The United Nations Genocide Convention

THE UNCG is a complicated piece of international law. This book, authored by two experts on the topic of genocide, enables readers to more accurately analyze these horrific events.

Genocide is acknowledged as 'the crime of crimes'. This book is the product of an encounter between scholars of historical and legal disciplines which have joined forces to address the question of whether the legal concept of genocide still corresponds with the historical and social perception of the phenomenon.

How both the Soviet Union and the United States manipulated and weakened the drafting of the United Nations Genocide Convention treaty in the midst of the Cold War.

The Convention for the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on 9 December 1948, is one of the most important instruments of contemporary international law. It was drafted in the aftermath of the Nuremberg trial to give flesh and blood to the well-known dictum of the International Military Tribunal, according to which 'Crimes against international law are committed by men, not by abstract entities, and only by punishing individuals who commit such crimes can the provisions of international law be enforced'. At Nuremberg, senior state officials who had committed heinous crimes on behalf or with the protection of their state were brought to trial for the first time in history and were held personally accountable regardless of whether they acted in their official capacity. The drafters of the Convention on Genocide crystallized the results of the Nuremberg trial and thus ensured its legacy. The Convention established a mechanism to hold those who committed or participated in the commission of genocide, the crime of crimes, criminally responsible. Almost fifty years before the adoption of the Rome Statute, the Convention laid the foundations for the establishment of the International Criminal Court. It also obliged its Contracting Parties to criminalize and punish genocide. This book is a much-needed Commentary on the Genocide Convention. It analyzes and interprets the Convention thematically, thoroughly covering every article, drawing on the Convention's travaux preparatoires and subsequent developments in international law. The most complex and important provisions of the Convention, including the definitions of genocide and genocidal acts, have more than one contribution dedicated to them, allowing the Commentary to explore all aspects of these concepts. The Commentary also goes beyond the explicit provisions of the Convention to discuss topics such as the retroactive application of the Convention, its status in customary international law and its future. "

Responsibility to Protect: Research, bibliography, background. Supplementary volume to the Report of the International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty

"In this study Polish emigre Raphael Lemkin (1900-1959) coined the term 'genocide' and defined it as a subject of international law"--Provided by publisher.

In 1948 the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide was adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations. Thereby genocide was defined as an international crime. Sixty years after its adoption, the prosecution of the crime of genocide still raises multiple questions. Although genocide was not a crime during the Nuremberg Trial its historic roots rest with the persecution of Jews and other minorities by Nazi-Germany. Because of this historic focus the legal definition of genocide is difficult to apply to other conflicts. Bringing together scholars and practitioners, this volume of essays examines the Genocide Convention from historic, legal and social science perspectives. Contemporary witnesses also report on their experiences of the Nuremberg, the Eichmann and the Auschwitz trials.