Genocide Convention

The 179th plenary meeting, Paris

At its 179th plenary meeting in Paris on 9 December 1948, the UN General Assembly adopted Resolution 260 A (III), approving the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.

The vote was 56 in favor, none against, with no abstentions.

The adopted text defined genocide through specified acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, and made conspiracy, direct and public incitement, attempt and complicity punishable.

Four groups, and no others

Article II protects four enumerated categories — national, ethnical, racial and religious. Political and social groups are not included.

Raphael Lemkin had coined the word genocide in 1944 and lobbied UN delegations for an international convention; the Assembly's vote made it the name of an international crime four years later. Ricardo J. Alfaro chaired the Sixth (Legal) Committee that settled the final text before plenary adoption.

Approved, not yet in force

Resolution 260 A (III) proposed the Convention for signature and ratification or accession. Adoption did not itself bring the treaty into force or impose obligations that night.

Twenty ratifications or accessions were required first; the Convention entered into force on 12 January 1951. The UN depositary reported 154 parties in August 2026.