Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide

The Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, commonly the Genocide Convention, is an international treaty that criminalizes genocide and was the first human rights treaty unanimously adopted by the United Nations General Assembly, on 9 December 1948. It entered into force on 12 January 1951 and had 153 state parties as of February 2025. Conceived largely in response to the Holocaust, and drafted after Polish-Jewish lawyer Raphael Lemkin, who coined the term genocide in 1944, campaigned for its recognition as a crime under international law, the Convention defines genocide as any of five specified acts committed with intent to destroy a national, ethnic, racial or religious group in whole or in part, including killing its members, causing serious bodily or mental harm, and forcibly transferring children out of the group. Its definition has been adopted by international and hybrid tribunals including the International Criminal Court and is considered to reflect customary international law binding on all states regardless of ratification.