[Last Name] 1

ROBIN SINGH

A 89

RACHNA JOSHI

BA. LL. B Xth SEM

11/04/2022

[Research On International Covenant on Civil And Political

Rights And Its Implementation In India]:

1. INTRODUCTION
1.1 After the horrors of World War II, a broad agreement surfaced at the worldwide position
demanding that the individual human being be placed under the protection of the transnational
community. As particularly the atrocities committed against specific ethnical groups had shown,
national governments could gravely fail in their duty to insure the life and the liberty of
their citizens. Some had indeed come murderous institutions. Still, never again should a
holocaust do. Consequently, since the assignment learned was that defensive mechanisms at the
domestic position alone didn’t give sufficiently stable safeguards, it came nearly tone evident to
entrust the planned new world organization with assuming the parts of patron of human rights on
a universal scale. At the San Francisco Conference in 1945, some Latin American countries
requested that a full law of human rights be included in the Charter of the United Nations itself.
Since such an action needed careful medication, their movements couldn't be successful at that
stage. Nevertheless, human rights were embraced as a matter of principle.

1.1.1 The Charter contains references to human rights in the Preamble, among the purposes of

the Organization ( Article 1) and in several other provisions ( Articles 13, 55, 62 and 68).
Incontinently after the factual setting up of the institutional machinery provided for by the
Charter, the new commission on Human Rights began its work for the creation of an
International Bill of Rights. In a first step, the Universal Declaration of human Rights was
drafted, which the General Assembly espoused on 10 December 1948.
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1.1.2 In order to make human rights an instrument effectively shaping the lives of individualities

and nations, further than just a political proclamation was demanded. Hence, from the very onset
there was general agreement to the effect that the substance of the Universal Declaration should
be translated into the hard legal form of an international treaty. The General Assembly
reaffirmed the necessity of complementing, as had formerly been done in the Universal
Declaration, traditional civil and political rights with economic, social and cultural rights, since
both classes of rights were “interconnected and interdependent.”

1.1.3 The only question was whether, following the conception of unity of all human rights,

the new conventional rights should be encompassed in one international instrument or whether,
on account of their different particularity, they should be arranged according to those
particularity. Western nations in particular claimed that the perpetration process could not be
identical, economic and social rights partaking further of the nature of pretensions to be
attained whereas civil and political rights had to be admired rigorously and without any
reservations. It’s this latter view that ultimately prevailed.

1.1.4 By resolution 543 (VI) of 4 February 1952, the General Assembly directed the Commission
on Human Rights to prepare, instead of just one Covenant, two draft treaties; a Covenant setting.

1.2 HISTORY AND ORIGIN

Christian Tomuschat, “INTERNATIONAL COVENANT ON CIVIL AND POLITICAL RIGHTS”,

United Nations Audiovisual Library of International Law, 2008, legal.un.org/avl/pdf/ha/iccpr/iccpr_e.pdf

1.2.1 Human rights protection is always a stony way, taking a long breath and protection. The

rights of citizens to liberty and equivalency; occasionally appertained to as first generation rights.
Civil rights include freedom to worship, to suppose and express oneself, to vote, to take part in
political life, and to have access to information.
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1.2.2 The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) is the core of the fairly
binding human rights protection at the universal position. ICCPR is an international human rights
treaty, furnishing a range of protections for civil and political rights. It's open for ratification to
all countries so it has universal applicability. The ICCPR, and its two discretionary Protocols,
is part of the International Bill of Human Rights, along with the International Covenant on
Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
(UDHR). The first Protocol establishes an individual complaints medium, and
the alternative abolishes the death penalty.

1.2.3 The United Nations International Covenant of Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) attempts
to ensure the protection of civil and political rights. It was adopted by the United Nations’
General Assembly on December 19, 1966, and it came into force on March 23, 1976. The
International Covenant on Economic Social and Cultural Rights, the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights, and the ICCPR and its two Optional Protocols, are collectively known as the
International Bill of Rights.

1.2.4 The purpose of Covenant is the creation of conditions whereby everyone

may enjoy his civil and political rights. To establish and retain an order were
human beings can live as their essential quality requires, and to condense the
being domestic means for the observance of the rights by making them enforceable by
the other countries parties and by covering bodies which the treaty may have established.

