Genocide – International Legal Research Guide

Stacy Roberts, Nova Southeastern University Shepard Broad Law Center J.D. Candidate 2010, Rollins College Bachelors of Arts in International Affairs 2006.

Last Updated 4/19/09

Contents

  • Overview
  • Introductory Texts
  • List of Key Abbreviations
  • Dictionaries and Directories
  • Treaties
  • Principle Institutions
  • Legislation
  • Case Law
  • Selected Journals
  • Secondary Sources
  • Blogs
  • Multimedia
  • RSS Feeds
  • Tutorial Feeds
  • Research Guides
  • Example
  • Conclusion
  • Suggestions for Further Reading

Brief Overview

  • This is a research guide for those interested in or researching the elements of, current situations, and impact of genocide. This guide includes the definitions, legal references, institutions and treaties involved with this topic. The laws, knowledge, and prevention of genocide continue to expand, and therefore, this list is not exhaustive.
  • Dates to Remember:
  • 8 December 2008 was the 60th Anniversary of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide
  • Holocaust Remembrance Day (Yom Hashoah)– April 21, 2009
  • The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum offers various links on this website about the meaning and events for Remembrance Day in the United States. The International Holocaust Remembrance date is January 27th and there is a link to this on the USHMM site.

Introductory Texts

  • Kiernan, B. (2007). Blood and soil: A world history of genocide and extermination from Sparta to Darfur. New Haven: Yale University Press.
  • Examines the genocides from the Holocaust to Cambodia to Rwanda, identifying patterns and features that give warning of future genocide.
  • Dallaire, R., & Beardsley, B. (2005). Shake hands with the devil: The failure of humanity in Rwanda. New York, NY: Carroll & Graf.
  • Dallaire was the head of the U.N. peacekeeping mission to Rwanda and this book recounts his inside story of the genocide and what went wrong.
  • Weitz, E. D. (2003). A century of genocide: Utopias of race and nation. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
  • Includes depictions and accounts of genocides of the twentieth century from records, memoirs, and novels, drawing distinctions and comparisons between each.

List of Key Abbreviations

  • UN – United Nations
  • OHCHR – Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights
  • HRW – Human Rights Watch
  • ICC – International Criminal Court
  • ICTR – International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda
  • ICTY – International Criminal Tribunal for Yugoslavia

Dictionaries and Directories

  • United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
  • Searching “Genocide” provides a list of definitions, articles, and timelines for past and present genocides.
  • Totten, S., Bartrop, P. R., & Jacobs, S. L. (2008). Dictionary of genocide. Westport, Conn: Greenwood Press.

Treaties

  • The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations in 1948)
  • Convention on the Prevention and the Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (also known as the Genocide Convention, made genocide a crime under international law)
  • Statute of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (provides for the establishment of the Tribunal, the crimes to be prosecuted, jurisdiction and various rules of procedure)
  • Statute of the International Criminal Tribunal for Yugoslavia (similar to Statute for Rwanda, updated Sept. 2008 including amendments and resolutions)

Principle Institutions

  • United Nations (UN) – International body consisting of several institutions that monitor economic and social developments, peace and security, and various human rights.
  • International Criminal Court (ICC) – An independent international organization developed to help prosecute perpetrators of the most serious international crimes.
  • Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) –Currently Navanethem Pillay, the OHCHR is the principle human rights official of the United Nations.
  • United States Holocaust Memorial Museum – A living memorial to the Holocaust located in the National Mall in Washington D.C., that stimulates leaders and citizens to confront and prevent genocide.
  • Genocide Watch – Has a mission to predict and prevent genocide, while influencing awareness and public policy on genocide.
  • Prevent Genocide International – Established as an educational network for the prevention of genocide.
  • Human Rights Watch – Independent organization dedicated to defending and protecting human rights by bringing international attention to human rights violations.
  • Museum of Tolerance (online multimedia learning center) - Focusing primarily on the Holocaust, including resources, texts, and photos.

