nazi crimes in occupied Europe. The term genocide was adopted the following year by the Nuremberg prosecutors, although the judges declined to use it. In 1946 genocide was declared an international crime by the General Assembly of the United Nations.

In 1948, the General Assembly adopted the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. The convention entered into force two years later. It has been described as the quintessential human rights treaty.

While genocide and crimes against humanity refers to atrocities committed in peacetime as well as wartime, genocide constitutes the most aggravated form of crime against humanity. The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda has labeled genocide “the crime of crimes”.

The statute identifies 5 different types or acts of genocide, all committed with the intent to destroy a national, ethnical, racial, or religious group.

The acts constituting genocide are:

1. killing members of the group;
2. causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;
3. imposing conditions on the group calculated to destroy it;
4. preventing births within the group; and
5. forcibly transferring children from the group to another group.

What distinguishes genocide from crimes against humanity and war crimes is “specific intent”. All three crimes provide for prosecution for killing or murder. Unlike the other two crimes, genocide requires that any of the five genocidal acts be committed with the “specific intent” to destroy in whole or in part a national, ethnical, racial, or religious group (NERR). In cases where the intent falls short of the definition, prosecution many still lie for crimes against humanity or war crimes. In that regard it is fair to say that genocide is subsumed within the broader concept of “crimes against humanity”.