Genocide Awareness and Prevention Glossary

Genocide: Any of the following acts committed with the intent to destroy, in whole or in
part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group:

1. killing members of the group;
2. causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;
3. deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about
   its physical destruction in whole or in part;
4. imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;
5. forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.

(United Nations)

Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide: The Genocide Convention was among the first United Nations conventions addressing humanitarian issues. It was adopted in 1948 in response to the atrocities committed during World War II and followed a General Assembly resolution where the United Nations recognized that “genocide is an international crime, which entails the national and international responsibility of individual persons and states.” The Convention has since then been widely accepted by the international community and ratified by the overwhelmingly majority of States. (IRCR)

Origin of the term genocide: The term “genocide” did not exist prior to 1944. It is a
very specific term, referring to violent crimes committed against a group with the intent
to destroy the existence of the group. Human rights, as laid out in the US Bill of Rights or
the 1948 United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, concern the rights of
individuals… (USHMM)