1.3 INTERNATIONAL IMPLEMENTATION

1.3.1 The Human Rights Committee is the star actor at the international position mandated to
enforce the rights enunciated in the ICCPR. The instruments put at its disposal for
that purpose are of limited compass, still. States are needed to submit at regular
intervals reports which are precisely scanned; at the end of that process, the Committee
summarizes its assessment of the prevailing  human  rights situation by noting in particular its
enterprises in open and straightforward language without any politic inhibitions. Similar
concluding compliances aren't fairly binding. Also, the final views which the Committee delivers
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after having examined an individual communication under the (First) Optional Protocol to the
ICCPR warrant any binding legal force. Of course, States are anticipated to live up
in good faith to the views addressed to them by the Committee. If they just shoved down similar
recommendations, the whole procedure would make no sense. In addition, by formulating
“general commentary”, the Committee has opened up a new window of exertion. Through
similar “general commentary”, it explains the compass and meaning of the provisions of the
ICCPR and clarifies general issues as they arise in the process of perpetration.

1.3.2 1It is at the national level that the ICCPR has exerted its greatest impact. When today
anywhere in the world a national constitution is framed, the ICCPR serves as the natural
yardstick for the drafting of a section on fundamental rights. In most countries, the ICCPR has
been made part and parcel of the national legal order although there is no general rule of
international law that would enjoin States to embrace a specific method of implementation. Thus,
the United States has made a declaration according to which the ICCPR is not self-executing
within its domestic legal system. In some countries, administrative authorities and the courts are
specifically enjoined to follow the applicable international guarantees when interpreting the
national constitution (e.g., article 10, paragraph 2 of the Spanish Constitution).

1.3.3 In other countries, the ICCPR has even been given the legal force of a provision of
constitutional or quasi-constitutional rank (e.g., article 15, paragraph 4, of the Constitution of the
Russian Federation). These legal techniques are not automatically successful, since, as a rule,
national judges are not very familiar with the guarantees laid down in international human rights
instruments and are more often than not reluctant to accord them precedence over the applicable
national laws and regulations.

1.3.4 2The states parties of the Covenant on Civil and Political Rights are distinguish in several
categories:
• States which have became parties by ratification: 35 states that ratified the Covenant. For all
states the relevant date is 23 March 1976.

1
ibid
2
Aloud Haxhiraj, “ The Covenant on civil and political right”, Juridical Tribune, December 2013,
www.researchgate.net/publication/329000602
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• States which have became parties by accession: ratified the Covenant after that date and
entered into force 3 months after their declaration of ratification or accession7 .
• States which have became parties by succession by states already bound by Covenant. The
succession is the replacement of one state by another in the responsibility for the international
relations of territory. The state successor of a state which was already bound by the Covenant
is automatically obligated by the Covenant from the date when the fact of succession took
place. The lists of the states which have become parties by succession include: Croatia,
Macedonia, BosniaHerzegovina, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, etc
1.3.5 Another state is U.S.A. Upon ratifying in 1992, the United States entered 5 reservations, 5
understandings, and 3 declarations. Reservations included:
• Protection of free speech under the U.S. Constitution.
• Right to impose capital punishment on any person (other than pregnant women), including
juveniles.
• Limiting the prohibition against cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment to the
constitutional prohibition under 5th, 8th, and 14th Amendments. 4. Limits on the treatment of
juveniles as adults in the criminal justice system.

1.3.6 The reservations made for the ICCPR, because it’s a human rights convention, have put 

into mistrustfulness the connection of the general governance of reservation. The number of
reservations, their content and their compass may undermine the effective perpetration of the
Covenant and tend to weaken respect for the scores of States Parties. All reservations
incompatible with object and purpose are without legal effect.

1.4 INDIA
1.4.1 3”We have on a number of occasions used international conventions to read in new rights
into fundamental rights," Justice Nariman said.

