The Genocide Convention

Article 3(c) "Article II: In the present Convention, genocide means any of

the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:

Article III: The following acts shall be punishable:

(a) Genocide;

(b) Conspiracy to commit genocide;

(c) Direct and public incitement to commit genocide;

(d) Attempt to commit genocide;

(e) Complicity in genocide.

Elements of Direct and Public Incitement

to Commit Genocide (1) where the utterance was issued - (Is it

sufficiently public?);

(2) its interpretation by the audience - (Is it sufficiently direct?);

(3) its content – (Is it protected free speech or unprotected incitement to commit a crime?);

(4) the state of mind (or mens rea) of the person uttering the words - (Is there genocidal intent?)

Gregory Gordon, “The Law of Incitement,” 2009

Legal Precedents – The Holocaust

Nuremberg: Julius Streicher – though he murdered no Jews himself, his newspaper, Der Sturmer, called for the extermination of Jews. His work was a poison "injected into the minds of thousands of Germans which caused them to follow the [Nazi] policy of Jewish persecution and extermination.” [Promotion of a culture of genocide]

Hans Fritzsche was acquitted because he resisted referring to Aryans as the “Master Race” or directly calling for murder of Jews.

Otto Dietrich was later convicted because he “consciously implemented, and by furnishing the excuses and justifications, participated in, the crimes against humanity regarding Jews.”

International Covenant on Civil and Political

Rights – Article 19 1. Everyone shall have the right to hold opinions without

interference. 2. Everyone shall have the right to freedom of expression; this

right shall include freedom to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds, regardless of frontiers, either orally, in writing or in print, in the form of art, or through any other media of his choice.

3. The exercise of the rights provided for in paragraph 2 of this article carries with it special duties and responsibilities. It may therefore be subject to certain restrictions, but these shall only be such as are provided by law and are necessary:

(a) For respect of the rights or reputations of others; (b) For the protection of national security or of public order

(ordre publique), or of public health or morals.

International Covenant on Civil and Political

Rights – Article 20

1. Any propaganda for war shall be prohibited by law.

2. Any advocacy of national, racial or religious hatred that constitutes incitement to discrimination, hostility or violence shall be prohibited by law.

Rabat Plan of Action (2012) attempts to reconcile Articles 19 and 20.

International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda

Akeyesu – Mayor’s public speech was intended to directly provoke his listeners to commit genocide.

Kambanda – First conviction of head of government for incitement due to statements on RTLM hate radio to continue Tutsi massacres.

Ruggiu – Belgian broadcaster on RTLM hate radio urged listeners to “finish the 1959 revolution” by killing the “Inyenzi” – euphemisms for Tutsis.

International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda

Media Case: Nahimana, Barayagwiza, Ngeze

Trial Opinion by Justice Pillay set forth law on incitement by comparing numerous jurisdictions, distinguishing incitement from hate speech, and announced four elements of incitement: purpose, text, context, and subject.

Protected purposes – examples: historical research, news, public accountability.

Criminal purpose: explicit calls for genocidal violence.

All were convicted, and convictions upheld on appeal.

International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda

Media Case: Nahimana, Barayagwiza, Ngeze

Text: Was speaker’s intent to promote genocide?

Fourisson: Holocaust denier’s intent was to promote hatred against Jews in violation of French laws outlawing hate speech and Holocaust denial.

Jersild: broadcaster’s interviews with neo-Nazis protected because he distanced himself by calling them “racists” and “extremists.”

Zana v Turkey: European Court of Human Rights upheld conviction for statements justifying massacres by Kurdish terrorists.

International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda

Media Case: Nahimana, Barayagwiza, Ngeze

Context and Subject:

RTLM hate radio broadcasts called directly on listeners to “exterminate the Inkotanyi (Tutsis)”

Kangura Hutu Power newspaper cover showed portrait of Gregoire Kayabanda, Rwanda’s first President, a noted genocidist, with a picture of a machete and the words “The Solution to the Tutsi Problem.”

There was evidence in their statements and acts that all three defendants were guilty of incitement to commit genocide.

