Genocide Definition

Introduction to Genocide Definition

Genocide, crime of destroying or conspiring to destroy a group of people because of their ethnic, national, racial, or religious identity. Raphael Lemkin, a Polish legal scholar, coined the term in 1944 to describe Nazi Germany’s annihilation of groups by direct murder and indirect means during World War II (1939-1945). The Nazis’ specific attempt to totally destroy the Jewish people and the Roma, or Gypsies, became known as the Holocaust. Genocide has been a crime under international law since 1951.” (1)

Resources

Notes and References

• Information about Genocide Definition in the Encarta Online Encyclopedia

Further Reading

• Abbot, K.W. (1999) International Relations Theory, International Law and the Regime Governing Atrocities in Internal Conflicts. American Journal of International Law 93 (2), 361–79.
• Ball, H. (1999) Prosecuting War Crimes and Genocide: The Twentieth Century Experience. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas.
• Bartov, O. (2003) Seeking the Roots of Modern Genocide: on the Macro- and Microhistory of Mass Murder. In R. Gellately and B. Kiernan (eds.) The Specter of Genocide: Mass Murder in Historical Perspective. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 75–96.
• Bellamy, A.J. (2008) The Responsibility to Protect and the Problem of Military Intervention. International Affairs 84 (4), 615–37.
• Bohlander, M. (2005) Can the Iraqi Special Tribunal Sentence Saddam Hussein to Death? Journal of International Criminal Justice 3 (2), 463–8.
• Cassesse, A. (2007) The Nicaraguan and Tadic Tests Revisited in the Light of the ICJ Judgement on Genocide in Bosnia. European Journal of International Law 18 (4), 649–68.
• Charny, I. (1988) The Study of Genocide. In I. Charny (ed.) Genocide: A Critical Bibliographic Review. Jerusalem: The Institute of the International Conference on the Holocaust and Genocide, 1–19.
• Chirot, D., and McCauley, C. (2006) Why Not Kill Them All: The Logic and Prevention of Mass Political Murder. Princeton, NJ, and Oxford: Princeton University Press.
• Crane, D. (2008) “Boxed In”: Semantic Indifference to Atrocity. Case Western Reserve Journal of International Law 40 (1 & 2), 137–45.
• Drumbl, M.A. (2007) Atrocity, Punishment, and International Law. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Erhard, H. (1949) The Nuremberg Trial against the Major War Criminals and International Law. American Journal of International Law 43 (2), 233–45.
• Finch, G.A. (1949) The Genocide Convention. American Journal of International Law 43 (4), 732–8.
• Fournet, C. (2007) The Crime of Destruction and the Law of Genocide: Their Impact on Collective Memory. Ashgate: Ashgate Publishing Co.
• Gaeta, P. (2007) On What Conditions Can a State Be Held Responsible for Genocide? European Journal of International Law 18 (4), 631–48.
• Gattini, A. (2007) Breach of the Obligation to Prevent and Reparation Thereof in the ICJ’s Genocide Judgment. European Journal of International Law 18 (4), 695–713.
• Gellately, R., and Kiernan, B. (eds.) (2003) The Specter of Genocide: Mass Murder in Historical Perspective. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Herik, L.V.D. (2007) The Schism between the Legal and the Social Concepts of Genocide in Light of the Responsibility to Protect. In R. Henham and P. Behrens (eds.) The Criminal Law of Genocide: International, Comparative and Contextual Elements. Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 75–95.
• Honig, W., and Both, N. (1997) Srebrenica: Record of a War Crime. New York: Penguin Books.
• International Criminal Court (2009) Prosecutor v. Bashir.
• Jorgensen, N.H.B. (2007) Genocide as a Fact of Common Knowledge. International and Comparative Law Quarterly 56 (Part 4), 885–98.
• Kress, C. (2005) The Darfur Report and Genocidal Intent. Journal of International Criminal Justice 3 (3), 562–87.
• LeBlanc, L.J. (1984) The Intent to Destroy Groups in the Genocide Convention: The Proposed U.S. Understanding. The American Journal of International Law 78 (2), 369–85.
• Lemkin, R. (1947) Genocide as a Crime Under International Law. American Journal of International Law 41 (1), 145–51.
• Lemkin, R. (1973) Axis Rule in Occupied Europe. New York: Howard Fertig.
• McCormack, G. (2003) Reflections on Modern Japanese History in the Context of the Concept of Genocide. In R. Gellately and B. Kiernan (eds.) The Specter of Mass Genocide: Mass Murder in Historical Perspective. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 265–86.
• Milanovic, M. (2007) State Responsibility for Genocide: A Follow-up. European Journal of International Law 18 (4), 669–94.
• Murphy, S.D. (1999) Progress and Jurisprudence of the International Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia. American Journal of International Law 93 (1), 57–97.
• Paust, J., Cheri, M., Bassiouni, F., Scharf, M., Gurule, J., Sadat, L., and Zagaris, B. (2007) International Criminal Law: Cases and Materials. Durham, NC: Carolina Academic Press.
• Power, S. (2002) A ‘Problem From Hell’: America and the Age of Genocide. New York: Basic Books.
• Quigley, J. (2006) The Genocide Convention: An International Law Analysis. Burlington, VT: Ashgate.
• Quigley, J. (2008) International Court of Justice as a Forum for Genocide Cases. Case Western Reserve Journal of International Law 40 (1 & 2), 243–63.
• Reisman, M. (1996) Legal Responses to Genocide and Other Massive Violations of Human Rights. Law and Contemporary Problems 59 (4), 75–80.
• Rhode, D. (1997) End Game: The Betrayal and Fall of Srebrenica. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.
• Rittner, C., Roth, J.K., and Smith, J.M (2002) Will Genocide Ever End? St. Paul: Paragon House.
• Robinson, N. (2008) The Genocide Convention: Its Origins and Interpretation. Case Western Journal of International Law 40 (1 & 2), 315ff.
• Schabas, W.A. (2000) The International Law of Genocide. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Schabas, W.A. (2003) National Courts Finally Begin to Prosecute Genocide, the “Crime of Crimes.” Journal of International Criminal Justice (1), 38–63.
• Schabas, W.A. (2004) The International Legal Prohibition of Genocide Comes of Age. Human Rights Review 54 (4), 46–56.
• Schabas, W.A. (2007) Preventing the “Odious Scourge”?: The United Nations and the Prevention of Genocide. International Journal on Minority and Group Rights 14, 379–97.
• Schabas, W.A. (2008a) State Policy As An Element of International Crime. The Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology 98 (3), 953–82.
• Schabas, W.A. (2008b) Origins of the Genocide Convention: From Nuremberg to Paris. Case Western Reserve Journal of International Law 40 (1 & 2), 35–55.
• Schick, F.B. (1947) The Nuremberg Trial and the International Law of the Future. American Journal of International Law 41 (4), 770–94.
• Segesser, D.M., and Gessler, M. (2005) Raphael Lemkin and the International Debate on the Punishment of War Crimes (1919–1948). Journal of Genocide Research 7 (4), 453–68.
• Taylor, T. (1992) The Anatomy of the Nuremberg Trials. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.
• United Nations (2004) International Commission of Inquiry on Darfur. Report to the Secretary-General.
• Uvin, P. (2001) Reading the Rwandan Genocide. International Studies Review 13 (3), 75–99.
• Valentine, B. (2004) Final Solution: Mass Killing and Genocide in the Twentieth Century. Ithaca, NY, and London: Cornell University Press.
• Van Der Vyver, J. (1999) Prosecution and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. Fordham International Law Journal 23 (2), 286–356.