Legislation

  • United States Code, Chapter 50A, Section 1091 - Genocide
  • Westlaw – 18 USCA 1091

Case Law

  • International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda – Status of Cases
  • Link directs you to the ICTR website – click on the link to the left “Cases” and then “Status of Cases” for a full list of the pending and completed cases
  • Proceedings, judgments, and pending cases for the genocide in Rwanda
  • International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia – The Cases
  • Cases on genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity in the Balkans
  • The International Military Tribunal for Germany – The Nuremberg Trials
  • Collection of proceedings, orders, motions, testimony and other documents from the Nuremberg Trials after World War II.
  • European Court of Human Rights
  • Can search for “genocide” in opinions, law, text, etc.
  • WorldLii
  • Can search for “genocide” under the Courts & Case law under Human Rights
  • Westlaw – (password required) All Databases > Topical Materials by Area of Practice > International Law (see also International/Worldwide Materials)
  • Provides searches for International Court of Justice, the International Criminal Tribunals for Rwanda, and Yugoslavia, and other international laws/courts
  • LexisNexis – (password required) Legal > Area of Law – By Topic > International Law
  • Provides searches under the International Court of Justice, and in Human Rights cases

Selected Journals

  • Indexes
  • WorldLii > Categories > Subjects > Human Rights > Other Indexes & Bibliographies
  • Genocide is a serious human rights violation and this list of Indexes may be helpful as a guide.
  • Selected Articles
  • The Genocide Convention After Fifty Years: Contemporary Strategies for Combating a Crime Against Humanity, Steven R. Ratner, 92 Am. Soc’y Int’l L. Proc. 1 (1998)
  • International Crimes in Darfur, Seunghyun Nam, 10 Int’l Peacekeeping 169 (2005)

Secondary Sources

  • Law Review/Journal Articles
  • The 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide: Forty-Five Years Later, Matthew Lipman, 8 Temp. Int’l & Comp. L. J. 1 (Article establishes that since genocide continues today the Genocide Convention should be reviewed and possibly reformed)
  • Lexis Nexis (password required) – International Law > Search Law Reviews and Journals > International Law Review Articles Combined
  • The Oversight of the Last Great International Institution of the Twentieth Century: The International Criminal Court’s Definition of Genocide, Sonali Shah, 16 Emory Int’l L. Rev. 351 (Article provides insight into the ICC’s adoption of the definition of genocide from the Genocide Convention)
  • Lexis Nexis (password required) – International Law > Search Law Reviews and Journals > International Law Review Articles Combined
  • Books
  • The Contribution of the Rwanda Tribunal to the Development of International Law, L.J. van den Herik (Author analyzes the establishment, operation, case law, and development of int’l law)
  • Georgetown Law Library Catalog (INTL KZ1201.A12 H47 2005)
  • Implementing International Humanitarian Law: From the ad hoc tribunals to a permanent International Criminal Court, Yusuf Aksar (Author analyzes the establishment of the ICTY and ICTR by the UN Security Council as leading the way to establishment of the ICC)
  • Georgetown Law Library Catalog (INTL KZ 6471.A39 2004)
  • International Criminal Practice: the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, the Special Court of Sierra Leone, the East Timor Special Panel for Serious Crimes, war crimes prosecutions in Kosovo, John R.W.D. Jones and Steve Powles (Examines the laws and practices of the ICTY, ICTR, the International Criminal Court, and the Special Court for Sierra Leone)
  • Georgetown Law Library Catalog (KZ6310.J66 2003)
  • International crimes and the ad hoc tribunals, Guenhael Mettraux (Detailed analysis of the laws and crimes of the ICTY and ICTR)
  • Georgetown Law Library Catalog (INTL K5301.M48 2005)
  • Internationalized criminal courts and tribunals: Sierra Leone, East Timor, Kosovo, and Cambodia, edited by Cesare P.R. Romano, Andre Nollkaemper, and Jann K. Kleffner (based on conference held in Amsterdam on Jan. 25-26, 2002)
  • Georgetown Law Library Catalog (INTL KZ6310.I584 2004)

