Genocide refers to the deliberate and systematic destruction, in whole or in part, of an ethnic, racial, religious, or national group. This grave crime against...
The 1948 UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide defines it as acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial, or religious group.
These acts include killing members of the group, causing serious bodily or mental harm, deliberately inflicting conditions of life calculated to bring about physical destruction, imposing measures to prevent births, and forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.
Genocide is distinguished by the specific "intent to destroy" a protected group. While war crimes occur during armed conflict and crimes against humanity are widespread or systematic attacks on civilians, neither necessarily includes this particular genocidal intent.
Both national courts, if a state has jurisdiction and the capacity, and international tribunals like the International Criminal Court (ICC) can prosecute individuals accused of the crime of genocide.