This thesis entitled “An Examination of the Crime of Genocide under International Humanitarian Law” dealt with crime of genocide as an act of aggression which of recent presented serious threats to international peace and security. This is because this crime when committed within a particular state lead to murder of innocent people to such alarming propositions that the international community could not ignore. Global incidences of the commission of the crime of genocide led to concerted efforts of the United Nations to make genocide an international crime so that its perpetrators could be brought to justice through punishment. On this note, this thesis aimed at examining the legal framework of the crime of genocide through the study of the various constitutive international instruments on the crime of genocide and also that of the International Criminal Court (ICC) as the judicial institution responsible for fight against genocide in International Law. However, the statement of problem of this research is that following the recent experiences in the commission of the crime of genocide the international community has found it difficult to bring perpetrators for punishment before the international criminal court due to one reason or the other. For example,
the consideration of the circumstances to be designated as genocide by the Rome Statute is not clear. In addition, it is noteworthy to state here that, a fundamental issue which generated the interest of the writer in this area of research is that there is no corresponding will by states to prevent the commission of the crime or stop it from escalating. State parties and indeed even the United Nations always fail to use the term Genocide to describe hostilities that clearly fall within the meaning of the crime of Genocide. Thus, United Nations and state parties usually capitalize on the loopholes and inherent defects in the laws of Genocide to suit their political purposes. For instance the persistence of Genocide in Bangladesh, Uganda, Cambodia, Rwanda (Hutus and Tutsis) and Bosnian Muslims in the former Yugoslavia are testimonies of failure of intervention by the international community to stop high profile atrocities. Indeed, when ethnic cleansing was going on in the territory of former Yugoslavia, Darfur, Rwanda between Tutsis and Hutus, the United Nations, the US government and other countries were called upon to intervened but they failed. Against this backdrop therefore, the objective of this thesis was to identify the factors militating against the prevention and punishment of the crime of genocide and to proffer possible measures solutions to addressing them; and further to consider the possibility of adopting same measures in Nigeria so as to eradicate instance of genocide in the country in view of the present Nigerian experiences. In view of this therefore, the finding of the writer was that the general weakness of international law constitutes a major problem of lack of enforcement to the institution of the punishment and prevention of genocide. In this regard, the writer concluded by recommending (among others) that the governments of Member States of the international community particularly the Security Council should be proactive, effective, prompt and jurisprudentially sound on the improvement and enforcement of the international legal processes that hold individuals accountable to the law so that, never again should would-be violators of these laws succeed in claiming that they are entitled to hide behind a wall of sovereignty.
CHAPTER ONE
GENERAL INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of the Study
International crimes such as genocides, war crimes, crimes against humanity and crime of aggression have always been part of human society. Genocide has been and will always be a threat to international peace and security either nationally or internationally.Genocide is generally considered as one of the worst moral crimes a government or ruling authority, guerrilla group, a quasi-state or a terrorist organization can commit against its citizens.[1] This is because of the lessons learnt by the world from Holocaust which was the systematic attempt of German authorities during the World War II to kill people and particularly every Jew no matter where found destroyed groups estimated between 5-6 million. The murder of the Jews became the paradigm case of Genocide that underlies the very origin of the word. Genocide, particularly of indigenous people has often occurred as a consequence of colonialism with racism and ethnic prejudice as predisposing factors. Genocide far from being only a matter of historical study is an aberration which also is a modern danger to civilization.
The prevalence of these events is not new to the world. This is because events before the advent of the United Nations Charter in 1945, showed that conflicts starting in a particular region of a particular continent can spread to engulf the neighboring region or even the world at large because at that time wars are considered to be the only solution of resolving conflicts.
Consequently, such wars paved way for the commission of other crimes such as loss of life or injury to civilians, wide spread and severe damage to the environment, attacking and bombarding by whatever means to towns and villages, torture, persecution enslavement and indirect transfer of civilian population all of which are considered to be crimes in violation of the existing international law and in particular the principles of the International Humanitarian Law (IHL) within the four 1949 Geneva Conventions and its two Additional 1977 Protocols together with the Hague Regulations. Indeed, the concern of punishing the offenders for the purposes of deterring further occurrence in the International Legal Order prompted the researchers’ interest to delve into one aspect of these crimes, which is the crime of genocide.
Alarmed by this spate of killing in both local and international conflict an attempt was made finally by the international community through the UN to make genocide an international crime and bring the perpetrators to justice. This flagrant violation of humanity led to the adoption by the UN‟s General Assembly, the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide 1948 and most recently the signing into being of the International Criminal Court in 2002.
The event in former Yugoslavia and Rwanda which led to the destruction of thousands of innocent lives further strengthened the need for an international criminal court which had long been under consideration. The creation of the Permanent International Criminal Court (ICC) became a reality on July 17, 1998 with the adoption of the Rome Statute after 50 years of prolonged discussion and debates. The Rome Statute was signed on 1stJune 2000 and ratified on 27th September 2001 by Nigeria along with many other counties[2].
The objective of the establishment of the ICC are principally to safeguard higher values such as the protection of human rights, an obligation that transcends state border; and accountability for those responsible for the commission of these crimes so as to put an end to the impunity that is often associated with these violations.[3] At this juncture the first thing that borders the researcher into delving in this field of research is how far has the ICC achieved these objectives noting the current prevalent day to day local and international high profile impunities as a result of disorderliness. Of course the answer to this question is that the achievement of the objective of the ICC is so far poor even though there are machineries in place for the achievement
[1]Guardia, D.A., (Ed) (1982) An Introduction to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, p.71
[2] Ladan, M.T. (2007) “Materials and Cases on Public International Law”, A.B.U Press, Zaria, p. 228
[3] Ibid
