Genocide, The Most Serious Crime To Humanity

Genocide, the most serious crime to humanity

The work that is presented seeks to consistently analyze some of the most serious crimes that afflict the entire humanity, the genocide, the crimes against humanity and the crimes against people and property protected against international humanitarian law, the first will be studied Taking into account its use to annihilate certain conglomerates of people and thus modify the social structure, the second taking into account that they are a very exceptional figure within Colombian criminal law since these types of crimes do not have a prescription date in addition to not Have any type of pardon or amnesty and the last ones that allow regulating the conflict, so that it will first begin to define concepts taking into account the order of the previous items, then its scope or limits and finally some conclusions will be presented in this regard.

Genocide

Genocide can be seen as an abuse of power where a certain population is annihilated that brings together well -defined characteristics, can also be seen as a social practice that different peoples have exercised throughout their history: the Nazi army in World War II (1939 -1945), the Armenian genocide (1915-1923), the massacres perpetrated by the Red Jamers (1975-1979) and a little more recent the genocide of Rwanda (1994).

Unfortunately in academic terms, genocide has had little development in academic fields, however it is possible to start with the works of Lemkin who was the first person to develop this concept from his text It was quite impacted by the events that occurred in the Armenian genocide decides The essential foundations of the life of national groups, with the aim of annihilating these groups ”.

These terrible acts are not new because they have been committed since time immemorial in the history of humanity and its effects can be analyzed from politics, criminal law, sociology, philosophy and psychology. Its commotion and impact was so strong that only until war and the tragedy of World War II, the states face a fact of such magnitude that it is necessary to include this concept in what would be the convention for the sanction and prevention of the crime of genocide of 1948 by the already created institution of the United Nations, it should be noted that its legal sanction had strong debates regarding the inclusion or not of the so -called “political groups”, an idea that Josef Stalin exercised a strong opposition in this regard under penalty of being also incriminated and incuring this concept of atrocious crime.

The rise of civilization and the budgets of reason were truncated by such a resounding event that occurred since the human race was able to show acts of savagery and to the detriment of the same Western culture, such is so that many states and groups fear be pointed out from these acts to this day, and not only for the economic sanctions that this entails in front of the international community but also because this has a strong political component, as a consequence of the above many states refuse to ratify the convention for The prevention and sanction of the crime of genocide.

Limits of the scope of the concept of genocide

Racism is one of the elements that configure the concept of genocide and create a kind of rival that so that it can later be able to stigmatize and then end these social conglomerates, however the causes of foundation of the genocide and their sanction are limited as soon as to be configured an element within the criminal type and that the "attempt to destroy" these ethnic, religious or cultural groups must be demonstrated unequivocally and without a doubt, this is very difficult to try to prove. 

Intentionality plays a fundamental role in genocide acts, the volitional element that seeks to exterminate is the limit within genocide and people who commit this type of crimes do not usually leave any trace of the latter and this also in judicial terms In a probative barrier to part of this is also the political element since as mentioned above by the intervention of Josef Stalin, the persecution and political extermination is not part of the concept of genocide because the above would be related more to crimes against humanity.

Crimes against humanity

The concept of crimes against humanity did not appear until in the mid -twentie Crimes against humanity consists in incurring serious inhuman acts when two requirements meet:

1.  The commission as part of a generalized or systematic attack against a civilian population
2. knowledge of this attack, murder, extermination, slavery, deportation or forced population transfer, among others.

Regarding the application and judgment of these acts, it has been necessary that by institutions and states the importance of memory and the search for truth and justice has been generalized because the victims of these crimes They have been political groups, journalists, teachers, trade unionists and artists, therefore it is important that not only democracies and state devices know the previous concept but also recognize the social and culture transformation that is needed against impunity, The latter is the eternal enemy to overcome as to the crimes against humanity.

Limits or scope of crimes against humanity

Based on the Rome Statute which expressly typified these crimes, in terms of the application of these crimes, it must be taken into account that these crimes are also an integral part of Colombian criminal law, for this reason in Colombia a person can be condemned by cruel and inhuman treatment or treatment that would have an equivalent to being convicted of those same consecrated behaviors as mentioned above in the Rome Statute.

For this reason, nowhere in the Document of the Rome Statutes it is established that the states must typify this type of behavior that the instrument provides and this is where the first limiting appears because a dilemma is really generated with each other necessary to typify as such These crimes in Law 600 of 2000 or if it is enough that their behaviors appear within the Code, in this sense, of not typifying this crime as such, the Colombian State is not complying with its obligations in international matters.

Crimes against persons and goods protected by international humanitarian law

The object of International Humanitarian Law contrary to what is believed is not a normative body that allows to achieve peace, in fact it is the opposite because through this the right of war is regulated, that is, its purpose is to regulate war. The purpose of International Humanitarian Law since it is impossible to stop war, seeks to limit its effects to what is strictly necessary, seeks to civilize and humanize the armed conflict, for this reason, its greatest representative is the International Committee of the Red Cross Cicrc.

Limitations of crimes against persons and property protected by international humanitarian law

In our country for many years, the concept of the law of belligerence was related to the application of International Humanitarian Law since it was thought that by recognizing and accepting these rules of belligerence, a political-territorial division was generated, the foregoing led to the system Colombian internal legal was not compatible in any way with international humanitarian law.

The limitation in this sense and incongruity between the two normative bodies is presented as an exclusive interpretation substantially modifies the treatment of the scope and application of crimes against humanity in Colombia, being concrete, the example of the murder of the members is present of the Patriotic UP Political Party, for the Criminal Code of the 80s the actors of these atroces These crimes were not exact or in any way for the importance with which they should be treated.

Conclusions

 It is necessary that all states generate rejection in the face of all the elements and behaviors that lead to genocide, that is, under no circumstances, hate speeches are allowed and conditions are not promoted so that intolerance and hatred are part of the national feeling Of the states because of not doing the above, genocide crimes will once again be around the planet. Unfortunately in our country we had a conflict of such magnitude that the analysis and applicability of international regulations were not relevant in legal terms and that led to the fact that in many political crimes they would remain in impunity.As for the crimes against humanity, they are crimes that in practice are of an exceptional nature, therefore do not allow analogies of any kind because of accepting analogies the guarantees that criminal law have with freedom would be compromised thus affecting the essential nucleus of the last. There are still pending adjustments that must be carried out in terms of the Colombian Criminal Code since this must be fully concordant with the Treaty of Rome, if the above Colombia is not done, Colombia will continue to fail to comply with commitments internationally in the field of international humanitarian law.