The New York Times

March 31, 1999

CRISIS IN THE BALKANS: THE LAW

Genocide, as Defined by a 1951 U.N. Treaty

By NEIL A. LEWIS

WASHINGTON -- Genocide, which the State Department has accused Yugoslavia of committing in Kosovo, is one of the most emotion-laden words in diplomacy and international law.

It is defined in a treaty that was promulgated after World War II in response to the Holocaust and signed by both the United States and Yugoslavia.

The treaty, known as the Convention on Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, defines genocide in such a way that offenses need not rise to the level of the Holocaust to be covered.

The United Nations made genocide a crime in 1946, and the treaty went into force in 1951.

The treaty's critics have contended that the definition is too broad and open-ended.

Genocide is defined in the treaty as "any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group, such as: a) killing members of the group; b) causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; c) deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; d) imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; e) forcibly transferring children of the group to another group."

Although rape is not explicitly included in the behavior covered by the treaty, most scholars have come to accept it -- especially systematic rape of a population -- as a form of genocide.

The treaty allows individuals charged with genocide to be prosecuted as war criminals and obliges signers to prevent genocide within their borders. It does not provide for any armed intervention by a country or alliance to prevent or stop genocide.

Gidon A.G. Gottlieb, a professor of international law at the University of Chicago, said, however, that the treaty could be useful in defining the kind of violations of human rights that would justify armed intervention.