3
Harish V Nair, “ Righ to privacy: International treaties back it for fundamental right”, India Today, New
Delhi, August 2, 2017, //www.indiatoday.in/mail-today/story/right-to-privacy-fundamental-right-
supreme-court-1027509-2017-08-02
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1.4.2 UN Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) and International Covenant on Civil and
Political Rights (ICCPR) to which India is a signatory had expressly recognised privacy as a
fundamental and inalienable right and this constitutional bench just had to read it in," Nariman
added.

1.4.3 4”A constitutional amendment is required for it and only Parliament can do it. It cannot be
done through an interpretation," said Sundaram.

1.4.4 Irrespective
of different states having different laws on privacy, privacy has been recognised as
a fundamental human right in the UDHR and ICCPR and in numerous other international
covenants. The UDHR and the ICCPR are binding upon India, as India is a signatory to both of
these conventions, still, no consequent and unequivocal legislation has been passed by India in
this regard. Countries across the globe have formulated sequestration laws and laid down
principles in agreement to the sequestration conditions that their country raises.

1.4.5 The body that regulates and protects human rights in India is the National Human Rights
Commission (NHRC). For making a Treaty as binding in any particular State, it has to ratify the
same, during this time any country can also make some declarations. In this regard, India has
also made certain declarations with respect to the ICCPR. 

1.4.6 5It has been stated by the government while ratifying the Treaty that Article 9 of the treaty
works in consonance with Article 22 of the Constitution of India, which provides for preventive
and punitive detention laws. In this regard, it has been explicated by the government that there is
no enforceable right under the Indian legal systems to provide compensation to victims of
unlawful arrest. With respect to Article 13 of the ICCPR which prohibits expulsion of resident
aliens, the government of India reserves its right to apply its own domestic laws. India has also
complied with the principles of the ICCPR and established the National Human Rights
Commission under the Protection of Human Rights Act in the year 1993. The NHRC has wide

4
ibid
5
Samarth Suri, “A Critical Analysis of Covenants of 1966”, I- Pleaders, 25 JUNE 2020,
blog.ipleaders.in/critical-analysis-covenants-1966/#India_and_the_ICCPR
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ranging powers and all human rights violation complaints can be made to the Commission itself.
The Commission can send in recommendations to courts with respect to human rights cases, and
can take suo moto cognizance of these issues.

1.4.7 India may be a signatory to many international agreements and treaties but some of the
commitments made to the world community do not find the desired application within the
country because of gaps and lack of clear-cut direction within Indian jurisprudence. A case in
point is the right to compensation for victims of human rights violations, including those
perpetrated by the state like unlawful detention, torture, and custodial deaths. Currently, cases of
recompense are virtually left to the discretion of individual judges.

1.4.8 India is party to international agreements pertaining to state responsibility. Additionally,

India is part of the international community bound by customary international law, so long as
such law is not inconsistent with Indian law. Specifically, Article 51(c) of the Indian Constitution
dictates, “The State shall endeavour to foster respect for international law and treaty obligations
in the dealings of organised people with another.”Despite this, India has failed to uphold
international standards within customary international law regarding compensation and has taken
reservations to crucial articles of relevant treaties, such as the International Covenant on Civil
and Political Rights (ICCPR).

1.4.9 6Although the Supreme Court interpreted a constitutional right to compensation in the
Rudul Sah case for State violations of fundamental rights, India’s reservation to Article 9 of the
ICCPR “has virtually blocked a statutory right to compensation.” Article 9 (5) of the ICCPR
states, “Anyone who has been the victim of unlawful arrest or detention shall have an
enforceable right to compensation.” Yet, India’s reservation to Article 9 conditions, “under the
Indian Legal System, there is no enforceable right to compensation for persons claiming to be
victims of unlawful arrest or detention against the State.” This resilient reservation has left a
gaping hole in the protection of fundamental rights in India.

