Case No. ICTR-96-4-T - International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda

511. On reading through the travaux préparatoires of the Genocide Convention96, itappears that the crime of genocide was allegedly perceived as targeting only "stable"groups, constituted in a permanent fashion and membership of which is determined bybirth, with the exclusion of the more "mobile" groups which one joins through individualvoluntary commitment, such as political and economic groups. Therefore, a commoncriterion in the four types of groups protected by the Genocide Convention is thatmembership in such groups would seem to be normally not challengeable by itsmembers, who belong to it automatically, by birth, in a continuous and often irremediablemanner.512. Based on the Nottebohm decision97 rendered by the International Court of Justice,the Chamber holds that a national group is defined as a collection of people who areperceived to share a legal bond based on common citizenship, coupled with reciprocity ofrights and duties.513. An ethnic group is generally defined as a group whose members share a commonlanguage or culture.514. The conventional definition of racial group is based on the hereditary physical traitsoften identified with a geographical region, irrespective of linguistic, cultural, national orreligious factors.515. The religious group is one whose members share the same religion, denomination ormode of worship.516. Moreover, the Chamber considered whether the groups protected by the GenocideConvention, echoed in Article 2 of the Statute, should be limited to only the four groupsexpressly mentioned and whether they should not also include any group which is stableand permanent like the said four groups. In other words, the question that arises iswhether it would be impossible to punish the physical destruction of a group as suchunder the Genocide Convention, if the said group, although stable and membership is bybirth, does not meet the definition of any one of the four groups expressly protected bythe Genocide Convention. In the opinion of the Chamber, it is particularly important torespect the intention of the drafters of the Genocide Convention, which according to thetravaux préparatoires, was patently to ensure the protection of any stable and permanentgroup.517. As stated above, the crime of genocide is characterized by its dolus specialis, orspecial intent, which lies in the fact that the acts charged, listed in Article 2 (2) of theStatute, must have been "committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national,ethnical, racial or religious group, as such".518. Special intent is a well-known criminal law concept in the Roman-continental legalsystems. It is required as a constituent element of certain offences and demands that theperpetrator have the clear intent to cause the offence charged. According to this meaning,special intent is the key element of an intentional offence, which offence is characterized