Unimaginable Evil: The Legislative of the Genocide Convention
![handle is hein.journals/intcrimlrb5 and id is 371 raw text is: International Criminal Law Review 5: 363-372, 2005. 363
© 2005 Koninkli'ke Brill NV Printed in the Netherlands.
Unimaginable Evil: The Legislative Limitations of the
Genocide Convention
PETER QUAYLE'
Introduction
The crisis in Darfur, the western region of Sudan, has surged relentlessly up
the international humanitarian agenda during the past year and a half. Its mix
of atrocity and manmade calamity is a familiar one. So too, the world's bleary-
eyed, sluggish response. A response made up mostly of words.' These words,
used to deplore and condemn, have been gradually peeled of their diplomatic
patina. Still, even these words seem feeble in the face of physical facts: mass
murder, rape and destruction. Only one word has a resolute ring. The UN's
Security Council has equivocated but the US State Department has said it:
genocide.2 The consequent paralysing formulation of moral panic, outrage
and inaction exemplify the Genocide Convention's systemic shortcomings
and systematic misapplication. This article endeavours to explore, and pro-
pose a possible resolution to, the tension between genocide's divergent legal
and rhetorical meanings. In so doing it is divided into six parts: 1. The
Meanings of Genocide, which notes the mismatched meanings of genocide in
political rhetoric and legal definition; 2. The Protest and Purpose of the
Convention, which reviews the consequences, both intended and unintended,
* Solicitor, Former ICTY Intern (Office of the President) and University College London,
UK.
United Nations Security Council Resolution 1593 (2005) adopted 31 March 2005,
referred the conflict in Darfur to the International Criminal Court (ICC) enabling jurisdiction
to be exercised under Article 13(b) of the Court's Statute. The investigation is in its infancy
and does not enjoy the co-operation of the Government of Sudan - which, disingenuously or
not, prefers local justice - although the Security Council's Chapter VII powers compels com-
pliance. Whilst this action is welcome, it fits with a pattern of prevarication - international
criminal justice is brought to bear in time to assuage moral blame, but too late to prevent
atrocity.
2 U.S. Secretary of State Powell said before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee,
9 September 2004, ...genocide has been committed in Darfur and that the Government of
Sudan and Jingaweit [sic] bear responsibility - and that genocide may still be occurring.](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/intcrimlrb5&div=27&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
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Unimaginable Evil: The Legislative of the Genocide Convention
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