6
Ravi Nair, “Violations of Rights and Compensation: India’s Failure to Adhere to International
Standards”, The Leaflet, 4 October, 2020, theleaflet.in/violations-of-rights-and-compensation-indias-
failure-to-adhere-to-international-standards/
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1.5 CONCLUSION
1.5.1 World War I & II left the world devastated, whether it be in terms of financial damage or
human rights violation, particularly in relation to prisoners of war. Post World War II, the United
Nations was formed which tried to reconcile the differences between countries and work towards
a better future. Human rights are the very basis of existence of all human beings, to be treated
with dignity and to have basic rights are sacrosanct for the growth of the human race. The
Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948 formed the basis for a plethora of human right
laws to factor in, the most notable of which were the ICCPR and the ICESCR, both of these
Treaties gave way for rights that every person is bound to have irrespective of any and all of the
factors. This article briefly discussed one of those two Treaties in detail. It is deductible from this
that the rights that are seen in the ICCPR have also been formulated in India under Article 19 of
the Indian Constitution. It provides for the Right to speech and expression, assembly,
association, movement, settlement, to practise any trade or profession and all of these are also
seen in the ICCPR.

2. Write Article on Genocide

• INTRODUCTION

1. HISTORICAL OVERVIEW

1.1 The systematic annihilation of entire groups of people has cut a broad swathe of blood
through human history. The manifestation of the crime is as varied as the motives for it and the
events that have triggered it. Genocide particularly marks the face of the 20th century. At the
start of World War 1, Armenians living in turkey were the victim of an extermination campaign
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in which the estimated number of death ranged from 500000 to a million. The tragic climax of
the history of genocide was the Holocast, the Nazi extermination of the European Jews.

1.1.1 More than six million Jews fell victim due to the extermination policy of Hitler. They were
used to kill them by putting them in gas chamber and they were forced to work as bonded labour
and their behaviour was very inhumane towards them. On 9th December 1948, as a reaction to
nazi genocide, the convention on the prevention and punishment of the crime of genocide was
adopted. But the continuation of genocide did not end up with World War 2. It again arose in
Nigeria which shook the whole world. Towards the end of 20th century in Rawanda, civil war
broke out in 1994 which took form of genocide. Again in July 1995 genocide was committed
during the war in Bosnia. Despite the adoption of genocide convention in 1948, 50 years have
passed before an international court, the Yugoslavia Tribunal, would be created to prosecute
genocide, though with temporal and territorial limitations. Shortly after the UN Security Council
created the Rwanda Tribunal to deal specifically with the genocide in Rwanda .With the creation
of the international criminal court, there is now for the first time an international institution that
can punish genocide anywhere in the world.

1.2 BACKGROUND

1.2.1 The word “genocide” was first coined by Polish lawyer Raphäel Lemkin in 1944 in his
book Axis Rule in Occupied Europe. It consists of the Greek prefix genos, meaning race or tribe,
and the Latin suffix cide, meaning killing. Lemkin developed the term partly in response to the
Nazi policies of systematic murder of Jewish people during the Holocaust, but also in response to
previous instances in history of targeted actions aimed at the destruction of particular groups of
people. Later on, Raphäel Lemkin led the campaign to have genocide recognised and codified as
an international crime.7

1.2.2 According to Lemkin, Generally speaking, genocide does not necessarily mean the
immediate destruction of a nation, except when accomplished by mass killings of all members of
a nation. It is intended rather to signify a coordinated plan of different actions aiming at the
destruction of essential foundations of the life of national groups, with the aim of annihilating the

7
https://www.un.org/en/genocideprevention/genocide.shtml, Accessed on 4th April’ 2022
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groups themselves. The objectives of such a plan would be the disintegration of the political and
social institutions, of culture, language, national feelings, religion, and the economic existence of
national groups, and the destruction of the personal security, liberty, health, dignity, and even the
lives of the individuals belonging to such groups.

1.2.3 Genocide was first recognised as a crime under international law in 1946 by the United
Nations General Assembly (A/RES/96-I). It was codified as an independent crime in the 1948
Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (the Genocide
Convention). The Convention has been ratified by 149 States (as of January 2018). The
International Court of Justice (ICJ) has repeatedly stated that the Convention embodies principles
that are part of general customary international law. This means that whether or not States have
ratified the Genocide Convention, they are all bound as a matter of law by the principle that
genocide is a crime prohibited under international law. The ICJ has also stated that the
prohibition of genocide is a peremptory norm of international law (or ius cogens) and
consequently, no derogation from it is allowed.8

1.2.4 The definition of the crime of genocide as contained in Article II of the Genocide

Convention was the result of a negotiating process and reflects the compromise reached among
United Nations Member States in 1948 at the time of drafting the Convention. Genocide is
defined in the same terms as in the Genocide Convention in the Rome Statute of the International
Criminal Court (Article 6), as well as in the statutes of other international and hybrid
jurisdictions. Many States have also criminalized genocide in their domestic law; others have yet
to do so.

