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Genocide as a crime under international law
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Keywords: Genocide, international law, critical geographies of human rights Abstract Type: Paper Abstract
Authors:
Jean Carmalt, City University of New York
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Abstract
The term “genocide” was coined by Polish lawyer Raphael Lemkin in 1944 to describe the practice of killing entire ethnic or national groups. The term was codified four years later in the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, which came into force in 1951 and currently has 153 State parties. Since the adoption of the Genocide Convention, the international crime of genocide has been applied to specific situations by courts around the world and its content has been debated in the context of new international institutions. The evolution of the law – including its unusual lack of formal change over the decades – demonstrates the degree to which legal and spatial politics are entwined in practice. This paper therefore maps out the current legal landscape of genocide as it exists under international law, with particular attention to the legal content of the crime and the scope of its application.