Human Rights - the Issue of Genocide

Human Rights - Genocide
Human rights are the rights and freedoms to which all humans are entitled. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, an international declaration accepted by the United Nations in 1948, represents the first universal acceptance of the concept of human rights. This declaration also sets the foundation for national laws, constitutions, international treaties and continuing international debate on human rights. There are various types of human rights such as civil, political, economic, social, cultural and individual. Human rights are universally acknowledged and every individual across the world is entitled to all rights.
Genocide is one such human rights issue that has breached international humanitarian law at various times throughout history. In general terms it is defined as the deliberate and organized destruction of a particular group, but in legal terms it is defined, by the UN Convention on Genocide,   as “any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such: killing members of the group; causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life, calculated to bring about its physical destruction; imposing methods to prevent births within the group and forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.” Genocide is one of the world’s worst and most violent human rights issues and requires unique methods for solution as it is often carried out by a country’s own military or police force, for example the genocide committed by the Nazi’s in World War Two Germany. It is also one of the hardest crimes to prosecute as it requires the intention of destruction in whole, or in part to be proved. Because of this, it is crucial for international intervention in the form of the United Nations, laws, treaties, the International Criminal Court, specific tribunals and various anti-genocide...