1.3 DEFINITION
1.3.1 Article 2 of ‘Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the crime of Genocide’
(CPPCG), defines genocide as:-

Any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, whole or in part, a national, ethical,
racial or religious group, as such:

8
Ibid at 9
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• Killing members of the group;

• Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;

• Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical
destruction in whole or in part;

• Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;

• Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.

1.3.2 Article 6 of the International Criminal Court also defines genocide in the same way as
CPPCG, except for the fact that, Rome Statute expanded the definition given by CPPCG by
applying it to times of both war and peace. An important characteristic of genocide is the
targeting of a victim not as an individual or for any reason peculiar to him personally, but
because he is a member of a national, ethnical, racial, or religious group.

1.3.3 The phrase “ in whole or in part” in the definition of Genocide has been subject to
interpretation by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia in the case of
Prosecutor v. Radislav Krstic9. The tribunal in its judgment had held that “the part must be a
substantial part of that group. The part targeted must be significant enough to have an impact on
the group as a whole.”

1.3.4 It should be noted that ‘killing’ is not necessary to hold someone liable for ‘Genocide.’
According to R.J. Rummel ( who was professor emeritus of political science at the University of
Hawaii), the acts of non-killings such as preventing births or forcibly transferring children out of
the group to another group that eventually eliminate the group also comes under the ambit of the
crime of Genocide.10
• Article II of the Genocide Convention contains a narrow definition of the crime of geno-
cide, which includes two main elements:

• A mental element: the "intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or reli-
gious group, as such", and

9
The Hague, 2 August 2001 OF/P.I.S./609e

10
https://blog.ipleaders.in/crime-genocide-international-law/, accessed on 7th April’ 2022
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• A physical element, which includes the five acts given above.

1.3.6 The intent is the most difficult element to determine. To constitute genocide, there
must be a proven intent on the part of perpetrators to physically destroy a national, ethnical,
racial or religious group. Cultural destruction does not suffice, nor does an intention to simply
disperse a group. It is this special intent, or dolus specialis, that makes the crime of genocide so
unique.

1.3.7 Article of CPPCG further makes the following acts as punishable :-

• Genocide;

• Conspiracy to commit genocide;

• Direct and public incitement to commit genocide;

• Attempt to commit genocide;

• Complicity in genocide.11

2. INCIDENTS OF GENOCIDE IN INDIA

2.1 Introduction

11
https://www.un.org/en/genocideprevention/documents/atrocity-crimes/Doc.1_Convention%20on%20the

%20Prevention%20and%20Punishment%20of%20the%20Crime%20of%20Genocide.pdf Accessed on 7th April’

2022.
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2.1.1 From the day of Independence, India is facing the mass killings in one form or the
other. The communal riots of Indian Muslims and Hindus had started much before
Independence. The Partition is the biggest mistake, which the then leadership made. Thousands
of lives were lost in the partition. The Bombay blasts, Godhra incident, the mass killings of Sikhs
after the assassination of the then Prime Minister, the never ending Kashmir issue etc., are some
of the incidents of genocide in Independent India which boasts the there is unity in diversity.

2.2 The Partition : 1947

While there were strong feelings of nationalism in India, by the late 19th century there
were also communal conflicts and movements in the country that were based on religious
communities rather than class or regional ones.12 The result is division of the country. On 14th
August in the year 1947 the new Islamic Republic of Pakistan had come into existence. After
two hundred years of colonial rule, the British, known for divide and rule policy left India
dividing the great nation into two. The countries were found on the basis of religion, Pakistan
openly declaring itself to be an Islamic State and India proclaiming itself as secular. The
boundaries are set up which did in no way stop the conflict between the two countries and a
continuing strife still continues.

