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Killing members of the groupGoogle Scholar

Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the groupGoogle Scholar

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⁷ Such rituals include setting up the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda. As Makau Mutua has argued, the tribunal was established to “achieve neither the abolitionist impulses nor the just ends trumpeted by the United Nations” but “to assuage the consciences of states which were unwilling to stop the genocide.” See M. Mutua, “From Nuremberg to the Rwanda Tribunal: Justice or Retribution?” (2000) 6 Buffalo Human Rights Law Review 77 at 78; M. Mutua, “Never Again: Questioning the Yugoslav and Rwanda Tribunals” (1997) 11 Temple Intl. & Comp. L. J. 167 at 167-170.Google Scholar

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⁹ For a good account of past genocides and failures to prevent them, see generally, L. Kuper, supra, note 4.Google Scholar

¹⁰ See “UN Receives News Reports of Attacks Against Displaced Persons in Darfur, Sudan” Un News Service online http://www.un.org/apps/news/printnews.asp?nid=12245 (last visited October 18, 2004)Google Scholar

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¹² Racial identity of perpetrators and victims often confound (and have been cleverly used to confound) unwary outsiders, especially those looking for physical differences. But, as a respected Sudanese scholar has clarified: “Race in Sudan is not so much a function of colour or features, but a state of mind, a case of self-perception; the North identifies as Arab, no matter how dark its people's skin colour.” See F. M. Deng, “Sudan – Civil War and Genocide” (2001) Middle East Quarterly (Winter), online at http://www.meforum.org/article/22 Google Scholar

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¹⁹ See Amnesty International, Sudan, Darfur: Rape as a Weapon of War: Sexual Violence and its Consequences, July 2004 (AI Index: AFR 54/076/2004)Google Scholar

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³² For instance, Physicians for Human Rights and the UK-based group Justice Africa believe that the massacres in Darfur fulfill the international legal definition of genocide and should be designated as such. Human Rights Watch, the International Crisis Group, and Amnesty International all admit that crimes against humanity, war crimes, and “ethnic cleansing” have been committed while supporting an inquiry to investigate allegations of genocide. See J. Ryle, “Disaster in Darfur” (2004) 51 No. 13 New York Review of Books (August 12, 2004), online http://www.nybooks.com/articles/17326 (last visited October 18, 2004)Google Scholar

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³⁹ Powell, See C., supra, note 33. For the records: “Mr. Chairman, some seem to have been waiting for this determination of genocide to take action. In fact, however, no new action is dictated by this determination. We have been doing everything we can to get the Sudanese government to act responsibly. So let us not be preoccupied with this designation of genocide.” See A. McLaughlin, “US Raising stakes over Darfur Crisis,” Christian Science Monitor, July 26, 2004, online at http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/0726/p01s04-woaf.htm (last visited September 8, 2004), quoting Jerry Fowler, staff director of the Committee on Conscience at the US Holocaust Museum as saying, that the Genocide Convention only requires state parties to prevent and punish perpetrators of genocide but does not require that “when you declare genocide you have to send in troops.” Of course, the obligation to prevent and punish genocide exists irrespective of whether or not genocide is formally declared. There is, in fact, no obligation to declare genocide. It may be correct, technically, to assert that there is no duty to send in troops to prevent or punish genocide. But any such interpretation leads to absurdity, for how else could states prevent genocidal killings. I am not aware that states prevent or punish genocides by merely addressing press conferences or counting on the goodwill of a genocidal government. Besides, the duty under the Genocide Convention to prevent or punish genocide should be taken to include an obligation to take appropriate all appropriate measures, including military action. See F. Weissman, “Humanitarian Action and Military Intervention: Temptations and Possibilities” (2004) 28 Disasters 205 at 212.Google Scholar

⁴⁰ Ibid.Google Scholar

⁴¹ Singh, J. A., “Genocide: Burden of Proof and Inaction is Costing Lives in Sudan” (2004) 364 The Lancet (July 17) 230 at 231.Google Scholar

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