What is the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide?
The Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide is an international document that sets out the legal framework for preventing and punishing acts of genocide. It was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 1948 in the wake of the Holocaust, and it has been ratified by all member states of the United Nations. The Convention states that genocide is defined as any of the following acts committed with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group: killing members of the group; causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction; imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; and forcibly transferring children of the group to another group. The Convention establishes that genocide is a crime under both international and national law, and it classifies it as a crime against humanity. It requires countries to punish those responsible for genocide by appropriate penalties, and it establishes the International Court of Justice to oversee trials of those accused of or charged with genocide. States that are parties to the Convention are also required to take domestic measures to prevent and punish acts of genocide in their own countries. In Oregon, any violation of the Convention is treated as a felony, and is punishable by imprisonment or the death penalty. This is in order to ensure that the suffering of the victims of genocide is not repeated.
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