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Crime Shobhit Syn and Com
Crime Shobhit Syn and Com
Lemkin in this article stresses on the importance of Recogonition of global crimes like
Genocide. This he substantiate by giving briefs of the genocides the world had to witness during the
inter war period and second world war. The paper explains how then the laws can be framed in order to
deal with such hieneous crimes both through international covenants, treaties and national penal laws.
The paper is written in context of the U.N. CONVENTION ON GENOCIDE, that elaborates
on the principles of the punishment that follows through the liabilities that fall on the people behind
genocidal acts. It also sets an exhaustive set of principles that each nation and the whole global world
should adpot in order to do away with a crime of mass destruction of human life and culture.
The proceedings of the international tribunal are reviewd in the case of yugoslavia that has broadened
the scope of the definition of Genocide. From defining it to incurring consequences that perpetrate
from a genocidal crime. To understand which, the paper explains the genocidal happenings in
Yugoslavia in the aftermath of the Cold War.
Stanton has formulated eight stages of genocide in order to infer the specific intent behind a genocide.
These eights stages in an increasing order are: Classification, Symbolisation, Dehumanisation,
Organisation, Polarisation, Preparation, Extermination and Denial. Hence provides for an analogy to
determine the happening of a genocide.
1. Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, Dec. 9 1948, S. Exec.
Doc. O, 81-1 (1949), 78 U.N.T.S. 277
The convention is one of the very first doccumentation on laws relating to and penalizing the
crime of Genocide. It sets a treaty between the member states to prevent genocide in the world by
laying down laws that are binding in the International Court of Justice.
2. UN Security Council,Statute of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia
(as amended on 17 May 2002), 25 May 1993
In May 1993, the Tribunal was established by the United Nations in response to mass atrocities then
taking place in Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina. Reports depicting horrendous crimes, in which
thousands of civilians were being killed and wounded, tortured and sexually abused in detention camps
and hundreds of thousands expelled from their homes, caused outrage across the world and spurred the
UN Security Council to act.
The ICTY was the first war crimes court created by the UN and the first international war crimes tribunal since the
Nuremberg and Tokyo tribunals. It was established by the Security Council in accordance with Chapter VII of the UN
Charter.
BOOKS
1. Case Concerning Application of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of
Genocide (Bosnia-Herzegovina v. Yugoslavia),International Court of Justice (ICJ),11 July 1996.
2. BEFORE THE SPECIAL COURT, DESIGNATED FOR CONDUCTING THE SPEEDY TRIAL
OF RIOT CASES, SITUATED AT OLD HIGH COURT BUILDING, NAVRANGPURA,
AHMEDABAD. SESSIONS CASE NO.235 OF 2009 CONNECTED WITH SESSIONS CASE
NO.236 OF 2009 AND SESSIONS CASE NO.241 OF 2009 AND SESSIONS CASE NO.242 OF 2009
AND SESSIONS CASE NO.243 OF 2009 AND SESSIONS CASE NO.245 OF 2009 AND SESSIONS
CASE NO.246 OF 2009 AND SESSIONS CASE NO.270 OF 2009.
INTRODUCTION
Winston Churchill connoted to Genocide by calling the then unrecogonized crime of Genocide as ‘the
crime without a name’1. recovering from the aftermath of the Second World War the world had face the
problem of mass destruction of national, ethnic, racial or religious groups and hence Raphael Lemkin
coined the term ‘Genocide’2 in 1944 afterwhich the world view was shifted to one of the most heineous
crimes against humanity. The United Nations that succeded the league of nations had overcome the
problems faced by the predecessor in accomplishing world peace and prosperity.
The United nations took the world stage in 1948 to come out with a probable solution to put the crimes
of genocidal level to rest once and for all. Hence, subsequently the Convention on the Prevention and
Punishment of the crime of Genocide(CPP), 1948, that required every member nation to make the
necessary provisions required to curtail Genocidal activities and also prescribed the punishmnts and
consequences of such crimes.
This study is primarily concerned with genocide as a legal nomenclature. But to analysie the current
standing of Law, both Nationally and Internationally, the origins of the criminalisation of Genocide
aster its recogonition as an offence are first to be understood. This was based on the princilp;e that
persecution of ethnic national or relegious minorities is not only immoral but can give rise to legal
liablities.
As a general perspective to the crime of Genocide, its deemed anti social s it overlapse the crimes of
murder and homicide. But the question that now arises is that if this was the scenario then Why was it
recogonised as late as it did in the world? The answer to this lies in the concept of nation states and
sovereignty as every state has the power to make their own laws. Genocide always virtually escaped
prosecution as it was committed at the command and with the complicity of those in power. Therfore
its of the utmost importance to analyse the criminal liability that the present laws incur upon the
criminals of genocide to align and adjust them with the needs of the 21st century.
1
Leo Kuper, Genocide; its political use in the 20th century. (Yale Unversity Press)(1981).
2
RaphAel Lemkin, axis rule in occupied europe. (Endowment for World Peace)(1944)
METHEDOLOGY AND STRUCTURE
The paper will deal with the crime of Genocide and its repercussions that have been enumerated in the
laws of different state and more importantly in the international conventions and treatise as genocide,
though recogonised in the charter of CPP as a crime against Nations but today has been broadened as a
crime against the whole of Humanity.
The paper will follow the below mentioned chapterisation as it will proceed step by step towards the
analysis and consequences of Genocide in the world.
CHAPTERISATION
1. INTRODUCTION
6. CONCLUSION
MAHARASHTRA NATIONAL LAW UNIVERSITY, MUMBAI
LAW OF CRIMES – 1
SYNOPSIS
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