Jump to: navigation , search e Genocide is the systematic destruction of all or a significant part of a racial , ethnic , religious or national group . Well-known examples of genocide include the Holocaust , the Armenian genocide , the Bosnian Genocide , and more recently the Rwandan genocide . 5 Genocide in history Etymology [ edit ] Raphael Lemkin , in his work Axis Rule in Occupied Europe (1944), coined the term "genocide " by combining Greek genos (), "race , people" and Latin cdere "to kill ". [1] Generally speaking , genocide does not necessarily mean the immediate destruction of a nation , except when accomplished by mass killings of all members of a nation . It is intended rather to signify a coordinated plan of different actions aiming at the destruction of essential foundations of the life of national groups , with the aim of annihilating the groups themselves. The objectives of such a plan would be the disintegration of the political and social institutions , of culture , language , national feelings, religion , and the economic existence of national groups , and the destruction of the personal security , liberty , health , dignity , and even the lives of the individuals belonging to such groups . The preamble to the Genocide Convention ("CPPCG ") notes that instances of genocide have taken place throughout history , [2] but it was not until Lemkin coined the term and the prosecution of perpetrators of the Holocaust at the Nuremberg trials that the United Nations defined the crime of genocide under international law in the Genocide Convention . During an interview with Lemkin , the interviewer asked him about how he came to be interested in this genocide . He replied: "I became interested in genocide because it happened so many times . It happened to the Armenians , then after the Armenians , Hitler took action ." [3] [4] Lemkin was also a close relative of genocide victims, losing 49 relatives in the Holocaust . However, his work on defining genocide as a crime dates to 1933, and it was prompted by the Simele massacre in Iraq . [5] International law [ edit ] Buchenwald concentration camp was not an extermination camp , though it was responsible for a vast number of deaths After the Holocaust , which had been perpetrated by the Nazi Germany and its allies prior to and during World War II , Lemkin successfully campaigned for the universal acceptance of international laws defining and forbidding genocide . In 1946, the first session of the United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution that "affirmed " that genocide was a crime under international law , but did not provide a legal definition of the crime . In 1948, the UN General Assembly adopted the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (CPPCG ) which defined the crime of genocide for the first time . [6] The CPPCG was adopted by the UN General Assembly on 9 December 1948 and came into effect on 12 January 1951 (Resolution 260 (III )). It contains an internationally recognized definition of genocide which has been incorporated into the national criminal legislation of many countries, and was also adopted by the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court , which established the International Criminal Court (ICC ). Article II of the Convention defines genocide as: ...any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy , in whole or in part , a national , ethnical , racial or religious group , as such: (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 ; The first draft of the Convention included political killings , but these provisions were removed in a political and diplomatic compromise following objections from some countries, including the USSR , a permanent security council member . [7] [8] The USSR argued that the Convention 's definition should follow the etymology of the term , [8] and may have feared greater international scrutiny of its own Great Purge . [7] Other nations feared that including political groups in the definition would invite international intervention in domestic politics . [8] The Convention was manifestly adopted for humanitarian and civilizing purposes . Its objectives are to safeguard the very existence of certain human groups and to affirm and emphasize the most elementary principles of humanity and morality . In view of the rights involved , the legal obligations to refrain from genocide are recognized as erga omnes . When the Convention was drafted , it was already envisaged that it would apply not only to then existing forms of genocide , but also "to any method that might be evolved in the future with a view to destroying the physical existence of a group ". [9] As emphasized in the preamble to the Convention , genocide has marred all periods of history , and it is this very tragic recognition that gives the concept its historical evolutionary nature . The Convention must be interpreted in good faith , in accordance with the ordinary meaning of its terms , in their context , and in the light of its object and purpose . Moreover , the text of the Convention should be interpreted in such a way that a reason and a meaning can be attributed to every word . No word or provision may be disregarded or treated as superfluous, unless this is absolutely necessary to give effect to the terms read as a whole. [10] Genocide is a crime under international law regardless of "whether committed in time of peace or in time of war" (art . I). Thus , irrespective of the context in which it occurs (for example, peace time , internal strife , international armed conflict or whatever the general overall situation) genocide is a punishable international crime . UN Commission of Experts that examined violations of international humanitarian law committed in the territory of the former Yugoslavia . [11] "Intent to destroy "[ edit ] In 2007 the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR ), noted in its judgement on Jorgic v. Germany case that in 1992 the majority of legal scholars took the narrow view that "intent to destroy " in the CPPCG meant the intended physical-biological destruction of the protected group and that this was still the majority opinion . But the ECHR also noted that a minority took a broader view and did not consider biological-physical destruction was necessary as the intent to destroy a national , racial , religious or ethnic group was enough to qualify as genocide . [12] In the same judgement the ECHR reviewed the judgements of several international and municipal courts judgements. It noted that International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia and the International Court of Justice had agreed with the narrow interpretation , that biological-physical destruction was necessary for an act to qualify as genocide . The ECHR also noted that at the time of its judgement, apart from courts in German