Journal of Legal Research

Journal of Legal Research

Genocide: From an Instance of Crimes Against Humanity to the “Crime of Crimes” in International Criminal Law

Document Type : Original Article

Authors
Shadi Tazesh 1
Seyyed Ghasem Zamani 2
1 PhD in International Law, Faculty of Law and Political Science, Allameh Tabataba'i University, Tehran, Iran.
2 Professor, Department of International Law, Faculty of Law and Political Science, Allameh Tabataba'i University, Tehran, Iran.
10.48300/jlr.2022.322758.1905
Abstract
The murmurs that were heard from the early days of the criminalization of genocide in domestic and international forums were mostly opposed to granting an independent identity to this crime and, referring to the precedent of adjudication in Nuremberg, demanded that it remain as a sub-category under crimes against humanity. The drafting of the Genocide Convention provided the grounds for legal precision and deep reflection on genocide and crimes against humanity by international courts and international jurists, such that by resorting to the opinions of the most prominent legal advocates and domestic and international judicial practice, they sought to find the points of commonality and difference between the two crimes. The result of this examination indicates their convergence in actus reus on the one hand, and on the other hand, an emphasis on the mens rea as the sole distinguishing gem within the crime of genocide. Given that the crime of genocide was extracted from within crimes against humanity, it suddenly raises this concern: does calling it the "crime of crimes" among serious international crimes have any valid basis, merely by virtue of a ruling issued by an adjudicating body, especially since in recent years we have witnessed the efforts of the International Law Commission in drafting a convention on crimes against humanity and bringing it to fruition. Bringing such an effort to fruition reaffirms the heinous and serious nature of the two crimes and the invalidity of the existence of a hierarchy among serious crimes. In fact, the consequences that the label of committing the "crime of crimes" imprints on the forehead of a state have, in numerous instances, caused the circumvention of all paths and the finding of an escape route for calling genocide by the name of crimes against humanity.
Keywords
Genocide
Crimes Against Humanity
Actus Reus
Special Intent
Crime of Crimes
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Journal of Legal Research
Volume 24, Issue 63
Autumn 2025
Pages 7-46