2.3 Aftermath of Partition

2.3.1 Communal riots took thousands of lives of Hindus and Muslims. Women were the
worst hit. The houses were looted. Girls and women were raped brutally. Trains full of dead
bodies arrived in both the newly formed countries from across the borders. 15 million refugees
poured across the borders to regions completely foreign to them, for though they were Hindu or
Muslim, their identity had been embedded in the regions where their ancestors were from.13

12
www.english.emory.edu/Bahri/Part.html

13
Ibid at 14
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2.3.2 The provinces of Punjab and Bengal were the hell on earth where number of deaths
took place and the lives of Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs were lost alike. Even after 60 years in
both the countries many still search their identities and their kith and kin on both sides. Still both
the countries are deadlocked over the issue of possession of Kashmir. Kashmir has been, is and
will be a problem to both countries.

2.4 Kashmir

2.4.1 The year 1988 is the beginning of the unrest in the valley of Kashmir. It is not that
till then Government of India did not face any problems with this State, but in 1988, the state of
Kashmir was severely impacted. The contest in the contest in Kashmir is not just between India
and Pakistan, there is an important third party to the conflict: the large number of discontented
people in the state. 400,000 Kashmiri Pandits, constituting 99% of the total population of Hindus
living in Muslim majority area of the Kashmir Valley, were forcibly pushed out of the Valley by
Muslim terrorists, trained in Pakistan, since the end of 1989. They have been forced to live the
life of exiles in their own country, outside their homeland, by unleashing a systematic campaign
of terror, murder, loot and arson.

2.4.2 Geneva Convention is not at all respected in the Valley. There are umpteen
numbers of human rights violation cases recorded. Muslims killing Kashmiri Pundits is one
aspect. But the Indian Security Forces have scant regard for humanitarian law. The do not stick
to the norms laid down by the Geneva Convention in dealing with the prisoners of war. Only in
Doda in the year 1994 two hundred women were raped. Rape continues to be a major instrument
of Indian repression against the Kashmiri people while the majority of casualties in Kashmir are
civilians.142.4.3 According to the Kashmiri-Canadian Council, 47,455 Kashmiris have died since
October 1989. "The [Indian] government's disregard for human rights in Jammu and Kashmir
means in practice that some 200 people reportedly died in custody in Jammu and Kashmir last
year and that the whereabouts of some 500 to 600 "disappeared " persons continue to be

14
http://archive.peacemagazine.org/v18n1p18.htm
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unknown. The arbitrary arrests of people suspected to sympathize with armed opposition groups
also continue to be reported.15

2.4.4 The sad part is that the Kashmir issue gets so wrapped up in global concerns on one
side and obfuscated by massive state-sponsored propaganda on the other that so few people
know about the tragic state of Kashmiri Pundits. 17 Islamic Militants killed more than 1,000 of
them in two years. They are living in makeshift refugee camps in North America--north India. A
total of 72,077, representing nearly 98 percent of the Pundit population, were driven out of
Kashmir due to ethnic cleansing. 9,309 homes have been burned down along with 1,659 small
businesses.16

2.5 Anti Sikh Riots, 1984

2.5.1 The anti-Sikh massacre of 1984 refers to a series of organised programs against
members of the Sikh community across India by anti-Sikh mobs in response to the assassination
of then prime minister (PM) Indira Gandhi by her Sikh bodyguards at her residence. After the
assassination of Indira on October 31, 1984, anti-Sikh riots erupted in some areas for several
days, killing more than 3,000 Sikhs in New Delhi and an estimated 8,000 across India.The
perpetrators carried iron rods, knives, clubs and combustible material such as petrol and diesel.
They entered Sikh neighbourhoods, killed Sikhs indiscriminately and even raped their women.17

2.6 Gujarat Violence, 2002

15
http://www.yespakistan.com/kashmir/humanrightsviolationsinkashmir.asp

16
https://www.readcube.com/articles/10.2139%2Fssrn.996531 accessed on 7th april, 2022

17
https://gulfnews.com/world/asia/india/anti-sikh-riots-what-happened-in-1984-and-after-1.60501721,

accessed on 7th April’ 2022

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2.6.1 It all started with the Godhra incident. The town witnesses the worst communal
violence in 2002. Fire was set on a train by some miscreants and 58 karsevaks who were
traveling in the train died. It incited the India’s enduring Hindu vs. Muslims sectarian tensions.18

2.6.2 According to the Government statistics 790 Muslims and 254 Hindus died
involving reciprocal violence between Hindus and Muslims. 223 persons were missing and 2548
persons were injured. 919 were widowed and 606 children became orphans. Human Right
Groups completely differ with.

