Chicago Journal of International Law As ICL developed, genocide’s status as a crime became unequivocal. In the Statutes of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR)—Articles 4(2) and 2(2), respectively—the international community reaffirmed genocide as a crime, using the exact language of the Genocide Convention.37 The Rome Statute continued this tradition in Article 6 of that instrument, further cementing global fidelity toward genocide’s prevention.38 While treaties criminalized genocide, international courts expanded on the crime’s elements through interpretation, as discussed by Grant Dawson and Rachel Boynton.39 For example, international courts have interpreted “killing members of the group” as murder, excluding non-intentional homicides.40 The meaning of “causing serious bodily or mental harm” has been determined on a case-by-case basis, with consideration made to the particular circumstances.41 International courts have found this crime to include torture, sexual violence and rape, degrading treatment, threats of death, and “harm that damages health or causes disfigurement or injury.”42 “Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part” has been extended beyond mere killing or physical harm to include instances where a protected group is subjected to the “systematic expulsion from homes.”43 The remaining genocidal acts, including the imposition of measures intended to prevent birth and the forcible transfer of children, have been less developed by courts.44 In addition to the foregoing genocidal acts (actus reus), courts have held the mens rea of genocide to be purposeful.45 Courts have also required satisfaction of specific intent, that is, the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a protected group (a national, ethnical, racial, or religious group).46 Where there is an absence of 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 Statute of the International Tribunal for Rwanda art. 2(2), Nov. 8, 1994, 33 I.L.M. 1602 [hereinafter ICTR Statute]; Statute of the International Tribunal for the Prosecution of Persons Responsible for Serious Violations of International Humanitarian Law Committed in the Territory of the Former Yugoslavia Since 1991 art. 4(2), May 25, 1993, 32 I.L.M. 1192 [hereinafter ICTY Statute]. Rome Statute, supra note 29, at art. 6. See Grant Dawson & Rachel Boynton, Reconciling Complicity in Genocide and Aiding and Abetting Genocide in the Jurisprudence of the United Nations Ad Hoc Tribunals, 21 HARV. HUM. RTS. J. 241, 244–47 (2008) (summarizing how genocidal acts have been interpreted by ad hoc tribunals). Id. at 244. Id. at 244–45. Id. at 245. Id. at 245–46. See id. at 247. Id. at 249. Lippman, supra note 32, at 454–55. 90 Vol. 21 No. 1