Updates to United Nations Genocide Convention

The United Nations General Assembly adopted the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (the Genocide Convention) in December 1948. A representative of the United States signed the Convention, and President Truman later transmitted it to the Senate with a request that it give its advice and consent to ratification. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee held hearings on the Convention in 1950. It has since held hearings on four occasions (1970, 1971, 1977 and 1981), and favorably reported the Convention to the Senate four times (1970, 1971, 1973 and 1976). However, the Senate has failed to act; a resolution of ratification was debated on the floor in 1973-1974, but it fell victim to a filibuster and the Convention remains in committee.

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The Role of the United Nations, the African Union and Africa's Sub-Regional Organizations in Dealing with Africa's Human Rights Problems: Connecting Humanitarian Intervention and the Responsibility to Protect

Journal of African Law ◽

10.1017/s0021855309000011 ◽

2009 ◽

Vol 53 (1) ◽

pp. 1-33 ◽

Cited By ~ 11

Author(s):

Jeremy Sarkin

Keyword(s):

Human Rights ◽

United Nations ◽

Humanitarian Intervention ◽

Responsibility To Protect ◽

Genocide Convention ◽

African Union ◽

Regional Institutions ◽

African Context ◽

The United Nations ◽

The Right

AbstractThis article examines the basis for humanitarian intervention (HI) in the United Nations Charter, the African Union (AU) Charter and in a number of African sub-regional institutions. It traces the historical development of HI and argues that, while the right to HI emerged more than 100 years ago, that right also emerges from the Genocide Convention. The article argues that this treaty connects HI to the developing norm of the responsibility to protect (R2P) and examines the extent to which R2P is garnering wider support around the world. It focuses on the UN, and the various AU and sub-regional institutions and instruments that sanction HI. It assesses whether intervention can be authorized even in the absence of a UN Security Council mandate and examines the principles, application and interrelationship of R2P and HI in the African context. It traces the use of these norms in Africa, including in the various sub-regional structures, and evaluates the AU's political will and capability to deal with conflict and human rights abuse.

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The Twenty-Ninth Year of the World Court

The American Journal of International Law ◽

10.2307/2194781 ◽

1951 ◽

Vol 45 (1) ◽

pp. 1-36

Author(s):

Manley O. Hudson

Keyword(s):

United Nations ◽

General Assembly ◽

Genocide Convention ◽

Advisory Opinion ◽

The World ◽

The Hague ◽

The United Nations ◽

Advisory Opinions

The twenty-ninth year of the Court at The Hague was marked by sustained and fruitful activity. Two judgments were handed down in the Colombian-Peruvian Case Relating to Asylum, and four advisory opinions were given at the request of the General Assembly of the United Nations. Proceedings in the Franco-Egyptian Case on Protection of French Nationals in Egypt were discontinued. At the close of the year four cases were on the Court’s list: the Anglo-Norwegian Fisheries Case, the Rights of American Nationals in Morocco Case, a second Colombian-Peruvian Asylum Case, and a request for an advisory opinion concerning Reservations to the Genocide Convention. The progress registered during the year in the extension of the Court’s jurisdiction was disappointingly slight.

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State of the Netherlands v. Mothers of Srebrenica Association and Others

International Law Reports ◽

10.1017/ilr.2021.40 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 195 ◽

pp. 239-294

Keyword(s):

