The UN Genocide Convention: A Commentary

The Convention for the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on 9 December 1948, is one of the most important instruments of contemporary international law. It was drafted in the aftermath of the Nuremberg trial to give flesh and blood to the well-known dictum of the International Military Tribunal, according to which 'Crimes against international law are committed by men, not by abstract entities, and only by punishing individuals who commit such crimes can the provisions of international law be enforced'. At Nuremberg, senior state officials who had committed heinous crimes on behalf or with the protection of their state were brought to trial for the first time in history and were held personally accountable regardless of whether they acted in their official capacity.

The drafters of the Convention on Genocide crystallized the results of the Nuremberg trial and thus ensured its legacy. The Convention established a mechanism to hold those who committed or participated in the commission of genocide, the crime of crimes, criminally responsible. Almost fifty years before the adoption of the Rome Statute, the Convention laid the foundations for the establishment of the International Criminal Court. It also obliged its Contracting Parties to criminalize and punish genocide.

This book is a much-needed Commentary on the Genocide Convention. It analyzes and interprets the Convention thematically, thoroughly covering every article, drawing on the Convention's travaux preparatoires and subsequent developments in international law. The most complex and important provisions of the Convention, including the definitions of genocide and genocidal acts, have more than one contribution dedicated to them, allowing the Commentary to explore all aspects of these concepts. The Commentary also goes beyond the explicit provisions of the Convention to discuss topics such as the retroactive application of the Convention, its status in customary international law and its future.

Paola Gaeta is a Professor of International Criminal Law at Florence University. Since September 2007 she is also a Professor of International Criminal Law at the Law Faculty of the University of Geneva and Director of the LL.M. Programme of the Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights. She is a member of the Editorial Board of the Journal of International Criminal Justice and of the Advisory Scientific Committee of the European Journal of International Law. Her publications include La giustizia cautelare nel diritto internazionale (Interim measures taken by International courts and tribunals) (2000) and The Statute of the International Criminal Court: A Commentary (co-edited with A Cassese and JRWD Jones, 2001). She has also published numerous articles on public international law, international humanitarian law and international criminal law.