3. CASES RELATED TO GENOCIDE

3.1 Rawanda Genocide –

The Rwandan Genocide was the 1994 mass killing of hundreds of thousands of Rwanda's
Tutsis and Hutu political moderates by Hutus under the Hutu Power ideology. Over the course of
approximately 100 days, from the assassination of juvenal Habyarimana on 6th April through
mid-July, at least 500,000 people were killed. Most estimates indicate a death toll between
800,000 and 1,000,000, which could be as high as 20% of the total population. The genocide was
directed by a Hutu Power group known as the Akazu. The killing also marked the end of the
peace agreement meant to end the war and the Tutsi RPF restarted their offensive, eventually
defeating the army and seizing control of the country.

3.2 Bosnia Genocide –

In the republic of Bosnia-Herzegovina, conflict between the three main ethnic groups -
the Serbs, Croats, and Muslims - resulted in genocide committed by the Serbs against Bosnian
Muslims. In the late 1980s a Serbian named Slobodan Milosevic came to power. In 1992 acts of
18
Ibid at 18
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ethnic cleansing started in Bosnia, a mostly Muslim country where the Serb minority made up
only 32% of the population. The Bosnian Muslims were outgunned and the Serbs continued to
gain ground. Over 200,000 Muslim civilians were systematically murdered and 2,000,000
became refugees at the hands of the Serbs. In 2001 the International Criminal Tribunal for the
Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) judged that the 1995 Srebrenica massacre was an act of genocide.

4. STAGES OF GENOCIDE AND PREVENTIVE MEASURES

Genocide is a process that develops in 8 stages that are predictable but not inexorable. At
each stage, there are preventive measures that can stop it.

4.1 Classification –

All cultures have categories to distinguish people into us and them by ethnicity, race,
religion, or nationality: German and Jew, Hutu and Tutsi. The main preventive measure at this
early stage is to develop universalistic institutions that transcend ethnic or racial divisions, that
actively promote tolerance and understanding, and that promote classifications that transcend the
divisions.

4.2 Symbolization –

We give names or other symbols to the classifications. We name people Jews or Gypsies,
or distinguish them by colors or dress; and apply the symbols to members of groups.
Classification and symbolization are universally human and do not necessarily result in genocide
unless they lead to the next stage, dehumanization. To combat symbolization, hate symbols can
be legally forbidden (swastikas) alike the hate speeches. Group marking like gang clothing or
tribal scarring can be outlawed, as well.

4.3 Dehumanization –
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One group denies the humanity of the other group. Members of it are equated with
animals, vermin, insects or diseases. Dehumanization overcomes the normal human revulsion
against murder. At this stage, hate propaganda in print and on hate radios is used to vilify the
victim group. In combating this dehumanization, incitement to genocide should not be confused
with protected speech. Local and international leaders should condemn the use of hate speech
and make it culturally unacceptable. Leaders who incite genocide should be banned from
international travel and have their foreign finances frozen. Hate radio stations should be shut
down, and hate propaganda banned. Hate crimes and atrocities should be promptly punished.

4.4 Organization –

Genocide is always organized, usually by the state, often using militias to provide
deniability of state responsibility (the Janjaweed in Darfur.) Sometimes organization is informal
(Hindu mobs led by local RSS militants) or decentralized (terrorist groups.) Their leaders should
be denied visas for foreign travel. The U.N. should impose arms embargoes on governments and
citizens of countries involved in genocidal massacres, and create commissions to investigate
violations, as was done in post-genocide Rwanda.