The Supreme Court of Canada

Mugesera v Canada (2005)

Leon Mugesera, a Vice President of the Hutu President’s party, made a notorious speech in 1993 calling on his Hutu listeners to send all Tutsis back to Ethiopia where they came from, by killing them and throwing their bodies into the Nyabarongo River.

Mugesera fled to Canada but was ordered deported and after ten years, the Supreme Court of Canada upheld his deportation, based on his incitement to commit genocide, a violation of Canadian laws against genocide.

The Supreme Court distinguished incitement from hate speech. Incitement’s intent is directly to prompt or provoke another to commit genocide.

Iran is a State-Party to the Genocide

Convention without reservation Iran deposited its ratification of the Genocide

Convention with the U.N. on August 14, 1956.

Iran has no reservations on Article 9 of the Genocide Convention which grants jurisdiction to the International Court of Justice.

Article 9 of the Genocide Convention states: “Disputes between the Contracting Parties relating to the interpretation, application or fulfilment of the present Convention, including those relating to the responsibility of a State for genocide or for any of the other acts enumerated in article III, shall be submitted to the International Court of Justice at the request of any of the parties to the dispute.”

Iran is directly and publicly inciting genocide against Israel and Jews.

Iran’s leaders have consistently made statements inciting genocide against the nation of Israel, a national group.

Iran’s leaders have consistently made statements inciting genocide against Jews as an ethnic and religious group, in particular against Zionist Jews.

Iran is secretly developing nuclear weapons that would give it the capability to carry out the genocide it actively advocates against Israel and Jews.

For the collection of statements by Iranian leaders, I am grateful to Dr. Yael Stein MD, Tamar Pileggi, and Alex Barnea MA. For further information, contact Dr. Yael Stein: yst.gpn@gmail.com. Their complation has been reviewed by: Professor Elihu D Richter and Professor Israel W Charny.

Iran’s incitements are public.

At "The World Without Zionism" conference in Tehran:"Our dear Imam said that the occupying regime must be wiped off the map and this was a very wise statement.

“We cannot compromise over the issue of Palestine... I have no doubt that the new wave that has started in Palestine, and we witness it in the Islamic world too, will eliminate this disgraceful stain from the Islamic world.” Ahmadinejad, October 26, 2005

Iran’s incitements are public.

“One should fight the Jews and vanquish them so that the conditions for the advent of the Hidden Imam will be met. At present Jews’ policies threaten us. One should explain in the clearest terms the danger the Jews pose to the Iranian people and to Muslims... Already from the beginning the Jews wanted to hoard the world’s greed and voracity. They always worked in important professions and now they have hoarded all of the wealth in one place. And all of the world, especially America and Europe are their slaves.” Hussein Nuri Hamadani, April 26, 2005.

Iran’s incitements are direct.

“By the participation of the Palestinian youths in the struggle against the occupiers, the Intifada's flames of honor and fire will climb higher, and sooner or later the occupiers of Palestine will be destroyed”, Ali Khamenei, December 7, 2001.

"Each and every Moslem must arise in order to eradicate this cancerous cell using the soul, the money and all available resources ...the Palestinians and all Moslems are committed to fighting the Zionist enemy until Palestine is liberated by Jihad and resistance and by using all available options.” Ali Akbar Mohtashami Pur, January 9, 2002

Iran’s incitements are criminal and are not protected speech.

We should mobilize the whole Islamic World for a sharp confrontation with the Zionist regime... if we abide by the Koran, all of us should mobilize to kill.” Mohammad Khatami, October 24, 2000.

“The Zionist entity is a dangerous cancerous tumor in the Islamic and Arab body and by means of its tentacles, it threatens world and human peace, therefore it must be uprooted.”“The Moslem nations must support the Palestinian people by supplying arms and funds and fulfilling its Jihad needs ...” Ali Akbar Mohtashami Pur, January 29, 2001.

Iran’s incitements are criminal and are

not protected speech. "Among the Jews there have always been those who

killed God’s prophets and who opposed justice and righteousness. Throughout history, this religious group has inflicted the most damage on the human race, while some groups within it engaged in plotting against other nations and ethnic groups to cause cruelty, malice and wickedness. It was said that they were the source for such deadly diseases as the plague and typhus. This is because the Jews are very filthy people.” Mohammad Ali Ramin, June 9, 2006.

