Genocide

Genocide is defined by The United Nations as acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group.¹ Genocide is considered to be an international crime whether the acts were committed during a peaceful time or in a war.

Fast Facts

1. 1944: Polish-Jewish jurist, Raphael Lemkin (1900-1959), coined the word 'Genocide', which is a combination of the Greek word genos (race) with the Latin word cide (killing)²
2. Ethnic cleansing is a form of genocide³
3. The International Criminal Court (ICC) is an independent, permanent court that may try cases of genocide if a case is not investigated or prosecuted by a national judicial system⁴
4. As of 2008, the ICC consists of 106 countries⁴

Genocide Legal Highlights

1. 1945-1946: The International Military Tribunal in Nuremberg tried 22 major Nazi German leaders and the word “genocide” was included as a descriptive term in the indictment⁵
2. 1946: On December 11, the General Assembly of the United Nations declared that genocide is a crime under international law¹
3. 1948: On December 9, the United Nations declared genocide, the conspiracy to commit genocide, direct and public incitement to commit genocide, an attempt to commit genocide and any complicity in genocide to be punishable crimes¹
4. 1993: The International Criminal Tribunal of the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) was formed by the United Nations Security Council⁶
5. 1998: On September 2, Jean-Paul Akayesu was judged guilty of genocide and crimes against humanity for acts he engaged in and oversaw as mayor of the Rwandan town of Taba in the world's first conviction of genocide issued by the ICTR in an international tribunal⁷
6. 2002: The International Criminal Court went into force⁴
7. 2008: On July 14, the United Nations announced that they are pulling all non-essential staff out of Darfur due to an arrest warrant issued for Sudanese President Bashir by the International Criminal Court⁸

Examples of Genocide⁹

1. 1975-1979: 21% (approximately 1.7 million people) of the Cambodian population were killed¹⁰
2. 1992-1995: 7,800 Bosnian men and boys were murdered by Serbian forces in Srebrenica
3. 1994: Estimates ranging up to 800,000 people, mostly from the Tutsi minority group, were killed in Rwanda from April until July
4. 2004: On September 9, then-Secretary of State Colin Powell testified before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that "We concluded — I concluded — that genocide has been committed in Darfur and that the Government of Sudan and the Janjaweed bear responsibility — and that genocide may still be occurring"¹¹

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