Experts conclude that Russia is in breach of the 1948 Genocide Convention

The New Lines Institute for Strategy and Policy and the Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights (RWCHR) have headed a groundbreaking report through the collaboration of more than 35 independent experts in international law, genocide, and Eastern Europe. The report also concludes that Russia bears State responsibility for breaches of the 1948 Genocide Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, and that there is a serious risk of genocide in Ukraine, triggering the legal obligation of all States to prevent it under Article I of the Genocide Convention.The report makes three compelling determinations:

1. That Russia has been engaged in incitement to genocide, a stand-alone crime under the Genocide Convention;
2. That genocidal intent and action can be inferred from Russia's criminal aggression and mass atrocity crimes;
3. That State Parties have a responsibility to prevent and hold Russia accountable.

DSP Executive Director Susan Benesch, a Senior Fellow of the RWCHR, contributed to the report's conclusion that Russia is responsible for incitement to genocide. The New Lines-Wallenberg report provides the first international and independent analysis of Russia's invasion of Ukraine for governments to determine their duties under the Genocide Convention.