A Legal Analysis of Genocide

We outline the sources of the prohibition of genocide in international law, as well as the scope of the responsibility for breaching this rule, distinguishing state responsibility and individual responsibility. [...] The actus reus refers to the objective elements of the definition and comprises two elements: (1) the prohibited conduct enumerated in the definition (killing, causing serious bodily or mental harm, etc); and (2) the existence of a protected group against whom the conduct is directed. [...] The mens rea refers to the subjective elements of the definition and comprises a general intent to commit the prohibited conduct and a specific intent to destroy the protected group, in whole or in part. [...] The establishment of the ad hoc international criminal tribunals for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) and Rwanda (ICTR) by the UN Security Council, the development of hybrid, internationalized criminal tribunals such as the one for Sierra Leone, and the creation of a permanent International Criminal Court, were all aimed at lifting the veil of statehood to bring individuals to account. [...] The criminalization of genocide and other serious violations of human rights and the establishment of enforcement mechanisms at the international and national levels were indeed necessary to “give flesh and blood to the well-known dictum of the International 4. Military Tribunal, according to which ‘[c]rimes against international law are committed by men,.