THE CRIME OF GENOCIDE AND ITS CATASTROPHIC CONSEQUENCES IN INTERNATIONAL LAW

Abstract

The discourse on the legal concept of genocide as an international crime and its catastrophic consequences in international law is a relatively recent development. However, the discourse as to whether people have been committing acts of genocide is as old as humankind. The purpose of criminalizing acts of genocide is aimed at protecting and preserving certain groups from total decimation or arbitrary elimination. Genocide has been restyled the crime of crimes or the supreme crime because of its catastrophic dimension and nature. This paper seeks to examine the dynamic conceptualization, the classical component and the analytical anatomy of the crime of genocide as well as provides a methodological perusal of the elements of the crime. This paper submits that the existence of a crime of genocide involves a consolidated catastrophic act and intent. It is this combined effect that crystallizes and forms the required intent to destroy a protected group. In other words, the mere import of a person’s intendment, by way of committing one of the fundamental offences which can be classified as the destruction of a group should not be considered as a true reflection and interpretation of the legal meaning of a genocidal intent and purpose. Any other type of interpretation is absolutely in contradistinction to the intuitive definition ascribed to the various categories of protected persons or groups. Therefore, care must be taken not to mistake the crime of genocide for an unquantified violation of gigantic human rights which is based on a discriminatory motive. Attempts to intellectually expand and deeply broaden the meaning of the words ‘intent, destroy, and part’ have possibly led to the over-explication of the definition of the crime of genocide. This paper recommends that the word ‘intent’ will suggest that those who commit such unauthorized act have the mind to carry out a plot that targets members of a secured group with the primary aim of eradicating that group completely or in high proportion.