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Email this citationCIAO DATE: 05/05
Genocide in Darfur: A Legal Analysis
September 2004
Abstract
The purpose of this memorandum is to ascertain whether the acts of violence and aggression in Darfur, Sudan meet the legal standard for genocide as set forth in the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (Genocide Convention). The memorandum concludes there is sufficient evidence to meet the legal requirements for a determination that genocide is occurring in Darfur, Sudan.
The Elements of the Crime of Genocide
Article II of the 1948 United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide defines genocide as the following: Genocide means 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.
This language highlights three important elements. First, the victims must constitute a national, ethnical, racial, or religious group. Second, the Convention dictates that certain enumerated acts of harm or willful neglect must have been inflicted upon members of such a group. Third, those acts of harm must have been undertaken with the intent to destroy or partially destroy the group. Each of these three elements must be present to constitute genocide.
