Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide

Adopted by Resolution 260 (III) A of the United Nations General Assembly on 9 December 1948.

[Source: United Nations - Office of Legal Affairs]

Article 1

The Contracting Parties confirm that genocide, whether committed in time of peace or in time of war, is a crime under international law which they undertake to prevent and to punish.

Article 2

In the present Convention, 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:

•  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 in whole or in part;
•  Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;
•  Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.

N O T E:

The two above articles lay the primary foundation of all genocide laws, resources and publications. We have highlighted these two articles for that reason. A full text of all the Articles can be read by clicking the "United Nations - Definition" posting below.