In Defense of the Genocide Convention

by Karl Horberg · 2009-12-02 18:19:00 UTC
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Breaking apart the Genocide Convention article by article may seem to be an exercise in tedium but a clear understanding of the document is essential if we are to make genocide a thing of the past. A thorough history of the convention's drafting reveals a number of crucial points.

The Genocide Convention is by no means a perfect document. Yes, it is a product of political compromise, but politics is compromise. Would it have been more agreeable if a single country or person was charged with producing the document? The reconciliation of competing ideologies and viewpoints via consensus building does not always produce negative results. Although compromise excluded political and social groups from the definition it successfully blocked proposals that would have severely limited free speech such as banning certain types of organizations and prohibiting propaganda. There are no perfect documents and it is a little naïve of us to demand there should be.

While we are obligated to point out the Convention's imperfections we do it no justice by ignoring certain aspects of the document and substituting our own definitions. Subverting the legal definition renders the Convention toothless. We must strive to work within the confines of the Convention, no matter how constricting they are.

Genocide prevention begins and ends with fear-a deep and relentless fear instilled in the mind of perpetrators that they will answer for their crimes. This fear can only be manifested when we support and strengthen the legal mechanisms set up to punish and prevent genocide. The greatest weapon we have is the law. For proof of this look no further than the court rooms of the Netherlands and Tanzania.

While we cannot turn our backs on the legal avenues presented to us by the Genocide Convention we also cannot break completely from activism either. Activism is immensely useful, of this there is no doubt. The world will always need people like Raphel Lemkin, idealists who work tirelessly to vanquish evil from this world. But the world also requires its share of Robert Jacksons, people who work within existing frameworks and give these ideas power.

[Photo: Robert Jackson at the Nuremberg Trials.]

Karl Horberg
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