Legal Definitions - extermination

In international criminal law, extermination refers to the deliberate and widespread killing of a large number of people belonging to a specific group, or the intentional creation of conditions designed to bring about their mass death. It is considered a severe crime against humanity under international law, recognized by treaties like the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.

This crime encompasses not only direct acts of murder but also actions that intentionally inflict conditions of life calculated to cause the destruction of a significant portion of a civilian population. These conditions might include, but are not limited to, denying access to essential resources, imposing inhumane living environments, or subjecting a group to forced labor under deadly circumstances.

Here are some examples illustrating the concept of extermination:

• Systematic Mass Killings: During a period of political unrest, a ruling regime deploys its military and paramilitary forces to systematically round up and execute thousands of individuals identified as belonging to a particular ethnic minority group. The killings are carried out in multiple locations, targeting civilians of all ages, with the clear intent to eliminate a significant portion of that group.

  This illustrates extermination as the direct, mass murder of a demographic group, carried out with deliberate intent to destroy part of a population.

• Imposing Deadly Living Conditions: Following a conflict, a dominant faction forcibly relocates an entire religious community from their homes to a remote, uninhabitable desert region. No provisions are made for shelter, clean water, or sanitation, and humanitarian aid is blocked from reaching them. The perpetrators are aware that these extreme conditions will inevitably lead to widespread deaths from dehydration, disease, and exposure among the displaced population.

  This demonstrates extermination through the intentional infliction of conditions of life (lack of basic necessities in an uninhabitable environment) calculated to bring about the destruction of a significant part of that religious community.

• Forced Labor Leading to Mass Death: A state-controlled enterprise establishes a network of labor camps where thousands of political dissidents are imprisoned. These individuals are subjected to grueling physical work for excessively long hours, provided with minimal and contaminated food, and denied any medical care for injuries or illnesses. The conditions are so severe and deliberately maintained that a substantial percentage of the detainees die from exhaustion, malnutrition, and preventable diseases within months.

  This exemplifies extermination by showing the deliberate creation of life-threatening conditions (brutal forced labor, starvation, and medical neglect) intended to cause the mass death of a targeted political group, rather than direct execution.