Criminal law characteristics of objective signs of genocide: national and international legislation

Abstract

Genocide is an international crime to which no statute of limitations applies, and its commission is subject to criminal liability under international or national law, regardless of whether the perpetrator of this crime is an official or another person and whether he or she is covered by the immunity established by a particular State. The codification of international law is characterized by periods of development of international criminal liability for genocide: a) the “Nuremberg” period is associated with the establishment and operation of the Nuremberg and Tokyo tribunals. During this period, the term “genocide” was first proposed, the elements of this crime were formulated and the prerequisites for their legal consolidation were created. The indictment of the Nuremberg Tribunal was the first official document to use the term “genocide”; b) the “post-Nuremberg” period is characterized by the adoption of a number of international legal norms that define the grounds and principles of criminal liability for genocide. The main ones are the UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide of December 9, 1948 and the UN Convention on the Non-Applicability of Statutory Limitations to War Crimes and Crimes against Humanity of November 26, 1968.
The United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide of December 9, 1948, which granted genocide the status of an international crime and defined the principles and grounds for criminal liability for its commission The “Hague” period was caused by the establishment and operation of the Yugoslav and Rwandan International Tribunals, which considered criminal cases on genocide, during which problems related to the qualification of this crime, the imposition of punishment for its commission and proposed ways to solve them were identified; the “Roman” period is associated with the creation of a permanent body of international criminal justice - the International Criminal Court, which has jurisdiction over genocide, which made it possible to prosecute this crime at the international level.
Genocide was recognized as an international crime in the UN General Assembly Resolution of December 11, 1946. The 1947 resolution established that genocide is an international crime that entails national and international responsibility of individuals and states. On December 9, 1948, the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide was adopted and opened for signature, and entered into force in 1951.
Based on the norms of international law, only those cases of destruction of national, ethnic, racial and religious groups committed after the entry into force of the 1948 UN Convention, i.e. after April 12, 1951, can be qualified as genocide, while other similar acts that occurred earlier cannot be recognized as genocide in the legal sense. Cases of the destruction of national, ethnic, racial and religious groups committed from April 12, 1951 to September 1, 2001 should be qualified in accordance with international law.
On 14.04.2022, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine adopted the Statement “On the Commitment of Genocide in Ukraine by the Russian Federation”. The text of the statement is addressed to leading international organizations (UN, European Parliament, PACE, OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, NATO Parliamentary Assembly), governments and parliaments of foreign countries. It contains a call to recognize the genocide of the Ukrainian people by the Russian Federation, as well as crimes against humanity and war crimes on the territory of Ukraine.