What was the 1948 genocide convention

It shall thereafter remain in force for successive periods of five years for such Contracting Parties as have not denounced it at least six months before the expiration of the current period. Denunciation shall be effected by a written notification addressed to the Secretary-General of the United Nations. If, as a result of denunciations, the number of Parties to the present Convention should become less than sixteen, the Convention shall cease to be in force as from the date on which the last of these denunciations shall become effective.

A request for the revision of the present Convention may be made at any time by any Contracting Party by means of a notification in writing addressed to the Secretary-General.

The General Assembly shall decide upon the steps, if any, to be taken in respect of such request. The original of the present Convention shall be deposited in the archives of the United Nations. A certified copy of the Convention shall be transmitted to each Member of the United Nations and to each of the non-member States contemplated in article XI.

The present Convention shall be registered by the Secretary-General of the United Nations on the date of its coming into force. All rights reserved. Policies Guidelines.

Home Page Index of Issues. Current Issue Main Page. Issue Background Materials Page. Genocide Convention. Expand Articles. Collapse Articles. Article I The Contracting Parties confirm that genocide, whether committed in time of peace or in time of war, is a crime under international law which they undertake to prevent and to punish.

Article II In the present Convention, genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religions group, as such: a Killing members of the group; b Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; c Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; d Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; e Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.

Article III The following acts shall be punishable: a Genocide; b Conspiracy to commit genocide; c Direct and public incitement to commit genocide; d Attempt to commit genocide; e Complicity in genocide. Article IV Persons committing genocide or any of the other acts enumerated in article III shall be punished, whether they are constitutionally responsible rulers, public officials or private individuals. Article V The Contracting Parties undertake to enact, in accordance with their respective Constitutions, the necessary legislation to give effect to the provisions of the present Convention and, in particular, to provide effective penalties for persons guilty of genocide or of any of the other acts enumerated in article III.

Article VI Persons charged with genocide or any of the other acts enumerated in article III shall be tried by a competent tribunal of the State in the territory of which the act was committed, or by such international penal tribunal as may have jurisdiction with respect to those Contracting Parties which shall have accepted its jurisdiction.

Learn more about the definition of the crime of genocide. That obligation, in addition to the prohibition not to commit genocide, have been considered as norms of international customary law and therefore, binding on all States, whether or not they have ratified the Genocide Convention.

Fact-sheet about the Convention English French Spanish. The Genocide Convention has been ratified or acceded to by States as of July Other 42 United Nations Member States have yet to do so. From those, 19 are from Africa, 17 from Asia and 6 from America. The ICJ bench comprising 17 judges -- one each nominated by Gambia and Myanmar -- which issued unanimous judgement, ordering Myanmar to implement at least four preventive measures to prevent genocide of Rohingya.

The case was filed on Nov. This is a stain on our collective consciousness. In a packed room where officials from the two sides remained noting the points, the verdict was read by the ICJ President Judge Abdulqawi Ahmed Yusuf -- who declared a four-month deadline for Myanmar to take preventive measures and ensure that Rohingya in the country would not be harmed.

The Convention describes genocide any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:.

The Court further observed that the provisions of the convention are intended to protect the members of a national, ethnical, racial or religious group from acts of genocide or any other punishable acts enumerated in Article 3.

It said there is a correlation between the rights of members of groups protected under the genocide convention, the obligations incumbent on states parties thereto, and the right of any state party to seek compliance therewith by another state party.