El concepto jurídico de genocidio: poder, ‘civilización’ y otros monstruos ideológicos

Raphael Lemkin created the concept of genocide with the best of intentions: to pursue massive crimes against civilians and prevent them from occurring again. However, this article shows that the concept has not achieved either of its two objectives. On one hand, the author notes that the inflexibility of the concept of genocide favours impunity rather than justice, in contrast to other, more effective legal concepts such as "crimes against humanity". On other hand, the author argues that the legal concept of genocide carries some ideological frameworks (racial, ethnic and national groups such as biological groups, civilization against barbarism, etc.) that were crucial vectors in the construction of the ideological ‘monsters’ that the concept itself has sought to combat.