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The interpretation and (non-)application of the Genocide Convention during the Cold War

In: Handbook of Genocide Studies

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  • Anton Weiss-Wendt

Abstract

From its adoption in 1948 and throughout the Cold War, the UN Genocide Convention largely remained a rhetorical tool. Beside a few instances in the 1950s when western powers mulled charging the Soviet Union with genocide, the first ever conviction on charges of genocide had occurred only in 1998. Cold War constellations and domestic politics in combination prevented the former wartime Allies, the United Kingdom and the United States, from ratifying/acceding to the Genocide Convention until 1970 and 1988, respectively. Comprehensive attempts by the United Nations to streamline the text of the Genocide Convention, in 1978 and 1985, had been in vain. Despite the manifest lack of political will to make the Genocide Convention operational, the Cold War decades saw protracted, at times fierce, legal and political debates on the crime of genocide.

Suggested Citation

  • Anton Weiss-Wendt, 2023. "The interpretation and (non-)application of the Genocide Convention during the Cold War," Chapters, in: David J. Simon & Leora Kahn (ed.), Handbook of Genocide Studies, chapter 6, pages 85-94, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    • Handle: RePEc:elg:eechap:20371_6
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    Keywords

    Geography; Politics and Public Policy;

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