Complicity in genocide

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Complicity in genocide encompasses a wide spectrum of conduct involving assistance or encouragement that has significantly contributed to, or had a substantial impact on, the commission of the crime of genocide. [1]

Contents

It is illegal under international law both for individuals, as part of international criminal law, and state parties to the Genocide Convention. The latter was first held in the Bosnian genocide case (2007) in which the International Court of Justice held Serbia responsible for failure to prevent the Bosnian genocide. [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9]

Complicity in genocide is contrasted by the Responsibility-to-protect (R2P) doctrine which is a commitment by UN members to intervene to prevent atrocities, including genocide.

Genocide Convention

Article III of the 1948 Genocide Convention considers "complicity in genocide" a "punishable act" [10] [11]

Forms of complicity

Complicity in genocide applies to a broad range of acts of assistance or encouragement that have "substantially contributed to, or have had a substantial effect on, the completion of the crime of genocide." [1]

Complicity itself can take multiple forms, including aiding, abetting, incitement, covering up evidence, or harboring genocide perpetrators. [12] [13]

Responsibility to protect

The responsibility to protect (R2P or RtoP) is a global political commitment which was endorsed by the United Nations General Assembly at the 2005 World Summit in order to address its four key concerns to prevent genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity. [14] [15] The doctrine has become a unanimous and well-established international norm since the early 2000s. [16]

R2P entails a responsibility to protect all populations from mass atrocity crimes and human rights violations. [17] [18] [19] The responsibility to protect provides a framework for employing measures (i.e., mediation, early warning mechanisms, economic sanctions, and chapter VII powers) to prevent atrocity crimes and to protect civilians from their occurrence. [20]

