Conference co-organized by Prof. Samantha Besson, International Law of Institutions Chair, and Prof. Henry Laurens, Contemporary History of the Arab World Chair.
Symposium
Guaranteed for the first time in international law in 1948 (Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide,December9 1948), the prohibition of genocide is often referred to as the " crime of crimes ". Unlike the other major crimes that have since been codified in the statutes of the various international criminal tribunals (including the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC) of July 17, 1998), the wording of the crime of genocide has never changed. By comparison, until recently, it has also been more rarely invoked. As a result, its various elements have also been less frequently interpreted in international jurisprudence, whether by ad hoc international criminal tribunals such as the International Criminal Tribunals for Rwanda or the former Yugoslavia, or by the ICC. From this permanent formulation of the crime and its more limited interpretation, some have deduced a normative force among the highest in international law, a value of historical recognition of the crimes committed and, related to this, a primarily preventive role of its prohibition.
Over the last twenty years or so, however, there has been a significant evolution, thanks to international and then national criminal trials for genocide, notably in the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda. Alongside these trials, it is also the violation of the international legal obligation of States to prevent genocide that is being invoked and clarified with increasing frequency in practice. As a result, the jurisprudence of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) has developed around the obligation to prevent genocide (e.g. Croatia vs. Serbia (1999-2015), Yugoslavia v. Bosnia-Herzegovina (2001-2003) , Bosnia-Herzegovina v. Serbia and Montenegro (1993-2007)). The jurisdiction clause in art. IX of the 1948 Convention allows any State party to the Convention to refer a dispute over its interpretation to the ICJ. More and more States are making use of this possibility, including in order to obtain access to the ICJ. At present, this jurisdiction clause is the basis of no less than four contentious proceedings against States before the ICJ and, consequently, of numerous future orders and judgments relating to the situation in Myanmar, Ukraine and Gaza :Nicaragua v. Germany (2024-), South Africa v. Israel (2023-), Ukraine v. Russian Federation (2022-) and Gambia v. Myanmar(2019-). Myanmar (2019-).
Given this rapid evolution in international genocide practice and the new questions it raises for the conceptualization of the crime of crimes, a legal and historical review is in order. Given the central place given to history in various aspects of legal reasoning on genocide (e.g. customary sources, proof, causality, attribution of conduct or even responsibility), it is worthwhile undertaking this review in dialogue with historians. Indeed, the 1948 Convention invites jurists to work closely with historians, and even participates in their debates, since it recognizes in its preamble " that genocide has inflicted great losses on mankind at every period of history ". The value of such an assessment also applies to history, a history that is often written in or through justice. The question also arises of how to apply the recent (legal) concept of genocide to the shifting realities of history, particularly at a time and in places where large swathes of the past are experienced as still belonging to our present. The aim is not to deny the existence of mass exterminations in the past, but to determine whether the concept of genocide brings an additional element of historical understanding to the processes under study.
During this one-day meeting, jurists and historians specializing in genocide will engage in what we hope will be a fruitful dialogue. Their discussions will revolve around four questions of common interest for the understanding of the crime of genocide by both disciplines or practices : 1) Prohibition of genocide : from violence and " black legends " to the crime of customary law ; 2) Perpetrators of genocide : individual, collective and/or institutional ; 3) Conditions of genocide : genocidal intentions and/or processes ; and 4) Justice and truth of genocide :" pas qui ne passe pas " and "assassins of memory ". The treatment of these questions will of course provide an opportunity to look back at various cases of genocide in history, including in the history of international law.
Speakers : Omer Bartov (Brown University) ; Monique Chemillier-Gendreau (Université Paris Cité) ; Christian Ingrao (CESPRA, École des hautes études en sciences sociales/CNRS) ; Mark Levene (University of Southampton) ; Rafaëlle Maison (IEDP, Université Paris-Saclay) ; Jean-Clément Martin (IHMC, Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne) ; Guénaël Mettraux (Specialized Chambers for Kosovo, The Hague & Dickinson Law School, Pennsylvania State University) ; William Schabas (Middlesex University, London).