Blogs

  • Jurist – includes various blogs on Genocide, mostly news related
  • Blawg–hundreds of blogs on news, prevention, and conferences
  • USHMM.org – voices of genocide prevention, blogs from various sources on news relating to prosecution and prevention

Multimedia

  • Video
  • HRW – Five Years On (Darfur)– picture and informative video on the current situation in Darfur
  • High Commissioner message on Genocide – video of Navanethem Pillay speaking on the 60th Anniversary of the Genocide Convention regarding the definition of genocide and the responsibilities of States
  • Rwandan Genocide – informative video with dates and explanation (includes some graphic pictures)
  • Powerpoint
  • Gregory Stanton, Eight Stages of Genocide
  • Podcasts
  • Voices of Genocide Prevention
  • Extensive list of podcasts on genocide. Bi-weekly audio postings from the USHMM

RSS Feeds

  • Change.org, Stop Genocide Blog
  • Feeds from the list of blogs on genocide from Change.org
  • Voice on Genocide Prevention
  • Feeds from the USHMM blogs on genocide from the USHMM

Tutorial Feeds

  • Never Again – informative, interactive site including photos, testimony, and definitions focusing on the Rwandan Genocide
  • Failing Darfur Timeline – interactive timeline of events in Darfur from 2003 to 2008, includes written explanations and links to videos
  • Genocide in the 21st Century – picture and informative narrative of the genocides and lack of intervention in the 20th and 21st Centuries

Research Guides

  • Georgetown Law Library War Crimes Research Guide
  • Helpful guide to institutions, instruments, courts, and databases in researching war crimes, including genocide.

Example

  • Question: A professor wants to know how many cases have been decided on genocide issues by UN sponsored tribunals. What resources would you refer the professor to determine this question?
  • Answer: There are a few places one could find how many cases have been decided on genocide issues in UN sponsored Tribunals, however, the clearest source are the websites provided by the ICTR and the ICTY where you can find a list of cases and the full text of completed and pending cases. On the ICTY website this information is under “The Cases” and the “Completed Cases” tab. On the ICTR website this is under “Cases,” “Status of Cases,” and then under the “Completed Cases” listing.
  • Also note the Nuremberg Trials for the Holocaust were not set up by the UN and at the time the term ‘genocide’ was not yet used, therefore, the cases on the Nuremberg website would be listed under “War Crimes” and “Crimes against Humanity.”

Conclusion

  • The sources for genocide vary from emotionally wrenching videos and firsthand accounts to the establishment and interpretation of laws regarding genocide. Researching this topic can be very time consuming, however, there are numerous sites available to clarify and narrow that research based on the type of information one wishes to find.

Suggestions for Further Reading

  • Madeleine K. Albright and William S. Cohen, Preventing Genocide: A Blueprint for U.S. Policymakers (2008)
  • The Genocide Prevention Task Force consisting of The U.S. Holocaust Museum, The American Academy of Diplomacy, and the United States Institute of Peace and Co-chaired by Madeleine Albright and William Cohen convened in 2007 and released this report in time for the 60th Anniversary of the Genocide Convention.
  • James T. Fussell, A Crime Without a Name (describing genocide before it was a crime and how it got its name)
  • Raphael Lemkin, Genocide – A Modern Crime, Free World magazine, Vol. 9, No. 4 (April 1945), pg. 39-43
  • Raphael Lemkin, Genocide as a Crime under International Law, American Journal of International Law, Vol. 41, No. 1 (1947), pg. 145-151 (describing the term genocide, the UN General Assembly, Resolutions, and Intervention)
  • Dr. Gregory H. Stanton, How Can We Prevent Genocide
  • Secretary General to the United Nations, Report on the Prevention of Genocide (2008)