The R2P doctrine has been the subject of considerable debate, particularly regarding the implementation or lack thereof by various actors in the context of country-specific situations, such as Kenya, [21] Libya, [22] [23] Syria, [24] [25] Nagorno-Karabakh, [26] [27] and Palestine. [28] Multiple scholars argue that the inaction of the international community to confirmed atrocities exposes the irrelevance and weakness of the R2P doctrine. [29] [30] [31]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 Ochab, Ewelina U.; Alton, David (2022). State Responses to Crimes of Genocide: What Went Wrong and How to Change It. Rethinking Political Violence. Cham: Springer International Publishing. p. 38. doi:10.1007/978-3-030-99162-3. ISBN   978-3-030-99161-6. ...substantially contributed to, or have had a substantial effect on, the completion of the crime of genocide.
  2. ↑ Jørgensen, Nina HB (2011). "Complicity in Genocide and the Duality of Responsibility". In Swart, Bert; Zahar, Alexander; Sluiter, Göran (eds.). The Legacy of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia. Oxford University Press. ISBN   978-0-19-957341-7.
  3. ↑ van der Wilt, Harmen G. (2006). "Genocide, Complicity in Genocide and International v. Domestic Jurisdiction". Journal of International Criminal Justice. 4 (2): 239–257. doi:10.1093/jicj/mql014.
  4. ↑ Greenfield, Daniel (2008). "The Crime of Complicity in Genocide: How the International Criminal Tribunals for Rwanda and Yugoslavia Got It Wrong, and Why It Matters". Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology. 98 (3): 921.
  5. ↑ van Sliedregt, Elies (2009). "Complicity to Commit Genocide". In Gaeta, Paola (ed.). The UN Genocide Convention: A Commentary. Oxford University Press. ISBN   978-0-19-957021-8.
  6. ↑ Dawson, Grant; Boynton, Rachel (2008). "Reconciling Complicity in Genocide and Aiding and Abetting Genocide in the Jurisprudence of the United Nations Ad Hoc Tribunals". Harvard Human Rights Journal. 21: 241.
  7. ↑ Eboe-Osuji, C. (2005). "'Complicity in Genocide' versus 'Aiding and Abetting Genocide': Construing the Difference in the ICTR and ICTY Statutes". Journal of International Criminal Justice. 3 (1): 56–81. doi:10.1093/jicj/3.1.56.
  8. ↑ Boas, Gideon; Bischoff, James L.; Reid, Natalie L.; Taylor, B. Don (2008). "Complicity and aiding and abetting". International Criminal Law Practitioner Library: International Criminal Procedure. Cambridge University Press. ISBN   978-0-521-11630-5.
  9. ↑ May, Larry (2010). "Complicity and the Rwandan Genocide". Res Publica. 16 (2): 135–152. doi:10.1007/s11158-010-9112-4. ISSN   1572-8692. S2CID   144322521.
  10. ↑ Eigenman, Hunter L. (2025-04-01). "International Silence on Genocide: Nagorno-Karabakh, A Case Study" (PDF). Transnational Law & Contemporary Problems. 34 (2): 272. ISSN   1058-1006. 281
  11. ↑ "Genocide Museum | The Armenian Genocide Museum-institute". genocide-museum.am. Retrieved 2026-02-10.
  12. ↑ Milanovic, M. (2006-06-01). "State Responsibility for Genocide". European Journal of International Law. 17 (3): 573, 602. doi:10.1093/ejil/chl019. ISSN   0938-5428.
  13. ↑ Asuncion, Amabelle C. (November 2009). "Pulling the Stops on Genocide: The State or the Individual?". European Journal of International Law. 20 (4): 1201. doi:10.1093/ejil/chp074. ISSN   1464-3596.
  14. ↑ "Responsibility to Protect – Office of The Special Adviser on The Prevention of Genocide". www.un.org. Archived from the original on 8 February 2017. Retrieved 2016-03-21.
  15. ↑ "About the Responsibility to Protect". www.globalr2p.org. Archived from the original on 2016-03-25. Retrieved 2016-03-21.
  16. ↑ "What is R2P?". Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect. Retrieved 2021-09-01.
  17. ↑ "Mission Statement". United Nations: Office of the special adviser on the prevention of genocide. Retrieved 2012-01-07.
  18. ↑ "Sovereignty as Responsibility". The Brookings Institution. 10 May 2012. Retrieved 2016-03-21.
  19. ↑ "The Responsibility to Protect: Report of the International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty" (PDF). ICISS. December 2001. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2016-07-06. Retrieved 2016-03-21.
  20. ↑ "Paragraphs 138–139 of the 2005 World Summit Outcome Document" (PDF). GCR2P. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2016-07-06. Retrieved 2016-03-21.
  21. ↑ Tutu, Desmond (2008-11-09). "Taking the responsibility to protect". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2016-03-21.
  22. ↑ "Libya and the Responsibility to Protect". Council on Foreign Relations. Archived from the original on 2011-04-14. Retrieved 2016-03-21.
  23. ↑ Brockmeier, Sarah; Stuenkel, Oliver; Tourinho, Marcos (2016-01-02). "The Impact of the Libya Intervention Debates on Norms of Protection". Global Society. 30 (1): 113–133. doi: 10.1080/13600826.2015.1094029 . ISSN   1360-0826.
  24. ↑ "R2P down but not out after Libya and Syria". openDemocracy. Retrieved 2016-03-21.
  25. ↑ "Debating the Responsibility to Protect in Libya, Syria". ICRtoP Blog. 6 April 2012. Archived from the original on 2018-09-06. Retrieved 2016-03-21.
  26. ↑ Paylan, Sheila (2020-12-23). "Remedial Secession and the Responsibility to Protect: The Case of Nagorno-Karabakh". Opinio Juris. Retrieved 2026-01-13.
  27. ↑ Mkrtichyan Minasyan, Artak (2025). "The Failure of the International Community and of the Existing Mechanisms for the Prevention of Genocide in Nagorno-Karabakh". Anuario Espanol de Derecho Internacional. 41: 421.
  28. ↑ Moses 2024.
  29. ↑ Moses 2024 , pp. 211–215: "The absence of a clear, sustained, and powerful invocation of the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) in response to Israel's vicious assault on Gaza reveals the fundamental weaknesses of the doctrine ... We are now over three months into a military assault that many experts have labelled as a genocide (Government of South Africa Citation 2023) and the R2P has played no significant role in debates over how to respond."
  30. ↑ Sirleaf 2024, p. 182.
  31. ↑ Verdeja 2025, p. 16–18.


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