Genocide
Genocide.The UN Genocide Convention, passed on 9 December 1948, defined genocide as “acts committed with intent to destroy in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group…” Although political groups were not included—due to objections by the Soviet Union and other nations—most students of genocide consider such acts against political groups as genocide. UN conventions and statements of principles have created a body of “international law,” but enforcement mechanisms have been nonexistent, highly limited, or ad hoc, like the tribunals created to try perpetrators in Bosnia and Rwanda, and usually ineffective.
Perpetrators of genocide tend to offer justifications, such as destructive actions or intentions by the victims. Usually, these justifications are unfounded or greatly exaggerated; moreover, since old and young, women and children are killed, genocidal violence, even if partially defensive, is never morally...
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