Genocide: - DIIS

Martin Mennecke and Eric Markusen
is its narrow defi nition of what constitutes a victim group...” 24 Leo Kuper
added that this could be understood to mean that “many nations were
unwilling to renounce the right to commit political genocide against their
own nationals.” 25
The initial two drafts of the Convention did include political groups, but
efforts by a number of UN member states, including the Soviet Union,
within whose borders, many such groups had previously been attacked,
succeeded in having this category of protected group deleted in the fi nal
version. In one of the earliest detailed critical analyses of the Convention,
Drost argued in regard to the exclusion of political groups that “the defi nition
of genocide in Article II defeats the purpose of the Convention.” 26 His
criticism was echoed in a 1985 study of the Convention that was commissioned
by the United Nations. Therein, Benjamin Whitaker warned that
“...leaving political and other groups beyond the purported protection of
the Convention offers a wide and dangerous loophole which permits any
designated group to be exterminated, ostensibly under the excuse that this
is for political reasons.” 27
Attack against the protected group “in whole or in part”
Another important element of the Convention’s defi nition is the phrase
“in whole or in part”, indicating that the crime of genocide does not require
the destruction of the entire protected group. Instead, the targeting
of a part of such a group suffi ces to fulfi ll the legal defi nition. 28
One question, however, remains: what “part” of a group must be targeted
for destruction in order to meet the conditions of the Genocide Conven-
24 Frank Chalk and Kurt Jonassohn (1990), The History and Sociology of Genocide: Analyses and
Case Studies. New Haven, p. 11.
25 Leo Kuper (1981), Genocide: Its Political Use in the Twentieth Century. New Haven, p. 29.
26 Drost (1959), p. 124.
27 Ben Whitaker (1985), Revised and Updated Report on the Question of the Prevention and Punishment
of the Crime of Genocide, New York, United Nations (Doc. E/CN.4/Sub.2/1985/6), p.
19, para. 36.
28 Commission of Experts, Final Report of the Commission of Experts Established Pursuant
to Security Council Resolution 780, New York, United Nations, 27 May 1994 (Doc. S/1994/
674), p. 25, para. 93. Also see Webb (1993), p. 392.
300