December 9, 2018 marks the 70th Anniversary of the adoption of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide by the United Nations General Assembly. The Convention was adopted on December 9, 1948 and went into force on January 12, 1951, after obtaining the required twenty ratifications.
The term “genocide” can be attributed to Raphael Lemkin, who created the word in 1944 by combining the Greek word “genos,” meaning race or tribe with the Latin word “cide,” which means killing. Genocide was defined by Lemkin as “a coordinated plan of different actions aiming at the destruction of essential foundations of life of national group, with the aim of annihilating the groups themselves. 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.” Excerpt from Lemkin’s Axis Rule in Occupied Europe, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Holocaust Encyclopedia, Coining a Word and Championing a Cause: The Story of Raphael Lemkin.
Lemkin was a lifelong human rights activist. His efforts began as early as 1933. When Germany invaded Poland, Lemkin fled. He later learned that forty-nine of his family members were murdered in the Holocaust. Lemkin worked tirelessly to have genocide added as a crime on an international level. His commitment paid off through the adoption of the Genocide Convention in 1948. Id.
The Genocide Convention declared genocide a crime under international law. Genocide was defined by the Convention as:
any of the following acts committed with 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 conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;
(d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;
(e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.
Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide
The acts of genocide, conspiracy to commit genocide, direct and public incitement to commit genocide, attempt to commit genocide and complicity in genocide are all punishable under the Convention. All persons, including rulers, public officials and private individuals are subject to punishment. The nations that ratify the Convention agree to enact appropriate legislation to enforce the provisions of the Convention. Id. Additional information about the Genocide Convention, including documents, video and audio, can be found online through the United Nations, Codification Division, Office of Legal Affairs’ Audiovisual Library of International Law.
The United States ratified the Genocide Convention in 1988 when President Ronald Reagan signed the Genocide Convention Implementation Act of 1987, 18 USC § 1091, into law. In signing the Act, President Reagan remarked, “We gather today to bear witness to the past and learn from its awful example, and to make sure that we’re not condemned to relive its crimes.” Reagan’s full remarks can be found online through the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library & Museum.
There is currently a display in the Law Library with resources related to genocide and the Genocide Convention. Some notable sources in the Law Library include:
Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide : A Commentary
Christian J. Tams, Lars Berster, and Björn Schiffbauer
Call Number: KZ7180.A61948C66 2014
Documents on the Genocide Convention from the American, British, and Russian Archives
Anton Weiss-Wendt
Call Number: KZ7180.A61948A12 2019 v.1 & 2
The United States and the Genocide Convention
Lawrence J. LeBlanc
Call Number: K5302.L43 1991
Raphael Lemkin and the Concept of Genocide
Douglas Irvin-Erickson
Call Number: KZ7180.I78 2017
Genocide in International Law : The Crime of Crimes
William A. Schabas
Call Number: K5302.S32 2000
An American Genocide : The United States and the California Indian Catastrophe
Benjamin Madley
Call Number: E78.C15M33 2016
East West Street : On the Origins of “Genocide” and “Crimes Against Humanity”
Philippe Sands
Call Number: KZ7180.S26 2016