4.5 Polarization –

Extremists drive the groups apart. Hate groups broadcast polarizing propaganda. Laws
may forbid intermarriage or social interaction. Extremist terrorism targets moderates,
intimidating and silencing the center. Moderates from the perpetrators own group are most able
to stop genocide, so are the first to be arrested and killed. Prevention may mean security
protection for moderate leaders or assistance to human rights groups. Assets of extremists may
be seized, and visas for international travel denied to them. Coups détat by extremists should be
opposed by international sanctions.

4.6 Preparation –
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Victims are identified and separated out because of their ethnic or religious identity.
Death lists are drawn up. Members of victim groups are forced to wear identifying symbols.
Their property is expropriated At this stage, a Genocide Emergency must be declared. If the
political will of the great powers, regional alliances, or the U.N. Security Council can be
mobilized, armed international intervention should be prepared, or heavy assistance provided to
the victim group to prepare for its self-defense.

4.7 Extermination –

Extermination begins, and quickly becomes the mass killing legally called genocide. It is
extermination to the killers because they do not believe their victims to be fully human. When it
is sponsored by the state, the armed forces often work with militias to do the killing.  At this
stage, only rapid and overwhelming armed intervention can stop genocide. Real safe areas or
refugee escape corridors should be established with heavily armed international protection. For
larger interventions, a multilateral force authorized by the U.N. should intervene. If the U.N. is
paralyzed, regional alliances must act. It is time to recognize that the international responsibility
to protect transcends the narrow interests of individual nation states. If strong nations will not
provide troops to intervene directly, they should provide the airlift, equipment, and financial
means necessary for regional states to intervene.

4.8 Denial –

Denial is the eighth stage that always follows a genocide. It is among the surest
indicators of further genocidal massacres. The perpetrators of genocide dig up the mass graves,
burn the bodies, try to cover up the evidence and intimidate the witnesses. They deny that they
committed any crimes, and often blame what happened on the victims. They block investigations
of the crimes, and continue to govern until driven from power by force, when they flee into exile.
The response to denial is punishment by an international tribunal or national courts. There the
evidence can be heard, and the perpetrators punished. Tribunals like the Yugoslav or Rwanda
Tribunals, or an international tribunal to try the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia, or an International
 [Last Name] 20

Criminal Court may not deter the worst genocidal killers. But with the political will to arrest and
prosecute them, some may be brought to justice.19

5. CONCLUSION

Genocide is on of the heinous crime against human being. Genocide is a crime on a

different scale to all other crimes against humanity and implies an intention to completely
exterminate the chosen group. Genocide is therefore both the gravest and the greatest of the
crimes against humanity. In the same way as in a case of homicide the natural right of the
individual to exist is implied, so in the case of genocide as a crime, the principle that any
national, racial or religious group has a natural right to exist is clearly evident. Attempts to
eliminate such groups violate this right to exist and to develop within the international
community. The specificity of genocide does not arise from the extent of the killings, nor their
savagery or resulting infamy, but solely from the intention: the destruction of a group. So, strict
action and laws should be made against genocide. The punishment should be severely deterrent.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

• https://www.un.org/en/genocideprevention/genocide.shtml

• https://blog.ipleaders.in/crime-genocide-international-law/

• https://www.un.org/en/genocideprevention/documents/atrocity-crimes/Doc.1_Convention
%20on%20the%20Prevention%20and%20Punishment%20of%20the%20Crime%20of
%20Genocide.pdf

19
https://www.legalserviceindia.com/article/l433-Genocide-Under-International-Criminal-

Law.html#:~:text=Genocide%20includes%20all%20the%20acts,existence%20are%20violated%20or

%20endangered., accessed on 7th April’ 2022

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• www.english.emory.edu/Bahri/Part.html

• http://archive.peacemagazine.org/v18n1p18.htm

• http://www.yespakistan.com/kashmir/humanrightsviolationsinkashmir.asp

• https://www.readcube.com/articles/10.2139%2Fssrn.996531

• https://gulfnews.com/world/asia/india/anti-sikh-riots-what-happened-in-1984-and-after-
1.60501721

• https://www.legalserviceindia.com/article/l433-Genocide-Under-International-Criminal-
Law.html#:~:text=Genocide%20includes%20all%20the%20acts,existence%20are%20violated
%20or%20endangered