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GENOCIDE

The term "genocide" was coined by legal scholar
Raphael Lemkin in 1943, writing:

'Generally speaking, genocide does not necessarily
mean the immediate destruction of a nation, except
when accomplished by mass killings of all members
of a nation. It is intended rather to signify a
coordinated plan of different actions aiming at the destruction of essential foundations of the life of
national groups, with the aim of annihilating the
groups themselves.

The objectives of such a plan would be the
disintegration of the political and social institutions,
of culture, language, national feelings, religion, and
the economic existence of national groups, and the destruction of personal security, liberty, health,
dignity and lives of the members of such groups...'



INTERNATIONAL LAW

gen•o•cide

...any of the following acts committed with intent
to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical,
racial or religious group, as such:

(a) Killing members of the group;
(b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to
members of the group;
(c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions
of life calculated to bring about its physical
destruction in whole or in part;
(d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births
within the group;
(e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to
another group.

— Convention on the Prevention and Punishment
of the Crime of Genocide, Article II
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