Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide 1948

Objectives The Convention, a major pillar in the evolving framework of international humanitarian rules, declares genocide a crime under international law. It condemns genocide, whether committed in time of peace or in time of war. Moreover, the prescribed punishment is not subject to the limitation of time and place.

The CPPCG was adopted by the UN General Assembly on 9 December 1948 and came into effect on 12 January 1951. It contains an internationally-recognized definition of genocide which was incorporated into the national criminal legislation of many countries, and was also adopted by the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. This convention contained 19 Articles overall and the idea behind each of the article are: Art1, (genocide is an international crime) Art2 (definition), Art3 (listed 4 additional categories of crime of genocide), Art4 (denies the defence of official capacity to Heads of State and other leading political figures), Art5 (requires States to enact legislation to give effect to the Conventions provisions, and to ensure that effective penalties are provided), Art6 (exercise of universal jurisdiction over genocide), Art7 (the states are obliged to facilitate extradition when genocide charges are involved), Art 8 (a State party to the Convention may appeal to competent organs of the United Nations for them to take action pursuant to the Charter) Art 9 ( The International Court of Justice is given jurisdiction over disputes ) Art10-Art19 (The remaining provisions of the Convention are mainly technical in nature, and concern such issues as the authentic language versions, application to non-self-governing territories, entry into force, revision and denunciation)

Furthermore, the convention stipulates that persons charged with genocide shall be tried by a competent tribunal of the State in the territory in which the act was committed or by such international penal tribunal as may have jurisdiction with respect to the Contracting Parties. Unlike other human rights treaties, the Genocide Convention does not establish a specific monitoring body or expert committee. It stipulates that any Contracting Party may call upon the competent organs of the United Nations to take such action under the United Nations Charter (Art8), which they consider appropriate for the prevention and suppression of acts of genocide. Thus, the matter may be brought before the International Court of Justice which may order interim measures of protection.

Effectiveness of the UN Convention of Genocide When the Genocide Convention was passed by the United Nations in 1948, the world said, "never again. But the history of the twentieth century instead proved that "never again" became again and again.

The promise the United Nations made was broken, as again and again, genocides and other forms of mass murder killed 170 million people, more than all the international wars of the twentieth century combined. Why are there still genocides? Why are there genocidal activity going on in southern Sudan by the Sudanese government against Dinka in 2004, and why has ethnic and religious hatred again each other reached the boiling point in Israel and Palestine. There are only two reasons why genocide is still committed in the world which is first the world has not developed the international institutions needed to predict and prevent it and secondly the world's leaders do not have the political will to stop it. After the minimum 20 countries became parties to the Convention, it came into force as international law on 12 January 1951. At that time however, only two of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council (UNSC) were parties to the treaty which are France and the Republic of China. Eventually the Soviet Union ratified in 1954, the United Kingdom in 1970, and the United States in 1988. This long delay in support for the Genocide Convention by the world's most powerful nations caused the Convention to languish for over four decades. Only in the 1990s did the international law on the crime of genocide begin to be enforced. The reason why countries like United States opposes such treaty was because they were not agree in the ground to prosecute those accused of committing war crimes and crimes against humanity , including government leaders because they believed that such actions would violate sovereignty. Only after World War 2, the United States and others country changed their position and the US play the leading role in setting up The Nuremberg Tribunal to prosecute Nazi war crimes. Establishment of the International Criminal Court after the Ineffectiveness of the Unite Nation Genocide Convention

