The crime of genocide in international criminal law and criminal trials

The concept of international crime can be explained as acts that disrupt the peace and order of the society and victimize the international community as a whole. For this reason, these acts, which are described as international crimes, are of vital importance in terms of human rights and world peace. Throughout human history, there have been many bloody wars and mass murders. Jean-Paul Sartre emphasized that the crime of genocide, which literally means 'racial killing', is as old as the history of humanity, with the phrase "Genocide is as old as humanity". Despite this, the concept of genocide was included in the indictments of the Nuremberg trials for the first time, and it was in the middle of the 20th century that it was defined as a crime and took its place in international law. In this context, with the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, prepared by the United Nations, genocide was recognized as an international crime and its punishment was stated to be an international issue. This study focuses on defining the crime of genocide, which is defined as the crime of crimes, in the light of the decisions of international criminal courts. In the first part, the development of the international criminal courts in the historical process is emphasized, and in the second part, the elements of the crime of genocide are examined within the framework of the jurisprudence of the international criminal courts.