Commentaries on the Genocide Convention: a reintroduction to Nehemiah Robinson.

• Author: Ferencz, Donald M.
• Position: International Conference in Commemoration of the Sixtieth Anniversary of the Negotiation of the Genocide Convention

In September 2007, at the International Conference in Commemoration of the Sixtieth Anniversary of the Negotiation of the Genocide Convention (Conference), I was privileged to chair a panel entitled "The Origins of the Genocide Convention: From Nuremberg to Lake Success." (1) This forward introduces an unexpected find that I stumbled upon while preparing for our panel: a unique copy of a 1949 commentary on the Genocide Convention that came into my possession just two days before the Conference. The publication in question, The Genocide Convention, Its Origins and Interpretation, by Dr. Nehemiah Robinson, was originally circulated as an unbound seventy-five page folio. (2) With the publisher's permission, it is reproduced in its entirety in the appendix of this issue.

As a backdrop to how Robinson's work fits into the chronology of events pertaining to the Genocide Convention, it may be helpful to take a moment to contextualize the title that the Conference organizers bestowed upon our particular panel.

Students of the early history of the United Nations may recall that prior to the construction of its permanent headquarters it was an organization that led what has been referred to as a "wandering existence." (3) During that period, its meetings were held on both sides of the Atlantic, including facilities in London, Paris, and New York. (4) By December of 1946, its work in the New York area was split primarily between Lake Success, where the Secretariat was housed, and Flushing Meadow, where the General Assembly met. (5) It was at this time that the General Assembly adopted the historic, albeit non-binding, resolution that declared genocide to be an international crime and called for the development of a genocide convention. (6) Yet, with all due respect to both Flushing Meadow and Lake Success, our panel's title could quite easily have given top billing to Paris, France, for it was actually in Paris, at the Palais de Chaillot, that the General Assembly unanimously adopted the Genocide Convention in December of 1948. (7)

The developments pertaining to the crime of genocide during this eventful period were to be addressed by my co-panelists, Professors Henry King, William Schabas, and my father, Benjamin Ferencz, each of whom I contacted in preparation for our collective presentation. It was in discussions with my father, two days before our panel, that he mentioned, almost as an afterthought, that he had something that he thought might be...