GENOCIDE
CONVENTION - INTERNATIONAL
News:
ICJ genocide case against
Israel: What South Africa argued on Day 1
What's
in the news?
●
The International Court of Justice (ICJ)
commenced hearing South Africa’s genocide case against Israel.
Key
takeaways:
●
South Africa has argued that Israel, in
its relentless assault on Gaza, has transgressed Article 2 of the 1948 Genocide
Convention.
Genocide
Convention:
●
The Convention
on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (Genocide
Convention) is an instrument of international law.
●
The Genocide Convention was the first
human rights treaty adopted by the
General Assembly of the UN on 9 December 1948.
Objective:
●
It signified the international community’s
commitment to ‘never again’ after the atrocities committed during the Second
World War.
●
Its adoption marked a crucial step towards
the development of international human rights and international criminal law as
we know it today.
Features:
●
The Convention stipulates that genocide is a crime that can occur both in
times of war and peace.
●
It provides a comprehensive definition of genocide, encompassing acts committed
with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial,
or religious group.
●
Signatory countries can request relevant
UN organs to take necessary actions to prevent and suppress acts of genocide.
●
Convention establishes on State Parties the obligation to take
measures to prevent and to punish the crime of genocide, including by
enacting relevant legislation and punishing perpetrators, “whether they are
constitutionally responsible rulers, public officials or private individuals”
(Article IV).
Key
Articles:
●
Article
I
- prevent genocide and punish genocide.
●
Article
II
- defines the term “genocide” to mean “acts committed with intent to destroy,
wholly or partly, a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group”.
●
Article
V
- enact legislation to give effect to the convention, effective penalties for
those guilty of the crime.
●
Article
VI
- try those charged with genocide in a competent tribunal.
Members:
●
More than 150 countries were the parties to the convention.
●
India
is a signatory to this convention.
Acts
constitute Genocide:
The Convention specifies
five acts that constitute genocide:
●
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.
●
Forcibly transferring children of the
group to another group.