Information AboutGenocide |
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Genocide is the deliberate and systematic destruction of an ethnic, religious or national group. While precise Definition Varies Among Genocide Scholars , the Legal definition is found in the 1948 United Nations Convention On The Prevention And Punishment Of The Crime Of Genocide (CPPCG). Article 2 of the CPPCG defines genocide as "any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a Nation al, Ethnical , Racial or Religious group, as such: killing members of the group; causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life, calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; {Link without Title} forcibly transferring children of the group to another group." COINING OF THE TERM GENOCIDE The term "genocide" was coined by Raphael Lemkin (1900-1959), a Polish -Jewish legal scholar, in 1943, from the roots γένος ''genos'' ( Greek for family, tribe or race) and ''-cide'' ( Latin - ''occido'' - to massacre). In in Iraq on 11 August 1933 . The event in Iraq reminded him of earlier similar events of the Armenian Genocide during World War I . He presented his first proposal to outlaw such 'acts of barbarism' to the Legal Council of the League of Nations in Madrid the same year. However, the proposal failed and his work incurred the disapproval of the Polish government, which was at the time pursuing a policy of conciliation with Nazi Germany. Raphael Lemkin - EuropeWorld, 22/6/2001 In 1944 , the Carnegie Endowment For International Peace published Lemkin's most important work, entitled ''Axis Rule in Occupied Europe'', in the United States. This book included an extensive legal analysis of German rule in countries occupied by Nazi Germany during the course of World War II , along with the definition of the term ''genocide''"By 'genocide', we mean the destruction of a nation or of an ethnic group." ''Axis Rule in Occupied Europe'', ix. 79. As quoted in the 3rd Oxford English Dictionary .. Lemkin's idea of genocide as an offense against international law was widely accepted by the international community and was one of the legal bases of the Nuremberg Trials (The Indictment Of The 24 Nazi Leaders included in Count 3, that all the defendants "conducted deliberate and systematic genocide – namely, the extermination of racial and national groups..." Oxford English Dictionary "Genocide" citing Sunday Times 21 October 1945). Lemkin presented a draft resolution for a Genocide Convention treaty to a number of countries in an effort to persuade them to sponsor the resolution. With the support of the United States, the resolution was placed before the General Assembly for a consideration. Lemkin said about the definition of genocide in its original adoption for international law at the Geneva Conventions: GENOCIDE AS A CRIME UNDER INTERNATIONAL LAW In the wake of the Holocaust committed by the Nazis , Lemkin successfully campaigned for the universal acceptance of International Law s, defining and forbidding genocide. This was achieved in 1948, with the promulgation of the ''Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.'' The CPPCG was adopted by the UN General Assembly on 9 December 1948 and came into effect on 12 January 1951 (Resolution 260 (III)). It contains an internationally-recognized definition of genocide which was incorporated into the national criminal legislation of many countries, and was also adopted by the Rome Statute Of The International Criminal Court , the treaty that established the International Criminal Court (ICC). The Convention (in article 2) defines genocide as
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