Application of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide Before the International Court of Justice (Bosnia and Herzegovina V. Serbia and Montenegro)

Abstract

The subject of this paper is the analysis of the application of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide of 1951 before the International Court of Justice in The Hague, in the case of Bosnia and Herzegovina v. Serbia and Montenegro, for violating the provisions of this Convention. This Court shall, by Article IX of the Convention, have jurisdiction in disputes between contracting states, concerning the interpretation, application and enforcement of the Convention, including those relating to the responsibility of a state for the crime of genocide or any other offense established in Article III of the Convention. Article I of the Convention stipulates that states are obliged to prevent genocide and punish the perpetrator. Furthermore, the responsibility of states under Article IX of the Convention relates only to the state’s failure to prevent the commission of genocide and other acts under Article III of the Convention and to punish the perpetrators. An analysis of the text of the Convention and the content of the claim of Bosnia and Herzegovina of 24 April 2006, shows that the claim of Bosnia and Herzegovina falls outside the scope of Article IX of the Convention, which is especially problematized in this paper by the author.