The Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (CPPCG) came into effect in January 1951. Article 5, 6 and 7 of the CPPCG cover obligations that sovereign states that are parties to the convention must undertake to enact:
Art. 5: The Contracting Parties undertake to enact, in accordance with their respective Constitutions, the necessary legislation to give effect to the provisions of the present Convention, and, in particular, to provide effective penalties for persons guilty of genocide or any of the other acts enumerated in article III.
Art. 6: Persons charged with genocide or any of the other acts enumerated in article III shall be tried by 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.
Art. 7 Genocide and the other acts enumerated in article III shall not be considered as political crimes for the purpose of extradition.
The Contracting Parties pledge themselves in such cases to grant extradition in accordance with their laws and treaties in force.— CPPCG[1]
Since 1951 the following states have enacted provisions within their municipal law to prosecute or extradite perpetrators of genocide:
| State | Provisions | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Albania | Chap. 1, Crimes Against Humanity, of the Criminal Code[2] | See Genocide Law (Albania, 1995) |
| Antigua and Barbuda | Genocide Act, Laws, Vol. 4.[2] | |
| Argentina | [2] | |
| Armenia | Article 393 of the Criminal code.[2] | |
| Australia | Genocide Convention Act 1949.[2]
International Criminal Court (Consequential Amendments) Act 2002 |
|
| Austria | Paragraph 321 of the Strafgesetzbuch 1974.[2] | Austrian law classifies all acts intended to annihilate a national, ethnic or religious group partially or in its entirety, create circumstances suitable to cause such events, create sterility in the group or other measures intended to prevent willful procreation, or forcefully abducting children of said group to integrate them into another as genocide, with a statutory sentence of life imprisonment. Conspiracy to commit such acts carries a penalty of one to ten years imprisonment. |
| Azerbaijan | Article 103 and 104 of the Criminal Code.[2] | |
| Bahrain | Decree No. 4 of 1990 (on genocide).[2] | |
| Bangladesh | International Crimes (Tribunals) Act 1973.[2] | |
| Barbados | Genocide Act, chapter 133A.[2] | |
| Belarus | Article 127 of the Criminal Code.[2] | |
| Belgium | Law on serious violations of international humanitarian law, 10 February 1999.[2] | In 1993 Belgium had adopted universal jurisdiction, allowing prosecution of genocide, committed by anybody in the world. The practice was widely applauded by many human rights groups, because it made legal action possible to perpetrators who did not have a direct link with Belgium, and whose victims were not Belgian citizens or residents. Ten years later in 2003, Belgium repealed the law on universal jurisdiction (under pressure from the United States). However, some cases which had already started continued. These included those concerning the Rwandan genocide, and complaints filed against the Chadian ex-President Hissène Habré.[3]
In a Belgium court case lodged on 18 June 2001 by 23 survivors of the 1982 Sabra and Shatila massacres, the prosecution alleged that Ariel Sharon, former Israeli defense minister (and Israel's Prime Minister in 2001–2006), as well as other Israelis committed a number of crimes including genocide,[4] because "all the constituent elements of the crime of genocide, as defined in the 1948 Convention and as reproduced in article 6 of the ICC Statute and in article 1§1 of the law of 16 June 1993,29 are present".[5] This allegation was not tested in Belgium court because on 12 February 2003 the Court of Cassation (Belgian Supreme Court) ruled that under international customary law, acting heads of state and government can not become the object of proceedings before criminal tribunals in foreign state (although for the crime of genocide they could be the subject of proceedings of an international tribunal).[5][6] This ruling was a reiteration of a decision made a year earlier by the International Court of Justice on 14 February 2002.[7] Following these ruling in June 2003 the Belgian Justice Ministry decided to start a procedure to transfer the case to Israel.[8] |
| Bolivia | Article 138 of the Código Penal.[2] | |
| Bosnia and Herzegovina | Article 141 of the Penal Code.[2] | List of Bosnian genocide prosecutions#The Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina |
| Brazil | Law No. 2.889 of 1 October 1956.[2] | The Helmet Massacre of the Tikuna people took place in 1988, and was initially treated as homicide. Since 1994 it has been treated by the Brazilian courts as a genocide. Thirteen men were convicted of genocide in 2001. In November 2004 at the appeal before Brazil's federal court, the man initially found guilty of hiring men to carry out the genocide was acquitted, and the other men had their initial sentences of 15–25 years reduced to 12 years.[9]
In a news letter published on 7 August 2006 the Indianist Missionary Council reported that: "In a plenary session, the [Brizillian] Supreme Federal Court (STF) reaffirmed that the crime known as the Haximu Massacre [perpetrated on the Yanomami Indians in 1993][10] was a genocide and that the decision of a federal court to sentence miners to 19 years in prison for genocide in connection with other offenses, such as smuggling and illegal mining, is valid. It was a unanimous decision made during the judgment of Extraordinary Appeal (RE) 351487 today, the 3rd, in the morning by justices of the Supreme Court".[11] Commenting on the case the NGO Survival International said "The UN convention on genocide, ratified by Brazil, states that the killing 'with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group' is genocide. The Supreme Court's ruling is highly significant and sends an important warning to those who continue to commit crimes against indigenous peoples in Brazil."[10] |
| Bulgaria | Article 416 on Genocide, of the Criminal Code.[2] | |
| Burkina Faso | Article 313 of the Code Pénal.[2] | |
| Burundi | In 2003 the transitional parliament in Burundi passed a law, introduced to parliament by the Burundian Foreign Minister Therence Sinunguruzaa, chiefly aimed at preventing genocide.[12] | |
| Cambodia | Law for prosecuting crimes committed from 1975 to 1979.[2] | |
| Canada | Act on genocide and war crimes, Article 318 on Advocating Genocide.[2] | In Canada the War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity Act makes it an offence under Canadian law to commit genocide, whether inside or outside Canada. A person may be charged under this law if, at the time of the crime, the perpetrator was a Canadian citizen or was employed by Canada, if the victim was a Canadian citizen or a citizen of a country allied to Canada, if the perpetrator was a citizen of, or employed by, a country that Canada was engaged in armed conflict with or if, at any time after committing the crime, the perpetrator enters Canadian territory. |
| China | Hong Kong , Section 9A, Offenses Against Person Ordinance, Cap. 212 - genocide. Macau, Article 230 (Genocide).[2] | |
| Colombia | Articles 101 & 102 of the Código Penal.[2] | |
| Costa Rica | Article 127 of the Código Penal (14 April 1998).[2] | The law includes political groups or social groups as a protected group.[13] |
| Côte d'Ivoire | Article 137 of the Code Pénal.[2] | |
| Croatia | Article 156 of the Penal Code.[2] | |
| Cuba | Article 361 of the Código Penal.[2] | |
| Cyprus | Uw 59/ 1980.[2] | |
| Czech Republic | Article 259 of the Penal Code.[2] | |
| Denmark | Law Nr. 132 of 29 April 1955.[2] | |
| El Salvador | Article 361 of the Código Penal.[2] | |
| Ethiopia | Article 281 of the Penal Code of 1957.[2] | |
| Estonia | Article 91 of the Karistusseadustik eriosa.[2] | |
| Fiji | Chapter 34 (Genocide) of the Penal Code.[2] | |
| France | Article 211-1 of the Code Pénal.[2] | The French law defines "a group determined by any arbitrary criteria" which is far broader than that found in the CPPCG.[13] |
| Finland | Criminal Code on Genocide and Ethnic Agitation[2] | Genocide has been criminalized as a separate crime in Finland since 1995 and carries a penalty from 4 years to life sentence.[14] Attempted genocide or planning it are punishable. Genocide, as a number of other crimes of international nature is inside Finnish universal jurisdiction, but under Chapter 1, Section 12 of the Criminal Code, incidents of it abroad may not be investigated unless the Prosecutor General gives an order to do this.[15]
The group "Falun Dafa in Europe" on their website report that in 2003 "the Finnish human right lawyer Mr. Erkki Kannsto filed a criminal lawsuit against Luo Gan with the National Criminal Prosecutor Office and the Police Department in Helsinki on September 11, 2003, on the charges of "cruel torture" and "genocide." ... The Finnish Office of the Prosecutor General and the Police Department immediately carried out an investigation into the case after accepting the lawsuit".[16] However, no further action was taken by Finnish authorities before Luo Gan returned to China.[15] |
| Georgia | Article 651 (genocide) of the penal code[2] | |
| Germany | Article 220a of the Strafgesetzbuch (1954),[2] superseded by article 6 of the Völkerstrafgesetzbuch (2002). | Prior to the 2007 ICJ ruling on the Bosnian Genocide Case German courts handed down several convictions for genocide during the Bosnian War.