Human Rights ◽

The Netherlands ◽

United Nations ◽

International Law ◽

Direct Effect ◽

European Convention ◽

Effective Control ◽

Vienna Convention ◽

Genocide Convention ◽

The Law

239State responsibility — Attribution — United Nations peacekeeping troops — Dutch battalion contingent of United Nations Protection Force in Bosnia and Herzegovina (“Dutchbat”) — Responsibility for conduct of Dutchbat — Acts of Dutchbat taking place up until 23.00 on 11 July 1995 under UN flag — Whether attributable to Netherlands — Whether Netherlands having effective control over acts — UN International Law Commission Draft Articles on Responsibility of States for Internationally Wrongful Acts 2001, Articles 4(1) and 8 — Dutchbat United Nations organ — Whether Dutchbat’s conduct taking place under direction or control of Netherlands — Effective control standard — Whether Netherlands responsible for Dutchbat’s conduct at relevant timeInternational organizations — Responsibility — United Nations — Peacekeeping troops — Dutchbat — Dutchbat United Nations organ — Responsibility for conduct of Dutchbat — Acts of Dutchbat taking place up until 23.00 on 11 July 1995 under UN flag — Ultra vires conduct — Attribution to UN — UN International Law Commission Draft Articles on the Responsibility of International Organizations 2011, Article 8Treaties — Interpretation — Application — Effect — Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, 1948 — Article I — Obligation to prevent genocide — Interpretation of provision in accordance with Articles 31-3 of Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, 1969 — Text of Genocide Convention — Legislative history of Genocide Convention — Whether Contracting Parties intending obligation to have direct effect — Whether terms of provision sufficiently precise to be applied directly — Whether obligation having direct effect in proceedings between civilians and NetherlandsRelationship of international law and municipal law — Treaties — Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, 1948 — Article I — Obligation to prevent genocide — Whether Article I of Genocide Convention having direct effect within meaning of Articles 93 and 94 of Constitution of the Netherlands — Interpretation of provision in accordance with Articles 31-3 of Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, 1969 — Text of Genocide Convention — Legislative history of Genocide Convention — Whether Contracting Parties intending obligation to have direct effect — Whether terms of provision sufficiently 240precise to be applied directly — Whether obligation having direct effect in proceedings between civilians and NetherlandsInternational criminal law — Genocide — Whether Netherlands failing to prevent genocide perpetrated by Bosnian Serbs — Obligation to prevent genocide in Article I of Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, 1948 — Whether Netherlands violating Article I of Genocide Convention — Whether Article I having direct effect in proceedings between civilians and NetherlandsRelationship of international law and municipal law — Treaties — European Convention on Human Rights, 1950, Articles 2 and 3 — International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, 1966 — Protection of rights to life and physical integrity — Whether Dutchbat’s acts wrongful to be assessed under Dutch law — Applicable standard — Article 6:162 of Dutch Civil Code — Duty of care — Standards derived from Articles 2 and 3 of European Convention inherent in duty of care — Whether Court of Appeal applying correct standardHuman rights — Rights to life and physical integrity — Treaties — Standards — European Convention on Human Rights, 1950, Articles 2 and 3 — War situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina — Evacuation of refugees — Rights of male refugees — Violation of rights by Bosnian Serbs — Whether Dutchbat’s command knew, or reasonably ought to have known, at time of evacuation of real risk of violation of those rights — Whether Dutchbat acting wrongfully — Whether wrongful for Dutchbat to continue to cooperate in evacuation of refugees located in safe area outside compound — Whether wrongful for Dutchbat not to offer male refugees the choice of remaining in compound — Whether real chance that male refugees could have escaped Bosnian Serbs if remaining in compound — Estimation of chanceDamages — Claim for damages — Whether Netherlands to pay compensation — Whether order of Court of Appeal for compensation to be paid — Whether based on incorrect interpretation of law — Whether incomprehensible — Whether claim for damages could only be lodged by surviving relatives of male refugees evacuated from compound on 13 July 1995 — Whether Mothers of Srebrenica Association could claim damages — The law of the Netherlands

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From a ‘Marginal Problem’ to the ‘Supreme International Jurisdiction’

10.1093/oso/9780198857396.003.0006 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 137-175

Author(s):

Rotem Giladi

Keyword(s):

United Nations ◽

Genocide Convention ◽

International Court Of Justice ◽

International Jurisdiction ◽

Court Of Justice ◽

Marginal Problem ◽

International Court ◽

The United Nations

The first of two chapters to explore the theme protection, chapter 4 records the range of conflicting attitudes displayed by Jacob Robinson and Shabtai Rosenne towards the Genocide Convention during its drafting, with regard to and following its ratification, and at the International Court of Justice advisory proceedings on the question of reservations to the Convention. The chapter describes their early disinterest in and indifference towards the Genocide Convention as a ‘marginal problem’ on the United Nations agenda, but also the circumstances under which they came to acknowledge and appropriate the Convention’s Jewish paternity, exploit the opportunities it presented while, in private, recording their hostility towards Raphael Lemkin, its progenitor, as well as their derision of the Convention’s promise to protect Jewish existence.

