Genocide definitions include both scholarly and legal definitions of genocide. Coined by Raphael Lemkin in 1944, the word is a compound of the ancient Greek word γένος (génos, 'genus', or 'kind') and the Latin word caedō ("kill"). While there are various definitions of the term, almost all international bodies of law officially adjudicate the crime of genocide pursuant to the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (CPPCG), also called the Genocide Convention. The international legal definition is narrower than various sociological and cultural definitions of genocide, narrower than the public perception of what this word means, and also narrower than the legal definition of crimes against humanity. From a legal perspective, crimes against humanity are distinct from genocide, but can sometimes be just as heinous, according to the International Commission of Inquiry on Darfur. The Genocide Convention and nearly all genocide scholars include an intent to destroy as a requirement for any act to be labelled genocide. While many scholars also acknowledge cultural genocide as a form of genocide, there is general agreement that cultural destruction must also be accompanied by physical destruction to be called genocide. The Convention was a legal instrument resulting from a diplomatic compromise; the wording of the treaty was not intended to be a definition suitable as a research tool, and although it is used for this purpose, as it has an international legal credibility that others lack, other definitions have also been postulated. Rouben Paul Adalian writing in 2002 highlights the difficulty of trying to develop a common definition for genocide among specialists.
Legal definition of genocide The 1948 Genocide Convention defines genocide as any of five "acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group". The acts in question include killing members of the group, causing them serious bodily or mental harm, imposing living conditions intended to destroy the group, preventing births, and forcibly transferring children out of the group. Genocide is a crime of special intent (dolus specialis); it is carried out deliberately, with victims targeted based on real or perceived membership in a protected group. The Genocide Convention's words "in whole or in part" were interpreted by the International Court of Justice in 2007 as follows:
[S]ince the object and purpose of the Convention as a whole is to prevent the intentional destruction of groups, the part targeted must be significant enough to have an impact on the group as a whole. United States law also addresses this point. The 1987 statute implementing the Genocide Convention says that the words "in part" mean "in substantial part" and furthermore:
[T]he term "substantial part" means a part of a group of such numerical significance that the destruction or loss of that part would cause the destruction of the group as a viable entity within the nation of which such group is a part. The genocides recognized under the 1948 legal definition that led to trials in international criminal tribunals are the Cambodian genocide, the Rwandan genocide, and the Srebrenica massacre. But, the International Court of Justice has never held a state liable for genocide. There has been scholarly advocacy for expanding or reinforcing the concept of genocide, while others adhere to the original meaning under the Genocide Convention.
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