The United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide was signed in December 1948 and has been in force since January 1951. Article II of the convention defines genocide as ANY of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group, as such:

(a) Killing members of the group.

(b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group.

(c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part.

(d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group.

(e) Forcibly transferring children of one group to another group.

The United States ratified the UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide in 1988.

For information on the conflicts that have been identified as genocide, please see the links to the right.

Download a one-page handout of this material here.