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The Formation Of The Convention On The Prevention And Punishment Of The Crime Of Genocide

Posted on:2018-09-07Degree:MasterType:Thesis
Country:ChinaCandidate:B Q XieFull Text:PDF
GTID:2416330515497913Subject:World History
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The fact of genocide is as old as humanity,however,the word "genocide" is considerably younger.The Polish scholar and jurist Raphael Lemkin created the word"genocide" in his book Axis Rule in Occupied Europe to describe what happened to the Jews and so-called undesirable groups at the hands of the Nazis.The term means the destruction of a nation or of an ethnic group which was made from the ancient Greek word genos(race,tribe)and the Latin cide(killing).The indictment of October 8,1945 against the major Nazi war criminals was the first international document to employ this neologism.It accused the defendants of conducting "deliberate and system genocide".Although Nazis were declared guilty of Crimes of Humanity in the final judgment in the Trial of the Major War Criminals instead of genocide,the judgment described at great length what was in fact the crime of genocide.The first session of the United Nations General Assembly adopted by unanimous vote the Resolution 96(1)which declared genocide as a crime under international law and requested the Economic and Social Council to undertake the necessary studies and drew up a draft convention on the crime of genocide.The first draft convention was finished by the United Nations Secretariat with the help of three expert counselors including Raphael Lemkin,and was submitted to the Second Session of the General Assembly in 1947.General Assembly Resolution 180(11)was adopted and directed the Economic and Social Council to pursue work on the draft convention.Economic and Social Council Ad Hoc Committee on Genocide prepared a new draft convention on the basis of the Secretariat draft and amendments by member states and submitted the new draft to the Sixth Committee.After the Ad Hoc Committee draft was debated article-by-article consideration and revised,the Sixth Committee draft namely the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide was submitted to the Third Session of General Assembly on 9 December 1948 and was adopted.It was the first international convention on human rights issues hosted by United Nations.The United Nations Secretariat,Economic and Social Council and the Sixth Committee mainly discussed about the issues of whether to include political groups,cultural genocide and International Criminal Tribunal etc.in the convention.Finally,the political groups and cultural genocide were excluded and the International Criminal Tribunal was referred in the annex.The Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide provides legal basis for protecting national,racial,ethnical and religious groups from persecution of genocide,it is a great achievement in protecting human rights.International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia,International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda,Office of the Special Adviser of the Secretary-General on the Prevention of Genocide and The Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide were established by United Nations to deal with the issues about genocide at present.The United Nations marked the first International Day of Commemoration and Dignity of the Victims of the Crime of Genocide and of the Prevention of this Crime to remember the victims of the "crime of crimes" and to call for action against the rise of hostility,xenophobia and intolerance across the world on December 9,2015.
Keywords/Search Tags:United Nations, the crime of genocide, The Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide
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