A new book written by an Irishman, Genocide in International Law, is already being used by the International Court of Justice and the international criminal tribunals set up for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda.
Written by Prof William Schabas, director of the Irish Centre for Human Rights at NUI Galway, it is a study of the legal issues surrounding the prosecution of the crime of genocide. The crime is defined in the Convention for the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide of 1948.
This convention has returned to centre-stage in international law with the creation of the international criminal tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda, which are both currently prosecuting offenders for genocide. Three lawsuits have also been filed at the International Court of Justice by Bosnia, Croatia and Yugoslavia.
Launching the book yesterday at NUI Galway, the director of Amnesty International (Irish Section), Ms Mary Lawlor, said the publication was unique as it was the only monograph on the genocide convention to be published since the 1950s.
The book is published by Cambridge University Press.
