International law Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

International law - Research Paper Example However, the term genocide was not formed until 1944. Literature has evidenced that genocide is any act committed with the intention to destroy completely or in partiality, a racial, an ethnic, a religious, or a national group. The recorded genocides include 1904 in Namibia, 1915 in Armenia, 1932 in Ukraine, the 1944 Holocaust, 1975 in Cambodia, 1982 in Guatemala, 1994 Rwandese genocide, and the 1995 Bosnian genocide. This resulted in the signing of an international treaty to form the International Criminal Court that has the mandate to prosecute crimes of genocide. Under the international law, genocide is considered as a crime. In this perspective, the paper will discuss the genocide with reference to international law. The effort to define genocide dates back to 18th century. According to Scott, various conventions tried to give formal statement of war crimes as well as laws of war. The Geneva Conventions were a series of international treaties concluded in Geneva between 1864 and 1949 with an aim of restructuring the impact of war on civilians, prisoners, and soldiers. In 1864, the international negotiations resulted in the Convention for the Amelioration of the Wounded in time of War. It stipulated that: immunity from capture as well as destruction of all establishments from the treatment of wounded soldiers, unbiased treatment and reception of all combatants, and protection of civilians giving aid to the wounded, in addition to recognizing the Red Cross symbol as a means establishing people and equipment covered by the agreement. In 1864 the convention was ratified by all major European powers. It was amended and extended by the second Geneva Convention in 1906. The provisions were applied to t he maritime conflict via the Hague conventions of 1899 to 1907. They are the first multilateral treaties to address warfare conducts based on the Lieber Code. The codified law stipulated regulations, for example, in protection of civilians and