Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface to the first edition
- Preface to the second edition
- Acknowledgments
- List of abbreviations
- Introduction
- 1 Origins of the legal prohibition of genocide
- 2 Drafting of the Convention and subsequent normative developments
- 3 Groups protected by the Convention
- 4 The physical element or actus reus of genocide
- 5 The mental element or mens rea of genocide
- 6 ‘Other acts’ of genocide
- 7 Defences to genocide
- 8 Prosecution of genocide by international and domestic tribunals
- 9 State responsibility and the role of the International Court of Justice
- 10 Prevention of genocide
- 11 Treaty law questions and the Convention
- Conclusions
- Appendix: The three principal drafts of the Convention
- Bibliography
- Index
6 - ‘Other acts’ of genocide
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 July 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface to the first edition
- Preface to the second edition
- Acknowledgments
- List of abbreviations
- Introduction
- 1 Origins of the legal prohibition of genocide
- 2 Drafting of the Convention and subsequent normative developments
- 3 Groups protected by the Convention
- 4 The physical element or actus reus of genocide
- 5 The mental element or mens rea of genocide
- 6 ‘Other acts’ of genocide
- 7 Defences to genocide
- 8 Prosecution of genocide by international and domestic tribunals
- 9 State responsibility and the role of the International Court of Justice
- 10 Prevention of genocide
- 11 Treaty law questions and the Convention
- Conclusions
- Appendix: The three principal drafts of the Convention
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
In addition to genocide itself, which is defined in article II of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, article III describes four forms of participation in the crime: conspiracy, direct and public incitement, attempt and complicity. These are the ‘other acts’ mentioned in articles IV, V, VI, VII, VIII and IX. With its reference to ‘genocide’ in the first paragraph of article III, the Convention establishes that the four subsequent ‘other acts’ are not, strictly speaking, ‘genocide’. Arguably, they are lesser crimes, and therefore do not bear the same stigma that is attached to the crime of genocide. Lawyers often refer to them as forms of ‘secondary’ liability, and domestic legal systems usually attach penalties to them that are significantly reduced from those for the principal offender. Yet complicity in genocide should hardly be viewed as being less serious than genocide itself. The accomplice may well be the leader who gives the order to commit genocide, while the ‘principal’ offender is the lowly subordinate who carries out the instructions. In this scenario, the guilt of the accomplice is really superior to that of the principal offender.
Most of the acts defined in article III – incitement, conspiracy and attempt – are ‘inchoate’ or incomplete crimes, and can be committed even if the principal offence itself never takes place. For example, direct and public incitement to commit genocide may be perpetrated even if nobody is actually incited to act.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Genocide in International LawThe Crime of Crimes, pp. 307 - 366Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2009