‘The fact of genocide is as old as humanity’, wrote Jean-Paul Sartre. The law, however, is considerably younger. The modern law of genocide follows from the observation that, historically, genocide has gone unpunished. Hitler's famous comment, ‘Who remembers the Armenians?’, is often cited in this regard. Yet the Nazis werenot the only ones to rely on the reasonable presumption that an international culture of impunity would effectively shelter the perpetrators of crimes against humanity. The global community has attempted to establish a judicial order to curtail its occurrence and minimise its devastating effects. Yet, serious violations of International Humanitarian and Human Rights Law are still common in many armed conflicts.
