"Intent to destroy" redirects here. For the film, see Intent to Destroy.
Genocidal intent is the mens rea (mental element) for the crime of genocide.[1] "Intent to destroy" is one of the elements of the crime of genocide according to the 1948 Genocide Convention. There is an unresolved "intend debate" over whether dolus directus[definition needed] needs to be proven to convict for genocide, or whether a knowledge-based standard should be enough to convict for genocide.[2]
For an act to be classified as genocide, it is essential to demonstrate that the perpetrators had a deliberate and specific aim (dolus specialis) to physically destroy the group based on its real or perceived nationality, ethnicity, race, or religion. Intention to destroy the group's culture or intending to scatter the group does not suffice.[3]
^Thomas W. Simon (2016). Genocide, Torture and Terrorism: Ranking International Crimes and Justifying Humanitarian Intervention. Palgrave Macmillan. p. 17. ISBN978-1-349-56169-8.
^Rodenhäuser, Tilman (2018). Organizing Rebellion: Non-state Armed Groups Under International Humanitarian Law, Human Rights Law, and International Criminal Law. United Kingdom: Oxford University Press. p. 284.
^Lattanzi, Flavia (2018). "The Armenian Massacres as the Murder of a Nation?". The Armenian Massacres of 1915–1916 a Hundred Years Later: Open Questions and Tentative Answers in International Law. Springer International Publishing. pp. 27–104 [65–66]. ISBN978-3-319-78169-3.
^Smith, Roger W. (1999). "State Power and Genocidal Intent: On the Uses of Genocide in the Twentieth Century". Studies in Comparative Genocide. Palgrave Macmillan UK. pp. 3–14. ISBN978-1-349-27348-5.
^Campbell, Jason J. (2012). On the Nature of Genocidal Intent. Lexington Books. ISBN978-0-7391-7847-8.
^Kim, Sangkul (2016). A Collective Theory of Genocidal Intent. Springer. ISBN978-94-6265-123-4.
^Clark, Janine Natalya (2015). "Elucidating the Dolus Specialis: An Analysis of ICTY Jurisprudence on Genocidal Intent". Criminal Law Forum. 26 (3–4): 497–531. doi:10.1007/s10609-015-9260-5. S2CID143072669.
^"Three Responses to 'Can There Be Genocide Without the Intent to Commit Genocide?'". Journal of Genocide Research. 10 (1): 111–133. 2008. doi:10.1080/14623520701850955. S2CID216136915.
^Aydin, Devrim (2014). "The Interpretation of Genocidal Intent under the Genocide Convention and the Jurisprudence of International Courts". The Journal of Criminal Law. 78 (5): 423–441. doi:10.1350/jcla.2014.78.5.943. S2CID144141503.
^Behrens, Paul (2015). "Between Abstract Event and Individualized Crime: Genocidal Intent in the Case of Croatia". Leiden Journal of International Law. 28 (4): 923–935. doi:10.1017/S0922156515000503. S2CID152124051.
^Dojčinović, Predrag (2016). "The chameleon of mens rea and the shifting guises of culture-specific genocidal intent in international criminal proceedings". Journal of Human Rights. 15 (4): 454–476. doi:10.1080/14754835.2015.1127139. S2CID148074049.