Iran’s incitements have genocidal intent.

“Iran’s position, which was first expressed by the Imam [Khomeini] and stated several times by those responsible, is that the cancerous tumor called Israel must be uprooted from the region.” Ali Khamenei, January 15, 2001.

"If this cancer (Israel) is not removed from the Islamic world, Muslims will sustain immense harm... This wound was opened more than half a century ago and has still not been healed, because in the Islamic world, some leaders and regimes, which have not been democratically elected by their own people, continue to rule, with the help of Western imperialism. A world without Zionism, and the obliteration of Israel from the face of the earth, is not only the objective of Iran, but of the whole Muslim world. These goals had been underlined by the country's revolutionary leader, Ayatollah Khomeini, over two decades ago. "At the time, many thought they were just propaganda slogans, but by reiterating them now, president Ahmadinejad has reminded us that they involve a strategy shared by most of the Islamic world.” Seyyed Massoud Jazaveri, October 26, 2005.

Iran’s incitements have genocidal intent.

“The aim of the Holocaust conspiracy was to facilitate the establishment of the state of Israel, which would, in turn, provoke the Muslims to rise up, confront the Jews and massacre them. This [conspiracy] conducted by Europe and America, would lead to the total annihilation of global Jewry.” Mohammad Ali Ramin, June 9, 2006.

"They have no boundaries, limits or taboos when it comes to killing human beings. Who are they? Where did they come from? Are they human beings? 'They are like cattle, nay, more misguided.' A bunch of bloodthirsty barbarians. Next to them, all the criminals of the world seem righteous." Ahmadinejad, August 1, 2006.

Iran’s incitements have genocidal intent.

"Just as the USSR disappeared, soon the Zionist regime will disappear.""The trend for the existence of the Zionist regime is downwards and this is what God has promised and what all nations want.""Whether the Holocaust occurred or did not or whether it had vast dimensions or not, it has become a pretext to create a base for aggression and threats for the countries of the region.” Ahmadinejad, December 12, 2006.

Iran’s incitements have genocidal intent.

“We declare explicitly that we will not be satisfied with anything less than the complete obliteration of the Zionist regime from the political map of the world.” Hossein Shariatmadari, October 30, 2005.

"Like it or not, the Zionist regime is heading toward annihilation. The Zionist regime is a rotten, dried tree that will be eliminated by one storm. Israel is a ‘permanent threat’ to the Middle East that will soon be liberated.” Ahmadinejad, April 14, 2006.

Iran is developing nuclear weapons to

carry out its genocidal threats. “The Jews [who immigrated to Israel] should expect a

‘reverse exodus', because one day, the tumor will be removed from the body of the Islamic World, and then millions of Jews who moved there will become homeless again.

“If one day, a very important day, of course, the Islamic World will also be equipped with the weapons available to Israel now, the imperialist strategy will reach an impasse, because the employment of even one atomic bomb inside Israel will wipe it off the face of the earth, but [such a bomb] would only do damage to the Islamic World”. Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, December 14, 2000.

What the anti-genocide movement must do:

Lobby the US Congress and Executive Branch Genocide Watch has proposed that a dispute be

taken to the International Court of Justice by states-parties to the Genocide Convention for Iran’s violation of Article 3(c) of the Genocide Convention, which prohibits incitement to commit genocide.

Genocide Watch has written a joint resolution for the US Congress to mandate the President, State, Defense, and Justice Departments and National Security Council to encourage US allies that accept jurisdiction of the ICJ to initiate the case.

Lobby States – Parties to the Genocide

Convention to take the case to the ICJ

Irwin Cotler, noted legal scholar, Member of Parliament and former Attorney General of Canada has introduced a bill to support Canada taking the case to the ICJ.

Other nations appalled by Iran’s blatant incitement, Holocaust denial, and nuclear weapons program should also join in the case.

There are many candidates: Germany, France, the UK, Ireland, Denmark, Italy, Norway, the Netherlands, Belgium, Iceland, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Australia, New Zealand, Rwanda, Liberia, Argentina, Bangladesh, Bosnia & Herzogovina, Croatia, etc.