Kofi Annan, the ex-United Nations Secretary-General once said that: "For nearly half a century -- the General Assembly has recognized the need to establish such a court to prosecute and punish persons responsible for crimes such as genocide. Many thought . . . that the horrors of the Second World War -- the camps, the cruelty, the exterminations, the Holocaust -- could never happen again. And yet they have. In Cambodia, in Bosnia and Herzegovina, in Rwanda. Our time -- this decade even -- has shown us that man's capacity for evil knows no limits. Genocide . . . is now a word of our time, too, a heinous reality that calls for a historic response." International Criminal Court is a permanent tribunal to prosecute individuals for genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and the crime of aggression that is established on 1st July 2002. Eg: The International Court of Justice at The Hague. Without an international criminal court for dealing with individual responsibility as an enforcement mechanism, acts of genocide and egregious violations of human rights often go unpunished. In the last 50 years, there have been many instances of crimes against humanity and war crimes for which no individuals have been held accountable. In Cambodia in the 1970s, an estimated 2 million people were killed by the Khmer Rouge. In armed conflicts in Mozambique, Liberia, El Salvador and other countries, there has been tremendous loss of civilian life, including horrifying numbers of unarmed women and children. Massacres of civilians continue to take place at Southern Sudan in Darfur on 2004. To date, the Court has opened investigations into seven situations in Africa: such the Central African Republic in Darfur, Sudan. Situations such as those involving ethnic conflict, violence begets further violence; one slaughter is the parent of the next. The guarantee that at least some perpetrators of war crimes or genocide may be brought to justice acts as a deterrent and enhances the possibility of bringing a conflict to an end. Two ad hoc international criminal tribunals, one for the former Yugoslavia and another for Rwanda, were created in this decade with the hope of hastening the end of the violence and preventing its recurrence. The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) is an international court established in November 1994 by the United Nations Security Council in Resolution 955 in order to judge people responsible for the Rwandan Genocide and other serious violations of international law in Rwanda, or by Rwandan citizens in nearby states, between 1 January and 31 December 1994. Meanwhile, The International Tribunal for the

Prosecution of Persons Responsible for Serious Violations of International Humanitarian Law Committed in the Territory of the Former Yugoslavia since 1991, more commonly referred to as the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia or ICTY, is a body of the United Nations established to prosecute serious crimes committed during the wars in the former Yugoslavia, and to try their perpetrators. The Latest Form of Genocide The latest genocide occurred in Darfur which begins in the year of 2003. DARFUR GENOCIDE Darfur is a region in Sudan, home to about 6 million people from nearly 100 tribes. Some nomads. Some farmers. All Muslims. The Darfur Conflict was a guerrilla conflict or civil war centred on the Darfur region of Sudan. It began in February 2003 when the Sudan Liberation Movement/Army (SLM/A) and Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) groups in Darfur took up arms, accusing the Sudanese government of oppressing non-Arab Sudanese in favour of Sudanese Arabs. Over 400 villages were completely destroyed and millions of civilians were forced to flee their homes. In the ongoing genocide, African farmers and others in Darfur are being systematically displaced and murdered at the hands of the Janjaweed. The genocide in Darfur has claimed 400,000 lives and displaced over 2,500,000 people. More than one hundred people continue to die each day; five thousand die every month. The Sudanese government appears unwilling to address the human rights crisis in the region and has not taken the necessary steps to restrict the activities of the Janjaweed. In June 2005, the International Criminal Court (ICC) took the first step in ending impunity in Darfur by launching investigations into human rights violations in Darfur. However, the government of Sudan refused to cooperate with the investigations. On March 4, 2009 Sudanese President Omar al Bashir, became the first sitting president to be indicted by ICC for directing a campaign of mass killing, rape, and pillage against civilians in Darfur. The arrest warrant for Bashir follows arrest warrants issued by the ICC for former Sudanese Minister of State for the Interior Ahmad Harun and Janjaweed militia leader Ali Kushayb. The government of Sudan has not surrendered either suspect to the ICC. Darfuris today continue to suffer and the innumerable problems facing Sudan cannot be resolved until peace is secured in Darfur. According to UN estimates, 2.7 million Darfuris remain in internally displaced persons camps and over 4.7 million Darfuris rely on humanitarian aid. Resolving the Darfur conflict is critical not just for the people of Darfur, but also for the future of Sudan and the stability of the entire region ... To deter future war criminals against genocide...

Most perpetrators of war crimes and crimes against humanity throughout history have gone unpunished. In spite of the Genocide Convention that is not working out effectively and the International Court Criminal and the two recent ad hoc International Criminal Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and for Rwanda that is created to stop genocide, unfortunately, the same holds true for the twentieth century. That being said, it is reasonable to conclude that most perpetrators of such atrocities have believed that their crimes would go unpunished. Effective deterrence is a primary objective of those working to establish the international criminal court. Once it is clear that the international community will no longer tolerate such monstrous acts without assigning responsibility and meting out appropriate punishment either to the heads of State and commanding officers as well as to the lowliest soldiers in the field or militia recruits , it is hoped that those who would incite a genocide; (either embarking on a campaign of ethnic cleansing; murder, rape and brutalize civilians caught in an armed conflict; or use children for barbarous medical experiments) or whatsoever crimes that is against human rights will no longer find willing helpers.