Novislav Djajić was indicted for participation in genocide, but the Bavarian Higher Regional Court failed to find beyond a reasonable doubt that he had intended to commit genocide. He was found guilty of 14 cases of murder and one case of attempted murder, receiving a sentence of 5 years imprisonment.[17] At Djajic's appeal on 23 May 1997, the Bavarian Appeals Court found that acts of genocide were committed in June 1992, though confined within the administrative district of Foča.[18] The Higher Regional Court (Oberlandesgericht) of Düsseldorf, in September 1997, handed down a genocide conviction against Nikola Jorgić, a Bosnian Serb from the Doboj region who was the leader of a paramilitary group located in the Doboj region. He was sentenced to four terms of life imprisonment for his involvement in genocidal actions that took place in regions of Bosnia and Herzegovina, other than Srebrenica.[19] On 29 November 1999, the Higher Regional Court (Oberlandesgericht) of Düsseldorf condemned Maksim Sokolović to 9 years in prison for aiding and abetting the crime of genocide and for grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions".[20] |
| Ghana | Criminal Code (Amendment) Act, 1993 Section 1: Genocide[2] | |
| Guatemala | Article 376 of the Código Penal[2] | |
| Hungary | Article 155 of the Penal Code[2] | |
| Indonesia | Article 26 Tahun – Pasal 8 – genosida[2] | |
| Iraq | statute of the Iraqi Special Tribunal, issued 10 December 2003[2] | |
| Ireland | Ireland's Genocide Act of 1973[2] | |
| Israel | Israeli Law on the Crime of Genocide, 5710 -1950[2] | |
| Italy | law on Genocide of 9 October 1967, n. 962[2] | |
| Jamaica | Offenses against the person (amendment) 1968, s. 33[2] | |
| Kiribati (Gilbert Islands) | Penal Code Article 52 (Genocide)[2] | |
| Kyrgyzstan | Article 373 of the Criminal Code[2] | |
| Latvia | Article 71 of the Penal Code[2] | |
| Liechtenstein | Article 321 of the Penal Code[2] | |
| Lithuania | Article 99 of the Criminal Code[2] | |
| Luxembourg | Genocide law, 8 August 1985[2] | |
| Mali | Article 30 of the Code Pénal[2] | |
| Mexico | Article 149 of the Código Penal[2] | |
| New Zealand | International Crimes and ICC Act of 6 September 2000.[2] | |
| Netherlands | Act Implementing the Conv. on Genocide, 2 July 1964.[2] | Dutch law restricts prosecutions for genocide to its nationals. On December 23, 2005 a Dutch court ruled in a case brought against Frans van Anraat for supplying chemicals to Iraq, that "[it] thinks and considers legally and convincingly proven that the Kurdish population meets the requirement under the genocide conventions as an ethnic group. The court has no other conclusion: that these attacks were committed with the intent to destroy the Kurdish population of Iraq" and because he supplied the chemicals before 16 March 1988, the date of the Halabja poison gas attack, he is guilty of a war crime but not guilty of complicity in genocide.[21][22] |
| Nicaragua | Article 549 & 550 of the Código Penal.[2] | |
| Panama | Article 311 of the Código Penal.[2] | |
| Paraguay | Articulo 319 9 of the Código Penal.[2] | |
| Peru | Title XIV (Law # 26926 (Article 129 of the Código Penal)).[2] | The law includes political groups or social groups as a protected group.[13] |
| Poland | Article 118 of the Kodeks Karny (penal code).[2] | |
| Portugal | Article 239 of the Codigo Penal.[2] | The law includes political groups or social groups as a protected group.[13] |
| Republic of the Congo | ' 'Law No. 8 - 98 of 31 October 1998 on genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity.[2] | |
| Romania | Article 356 of the Penal Code.[2] | |
| Russia | Article 357 of the Federal Criminal Code.[2] | |
| Rwanda | Organic Law No. 08/96 on Genocide and Crimes Against Humanity.[2] | |
| Serbia | Article 370 of the Krivični zakonik (2005). | |
| Seychelles | Genocide Act of 1969.[2] | |
| Solomon Islands | Article 52 (Genocide) of the Penal Code.[2] | |
| Slovakia | Articles 259-265 of the Criminal Code.[2] | |
| Slovenia | Chapter 35, art. 373 and 378 of the Penal Code, 1994.[2] | |
| South Africa | Implementation of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court Act 27 (12 July 2002).[2] | |
