User:Seraphim System/genocide

Genocide is a legal term that was invented by Raphael Lemkin, who was himself and attorney. The widely accepted definition was first articulated in the 1948 Convention for the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, but defining the scope of the genocide witin this definition remains controversial.

Genocide is considered a crime under international law, but it may also be a crime under national laws, which may differ from the definition as it is understood within the jurisdiction of international law.

Background

According to William Schabas, Lemkin "intended to fill a gap in international law, as it stood in the final days of the Second World War." He argued that serious serious human rights violations ought to be recognized as international crimes.

Definition Controversies

There is scholarly debate about several unresolved questions raised by the language of the Genocide Convention.

Genocidal Policy

There is disagreement amongst legal scholars about whether the crime of genocide requires acts that are underpinned by a "general genocidal policy." The language of the Genocide Convention neither explicitly requires nor exlcludes such a requirement. In Kayishema and Ruzindana the Trial Chamber of the International Criminal Tribual for Rwanda held that an underlying policy was not a requirement. The ICTR quoted Morris and Scharf: "it is virutally impossible for the crime of genocide to be committed without some or indirect involvement on the part of the State given the magnitude of this crime...it is unecessary for an individual to have knowledge of all details of the genocidal plan or policy."

Prosecutor v. Radislav Krstić

The facts of this case involved events that took place in July 1995 in Srebenica—a predominantly Muslim town close to the Serbian border in eastern Bosnia-Herzegovina. United Nations Security Council Resolution 819 [1993 paragraph 1] had declared Srebrenica a safe area, but in March 1995 Radovan Karadžić directed the Bosnian Serb Army (Vojska Republike Srepske; hereinafter 'VRS') to capture the town, "with the aim of ethnically cleansing the area". Between July 10 and July 19,1995 around 25,000 Bosnian Muslims were transported by Bosnian Serb forces into Bosnian Muslim territory. Military-aged men were "systematically separated from the other refugees and summarily executed." It is estimated that between 7,000 and 8,000 Bosnian Muslim men were killed during the mass executions that were organized by the VRS.

Radislav Krstić was the Chief of Staff of the VRS Drina Corps when the Srebrenica massacre took place. He was charged with genocide, crimes against humanity and violations of the laws and customs of war, and prosecuted by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia. He was convicted of genocide on August 2, 2001 and sentenced to 35 years imprisonment.

The crime of genocide requires the intent to destroy a protected group (in this case Bosnian Muslims) Article 4(2) of the ICTY statute permits a genocide conviction even if the "intent to destroy" is limited to part of a group. In this case the ICTY interpret Art 4(2) ICTY as requiring proof that the accused "view the part they aim to destroy as a distinct entity." In this case the tribunal introduced what Giulia Bigi called a "geographical criterion" to establish "intent to destroy in part": "the intent to eradicate a human group within a limited geographical area—such as the region of a country or even a municipality—can be characterized as genocide when the perpetrators are aware that the victims constitute an important part of that group and that its destruction will have lasting consequences upon the survival of the entire group."