Chapter I - General Introduction

Summary

RESEARCH CONTEXT

Since the adoption of the Genocide Convention in 1948 until the early 1990s, this Convention has been idle. The response of the world on it has been absent. Moreover, even in the 1990s, the pace in the response on it was very slow. The content of the obligation to prevent genocide was largely neglected. This is linked to the fact that the concept of prevention itself is not clarified in the Genocide Convention. Not only the meaning of this concept of prevention is not clarified in the Genocide Convention, but also there is not much indication on the content of this concept in international law in general. The literature has not done much to fill that gap either. In fact, for many years, no legal research has been undertaken on the obligation to prevent genocide enshrined in the Genocide Convention and on prevention itself. Most academic research on the prevention of genocide has been undertaken by historians, philosophers, and social scientists. The latter have rightly shown the necessity to prevent genocide from the perspectives of their disciplines, but of course they could not suggest concrete legal measures. Later international law research on the prevention of genocide has rather concentrated on the late stages in the process to genocide, i.e when acts of genocide are or have been committed, leaving aside the earlier stages in the process to genocide. Even at those late stages, such research has suffered from an acute lack of concrete measures to put an end to genocide. Moreover, even supposing that measures were there to put an end to genocide, the fact that they intervene at late stages of the process to genocide makes the aim of prevention not only difficult to be achieved, but also the spirit of prevention loses its meaning.

Another factor that has contributed to the lack of clarity about the prevention of genocide and the legal obligation thereof is that for very long, there have been not many legal proceedings related to it before competent courts. Except for the 1951 ICJ advisory opinion on the issue of reservations, it was only until the 2000s that there was the first ICJ decision related to the obligation to prevent genocide.