What is Genocide?

Genocide is the killing of people because of their race, ethic, religion or national group. During the Holocaust which took place during World War II many Jews were executed. In December 1948 the United Nation General Assembly adopted The Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. This convention is to prevent actions similar to the Holocaust by Nazi Germany during World War II from happening. The convention (article 2) defined genocide as:

...any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, 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 the group to another group.

– Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, Article II

Genocide is a crime under international law. All of the participating countries are to prevent and punish actions of genocide in war and in peacetime. But, there are some countries such as , Bahrain, Bangladesh, India, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, the United States, Vietnam, Yemen, and Yugoslavia that signed and believe that no claim of genocide can be bought against them at the International Court of Justice without their consent. But if the governments all over the world are making laws to protect people and prevent genocide from reoccuring why does genocide still happen today? One of the most known genocide happening today would be the War in Darfur. Darfur is located in the western region of Sudan.