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1 J. Int'l Crim. Just. 39 (2003)
National Courts Finally Begin to Prosecute Genocide, the Crime of Crimes

handle is hein.journals/jicj1 and id is 45 raw text is: Journal of International Criminal Justice 1, 1 © Oxford University Press, 2003. All rights reserved °° ° °°. ° ° ° °° °°.°° ° ° ° °° °°............................................................... National Courts Finally Begin to Prosecute Genocide, the 'Crime of Crimes' William A. Schabas* Abstract The 1948 Genocide Convention contemplates prosecution by the national courts of the territory where the crime took place, and by an international criminal court. The drafters of the Convention meant to exclude universal jurisdiction, although courts have since tended to interpret Article VI of the Convention as being merely permissive, and in no way a prohibition of universal jurisdiction. Finally, within the past decade, the national courts of the territory where genocide was committed, other national courts and the international tribunals created by the Security Council have undertaken genocide prosecutions. Alongside the activities of the two ad hoc international tribunals, national courts in Rwanda, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and Kosovo have held trials based on the provisions of the Convention. The Rwandan trials now number in the thousands, but those in the other jurisdictions have been essentially symbolic. As for universal jurisdiction, the mere handful of genocide prosecutions (for instance in Germany, Switzerland, and Belgium) show that it can fill the gaps in the Convention. The problems appear to be political rather than judicial. Article VI of the Convention for the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, adopted by the General Assembly on 9 December 1948, declares that genocide prosecutions should take place before 'a competent tribunal of the State in the territory of which the act was committed, or by such international penal tribunal as may have jurisdiction with respect to those Contracting Parties which shall have accepted its jurisdiction'.' Until the 1990s, neither of these institutions showed any * Professor of Human Rights Law, National University of Ireland, Galway and Director, Irish Centre for Human Rights. 1 (1951) 78 UNTS 277. On the Convention generally, see: W. A. Schabas, Genocide in International Law (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000). Journal of International Criminal Justice (2003), 39 -63

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