| Spain | Article 607 of the Código Penal Ley Orgánica 10/1995, 23 November.[2][23] | Under Spanish law, judges have the right to try foreigners suspected of genocidal acts that have taken place outside Spain. In June 2003 Spanish Judge Baltasar Garzón jailed Ricardo Miguel Cavallo, (also known as Miguel Angel Cavallo), a former Argentine naval officer, extradited from Mexico to Spain pending his trial on charges of genocide and terrorism relating to the years of Argentina's military dictatorship.[24][25] On 29 February 2008, the Spanish agreed to extradite Cavallo to Argentina where he is charged with crimes against humanity. He still faces a trial in Spain on genocide charges at some later date.[26][27]
In 1999, Nobel peace prize winner Rigoberta Menchu brought a case against the military leadership in a Spanish Court. Six officials, among them Efrain Rios Montt and Oscar Humberto Mejia, were formally charged on 7 July 2006 to appear in the Spanish National Court after Spain's Constitutional Court ruled in 2005 that Spanish courts can exercise universal jurisdiction over war crimes committed during the Guatemalan Civil War (1960–1996)[28] On 11 January 2006 it was reported that the Spanish High Court would investigate whether seven former Chinese officials, including the former President of China Jiang Zemin and former Prime Minister Li Peng participated in a genocide in Tibet. This investigation followed a Spanish Constitutional Court (26 September 2005) ruling that Spanish courts could try genocide cases even if they did not involve Spanish nationals.[29] The court proceedings in the case brought by the Madrid-based Committee to Support Tibet against several former Chinese officials was opened by the Judge on 6 June 2006, and on the same day China denounced the Spanish court's investigation into claims of genocide in Tibet as an interference in its internal affairs and dismissed the allegations as "sheer fabrication".[30][31] The case was shelved in 2010, following a law passed in 2009 that restricted High Court investigations to those "involving Spanish victims, suspects who are in Spain, or some other obvious link with Spain". The judicial rules in place in Spain before passed this law had irritated many other countries such as Israel, who's officials had faced possible prosecution.[32] |
| Suriname | Constitution of Suriname of 1987: Chapter IV: International principles:Article 7.4.[2] | |
| Sweden | Article 169 of the' Lagboken (Act of 20 March 1963).[2] | In Sweden genocide was criminalized in 1964. According to the Swedish law any act intended to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group, as such, and which is punished according to the criminal act is punished as genocide and carries a penalty from 4 years to life sentence. The Swedish legislation simply noticed that any severe common crime which is committed in order to destroy an ethnic group can be considered genocide, no matter what specific crime it is. Also intent, preparation or conspiring to genocide, and also failure to reveal such a crime is punishable as specified in penal code chapter 23, which is applicable to all crimes.[33] |
| Switzerland | Article 264 of the Penal Code.[2] | |
| Tajikistan | Crimes Against the Peace and Security of Mankind.[2] | |
| Tonga | Genocide Act, 1969.[2] | |
| Trinidad and Tobago | Genocide Act, 1977.[2] | |
| Tuvalu | Article 52 (Genocide) of the Penal Code.[2] | |
| Ukraine | Article 442 on Genocide, of Criminal Code.[2] | |
| United Kingdom | The Genocide Act 1969,[34] superseded by the International Criminal Court Act 2001.[2] | The United Kingdom has incorporated the International Criminal Court Act into domestic law. It was not retroactive so it applies only to events after May 2001 and genocide charges can be filed only against British nationals and residents. According to Peter Carter QC, chairman of the Bar's human rights committee[35] "It means that British mercenaries who support regimes that commit war crimes can expect prosecution".[21] The Coroners and Justice Act 2009, altered the ICC ACT so that prosecutions could be taken against anyone in the UK from January 1991 — The date from which the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia had jurisdiction to try offences under the Tribunal’s Statute adopted by the United Nations Security Council.[36] |
| United States | Chapter 50A of the United States Code.[2] | United States federal law recognizes the crime of genocide where it was committed within the U.S. or by a national of the U.S. (18 U.S.C. § 1091). A person found guilty of genocide can face the death penalty or life imprisonment. Persons found guilty of genocide may be denied entry or deported from the U.S. (8 U.S.C. § 1101, § 1182, § 1227). |