| Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide | |
|---|---|
| Signed | 9 December 1948 |
| Location | Palais de Chaillot, Paris, France |
| Effective | 12 January 1951 |
| Signatories | 39 |
| Parties | 153 (complete list) |
| Depositary | Secretary-General of the United Nations |
| Full text | |
 Genocide Convention at Wikisource | |
The Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (CPPCG), or the Genocide Convention, is an international treaty that criminalizes genocide and obligates state parties to pursue the enforcement of its prohibition. It was the first legal instrument to codify genocide as a crime, and the first human rights treaty unanimously adopted by the United Nations General Assembly, on 9 December 1948, during the third session of the United Nations General Assembly.[1] The Convention entered into force on 12 January 1951 and has 153 state parties as of June 2024[update].[2]
The Genocide Convention was conceived largely in response to World War II, which saw atrocities such as the Holocaust that lacked an adequate description or legal definition. Polish-Jewish lawyer Raphael Lemkin, who had coined the term genocide in 1944 to describe Nazi policies in occupied Europe and the Armenian genocide, campaigned for its recognition as a crime under international law.[3] Lemkin also linked colonialism with genocide, mentioning colonial genocides outside of Europe in his writings.[4] In a 1946 resolution, the General Assembly recognized genocide as an international crime and called for the creation of a binding treaty to prevent and punish its perpetration.[5] Subsequent discussions and negotiations among UN member states resulted in the CPPCG.
The Convention defines genocide as any of five "acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group." These five acts include killing members of the group, causing them serious bodily or mental harm, imposing living conditions intended to destroy the group, preventing births, and forcibly transferring children out of the group. Victims are targeted because of their real or perceived membership of a group, not randomly.[6] The convention further criminalizes "complicity, attempt, or incitement of its commission." Member states are prohibited from engaging in genocide and obligated to pursue the enforcement of this prohibition. All perpetrators are to be tried regardless of whether they are private individuals, public officials, or political leaders with sovereign immunity.
The CPPCG has influenced law at both the national and international level. Its definition of genocide has been adopted by international and hybrid tribunals, such as the International Criminal Court, and incorporated into the domestic law of several countries.[7] Its provisions are widely considered to be reflective of customary law and therefore binding on all nations whether or not they are parties. The International Court of Justice (ICJ) has likewise ruled that the principles underlying the Convention represent a peremptory norm against genocide that no government can derogate.[8] The Genocide Convention authorizes the mandatory jurisdiction of the ICJ to adjudicate disputes, leading to international litigation such as the Rohingya genocide case and dispute over the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.
- ^ "Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide" (PDF). United Nations Audiovisual Library of International Law. Retrieved 5 January 2020.
- ^ "United Nations Treaty Collection". treaties.un.org. Retrieved 26 June 2024.
- ^ Auron, Yair, The Banality of Denial, (Transaction Publishers, 2004), 9.
- ^ Moses 2008, p. 8–9: "Extra-European colonial cases also featured prominently in this projected global history of genocide. In 'Part III: Modern Times,' he wrote the following numbered chapters: (1) Genocide by the Germans against the Native Africans; (3) Belgian Congo; (11) Hereros; (13) Hottentots; (16) Genocide against the American Indians; (25) Latin America; (26) Genocide against the Aztecs; (27) Yucatan; (28) Genocide against the Incas; (29) Genocide against the Maoris of New Zealand; (38) Tasmanians; (40) S.W. Africa; and finally, (41) Natives of Australia ... While Lemkin's linking of genocide and colonialism may surprise those who think that his neologism was modeled after the Holocaust of European Jewry, an investigation of his intellectual development reveals that the concept is the culmination of a long tradition of European legal and political critique of colonization and empire."
- ^ "A/RES/96(I) - E - A/RES/96(I) -Desktop". undocs.org. Retrieved 3 June 2021.
- ^ "Genocide Background". United Nations Office on Genocide Prevention and the Responsibility to Protect.
- ^ "United Nations Office on Genocide Prevention and the Responsibility to Protect". www.un.org. Retrieved 3 June 2021.
- ^ "United Nations Office on Genocide Prevention and the Responsibility to Protect". United Nations. Retrieved 24 November 2023.
The ICJ has also stated that the prohibition of genocide is a peremptory norm of international law (or ius cogens) and consequently, no derogation from it is allowed.