The 70th anniversary since the adoption of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide

06.12.2018 / 16:19 | Aktualizováno: 06.12.2018 / 16:22

The 9 December 2018 marks the 70th anniversary since the adoption of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (Paris, 1948). The Genocide Convention which has nowadays 149 States Parties was the first legally binding document to define the crime of genocide. The adoption of the Genocide Convention responded to the crimes committed during the Second World War. The definition of the crime of genocide itself was formulated by a Polish lawyer of a Jewish descent, Raphael Lemkin.
 
In the subsequent years the definition has been incorporated into other legally binding documents, among others into the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. The crime of genocide was included into the jurisdiction of international criminal courts, including international criminal tribunals established by the Security Council of the United Nations.
 
The prohibition to commit genocide constitutes a part of customary law and represents a peremptory norm, i.e. a norm accepted and recognized by the international community of states as a whole as a norm from which no derogation is permitted.