The law is one way to seek justice after genocide. After World War II, both international and domestic courts conducted trials of accused war criminals.More than half a century after the International Military Tribunal (IMT), the body of international law addressing crimes against humanity has grown dramatically.
On December 9, 1948, in the shadow of the Holocaust, the United Nations approved the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. This convention establishes "genocide” as an international crime, which signatory nations “undertake to prevent and punish.”
There are now special tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and for genocide in Rwanda. The framework and the guiding vocabulary for these courts rest on precedents established at Nuremberg.