Genocide, challenging the myths

What is Genocide

The United Nations’ "Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide" which was "Adopted by Resolution 260 (III) A of the United Nations General Assembly on 9 December 1948." Article 2, “genocide means 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.

Is genocide a crime of war?
Article 1 confirms that “genocide, whether committed in time of peace or in time of war, is a crime under international law which they undertake to prevent and to punish.”

Who is held responsible?
Article 4 states that, “persons committing genocide or any of the other acts enumerated in Article 3 shall be punished, whether they are constitutionally responsible rulers, public officials or private individuals.”

Who enforces the law
The United Nations is responsible for administering this law according to the Resolution adopted in 1948. In 1994 the United Nations established the International Criminal Tribunal of Rwanda (ICTR) to prosecute those most responsible for the 1994 genocide during which hundreds of thousands of Tutsis and moderate Hutus were murdered. Most recently the International Criminal Court (ICC) has indicted and issued an arrest warrant for President Omar Al-Bashir of Sudan for on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity.

How important is the International Criminal Court
Established in 2002, the ICC is “the first permanent, treaty based, international criminal court established to help end impunity for the perpetrators of the most serious crimes of concern to the international community.”
The ICC is the only international court there is and it is not part of the United Nations system. It was a result of the Rome Statute of 17 July 1998, when 120 States adopted the legal basis for establishing the permanent International Criminal Court.
Give me some examples of genocides in history..
# Armenians: 800,000–1,000,000 deaths (1915–1917)
# The Holocaust: 6,000,000 deaths of Jews; 5,000,000 deaths of Poles, Roma, Communists, and other "undesirables" (1938–1945)
# Cambodia: 2,000,000 deaths (1975–1978)
# Bosnia: 200,000 deaths (1992–1995)
# Rwanda: 800,000 deaths (April 6 through mid-July of 1994)

Does Genocide still occur?
In short yes. Because of the legal consequences and ramifications of committing such a grave crime, politicians and world leaders have been hesitant to use the term. The strongest case has been made in Darfur Sudan where upper estimates say 400,000 people have been murdered. Other regions of the world where atrocities against defenseless civilians are occurring include: Eastern Burma, The Democratic Republic of Congo, Eastern Chad, Iraq, Somalia and Sri Lanka.

How do I find out more about Genocide?
#Visit STAND, a Student Anti-Genocide Coalition is a network of student groups dedicated to putting an end to genocide in Darfur and elsewhere @ standnow.org/