"Intent to destroy" redirects here. For the film, see Intent to Destroy.
Genocidal intent is the mens rea (mental element) for the crime of genocide.[1]Intent to destroy is one of the elements of the crime of genocide according to the 1948 Genocide Convention.[2] There is an unresolved "intend debate" over whether dolus directus (direct intent, meaning that the perpetrator committed the act with both the knowledge of its harmful consequences and the desire to cause that harm) needs to be proven to convict for genocide, or whether a knowledge-based standard should be enough to convict for genocide.[3]
^Thomas W. Simon (2016). Genocide, Torture and Terrorism: Ranking International Crimes and Justifying Humanitarian Intervention. Palgrave Macmillan. p. 17. ISBN978-1-349-56169-8.
^Rodenhäuser, Tilman (2018). Organizing Rebellion: Non-state Armed Groups Under International Humanitarian Law, Human Rights Law, and International Criminal Law. United Kingdom: Oxford University Press. p. 284.