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Identifying Genocide: The Yazidi Massacre in the Context of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide 1948

The Student Journal of Professional Practice and Academic Research ◽

10.19164/sjppar.v2i1.922 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 2 (1) ◽

pp. 30-49

Author(s):

Jade Potot-Warren

Keyword(s):

Human Rights ◽

United Nations ◽

Religious Conversion ◽

International Commission ◽

Genocide Convention ◽

Islamic State ◽

United Nations High Commissioner ◽

High Commissioner ◽

Syrian Arab Republic ◽

Women And Girls

In August 2014 ISIS conducted a coordinated attack on the Yazidi population of the Mount Sinjar area. As a result, the entirety of this Yazidi population was displaced[1], and an estimated total of 3,100[2] Yazidis were killed (approximately half were executed, and the rest died whilst fleeing[3]) and 6,800[4] were kidnapped and subjected to numerous abuses, including torture and forced religious conversion. The “genocide” is ongoing[5] and as of August 2014, there are an estimated 3,200[6] women and girls still in ISIS captivity. This article will explore these events in the context of the elements of genocide and with references to the findings of the Report of the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic and the Report of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights on the human rights situation in Iraq in the light of abuses committed by the so-called Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant and associated group. This article will critically examine if, and to what extent, these attacks constitute a genocide within the meaning of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide (‘Genocide Convention’) 1948.In August 2014 ISIS conducted a coordinated attack on the Yazidi population of the Mount Sinjar area. As a result, the entirety of this Yazidi population was displaced[1], and an estimated total of 3,100[2] Yazidis were killed (approximately half were executed, and the rest died whilst fleeing[3]) and 6,800[4] were kidnapped and subjected to numerous abuses, including torture and forced religious conversion. The “genocide” is ongoing[5] and as of August 2014, there are an estimated 3,200[6] women and girls still in ISIS captivity.This article will explore these events in the context of the elements of genocide and with references to the findings of the Report of the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic and the Report of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights on the human rights situation in Iraq in the light of abuses committed by the so-called Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant and associated group. This article will critically examine if, and to what extent, these attacks constitute a genocide within the meaning of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide (‘Genocide Convention’) 1948.

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Det negative omslag i ‘Aldrig igen!’ – om historiepolitiske manipulationer af moralske imperativer

Slagmark - Tidsskrift for idéhistorie ◽

10.7146/sl.v0i60.103987 ◽

2018 ◽

pp. 41-52

Author(s):

Ditte Marie Munch Hansen

Keyword(s):

United Nations ◽

20Th Century ◽

Categorical Imperative ◽

Second World War ◽

Ethnic Violence ◽

Philosophical Analysis ◽

Genocide Convention ◽

World War ◽

The United Nations ◽

Second World

In Negative Dialektik, Theodor W. Adorno claimed that after the Second World War a new categorical imperative was imposed on mankind: namely, to prevent Auschwitz – or something similar – from happening again. Today – 60 years after the United Nations Genocide Convention came into effect – it is difficult to remain optimistic about the preventive character of Adorno’s “Never Again!” imperative. In spite of its existence, the second half of the 20th Century was filled with ethnic violence andgenocide. This article undertakes a philosophical analysis of the “Never Again!” refrain and questions whether this new imperative is as preventive as we assume. The analysis looks at how Serbian nationalism used (and misused) history and expressions as “Never again!”. This example shows us that the impulse of moral abhorrence in “Never again!” does not necessarily lead to preventing atrocity, but can be an incitement to initiate new ones.

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Genocide Against Indigenous Peoples: The Experiences of the Truth Commissions of Canada and Guatemala

International Indigenous Policy Journal ◽

10.18584/iipj.2019.10.2.6 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 10 (2) ◽

pp. 1-23

Author(s):

Emmanuel Guematcha

Keyword(s):

United Nations ◽

Indigenous Peoples ◽

Truth Commissions ◽

Aboriginal Peoples ◽

Truth Commission ◽

Genocide Convention ◽

Cultural Genocide

The truth commission of Guatemala stated that a genocide was committed against Indigenous Peoples in Guatemala. The truth commission of Canada concluded that a cultural genocide was committed against Aboriginal Peoples in Canada. The article questions the contribution of the truth commissions of Guatemala and Canada to the recognition of a genocide. Their contribution is analyzed in two areas. The article argues that the work of the two truth commissions shows that the context of a country and the perception of the crime influence the findings on genocide. It also states that the work of the two truth commissions on genocide is part of a movement towards an evolution of the 1948 United Nations Genocide Convention.

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