Crime of extermination

Definition of the Crime of Extermination

The Elements of the Crime of Extermination

Extermination is the intentional and massive homicide of an entire group of persons. The international law of armed conflict specifically establishes that it is forbidden to attack civilians (GCIV Art. 32, API Art. 51.2, and APII Art. 13); to murder or exterminate the wounded or sick, the shipwrecked, prisoners of war, and civilians (GCI and GCII Art. 12, GCIII Art. 13, GCIV Art. 32, API Art. 10, and APII Art. 7); or to order that there shall be no survivors (API Art. 40).

The Statute of the International Criminal Court, adopted in July 1998 and entered into force in July 2002, includes extermination in the crimes against humanity over which it will have jurisdiction. It defines extermination as “includ[ing] the intentional infliction of conditions of life, inter alia the deprivation of access to food and medicine, calculated to bring about the destruction of part of a population” (Art. 7.2.b).

The exact meaning of this crime is listed in a separate document adopted by the Assembly of State Parties to the ICC and called the “Elements of Crime.” The crime of extermination requires that:

The perpetrator killed one or more persons, including by inflicting conditions of life calculated to bring about the destruction of part of a population;
The conduct constituted, or took place as part of, a mass killing of members of a civilian population;
The conduct was committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack directed against a civilian population;
The perpetrator knew that the conduct was part of or intended the conduct to be part of a widespread or systematic attack directed against a civilian population.