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Conference: "The Genocide Convention - International Conference Commemorating its 60th Anniversary" | Marburg 4. to 6. Dezember 2008
On the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the adoption of the UN Genocide Convention, the Research and Documentation Centre for War Crimes Trials (ICWC) organized an international conference, held from December 4 to 6, 2008, in Marburg and Frankfurt am Main. Survivors and witnesses such as Whitney Harris, a former prosecutor at the Nuremberg Main War Crimes Trial, as well as scholars and legal practitioners, examined the development and significance of the Convention, which was established in the context of the Nazi genocide of the Jews.
The speakers included, among others, Gabriel Bach, prosecutor in the trial against Adolf Eichmann in Jerusalem, and Heinz Düx, investigating judge in the Frankfurt Auschwitz Trials. The conference took place in the Aula of Marburg’s Old University and at the Haus Gallus in Frankfurt am Main, where the first Auschwitz Trial was held from 1963 to 1965. Around 200 participants from both Germany and abroad attended. The high number of attendees reflects the ongoing relevance of the Genocide Convention and the significance that international criminal law has gained in recent years.
Hans-Peter Kaul, a German judge at the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague, spoke about the difficulties of prosecuting genocide. Representatives from the Rwandan Tribunal, the Yugoslav Tribunal, and the Cambodian “Khmer Rouge” special chambers shared their experiences. The German judge at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), Bruno Simma, addressed the sensitive issue of state responsibility for genocide in his presentation.