TheFiend
Elite
The military must demonstrate a deliberate and specific intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a protected group. Protected groups under the CPPCG include national, ethnic, racial, or religious groups. Intent can be inferred from systematic actions, official statements, or policies targeting the group.
The military must engage in one or more of the following acts, as outlined in Article II of the CPPCG:
Systematic murder or extermination campaigns targeting the group.
Inflicting severe physical or psychological injury, such as torture or mass rape, to destabilize the group.
Creating conditions like starvation, forced displacement, or denial of medical care to destroy the group.
Actions like forced sterilizations or separating men and women to halt the group’s reproduction.
Removing children to assimilate them into another group, erasing the targeted group’s identity.
The military’s actions must specifically target individuals based on their membership in the protected group, not for other reasons (e.g., political or economic motives, though these can coexist with genocidal intent).
The acts must be part of a coordinated, large-scale effort, often involving military planning, logistics, and execution, rather than isolated incidents. This includes mobilizing resources like personnel, weapons, or propaganda to facilitate the destruction.
As the focus is on a nation’s military, the actions must be conducted or sanctioned by official military forces, under orders or with tacit approval from state authorities. This distinguishes genocide from crimes by non-state actors.
The actions must result in significant destruction of the group, either through substantial loss of life, cultural erasure, or prevention of the group’s continuity. Courts like the International Criminal Court (ICC) or International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) often assess the scale to determine genocide.
