A Race Apart: Genocide and the Protection of Disabled Persons Under International Law

Abstract

The Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide neglects to include persons with disabilities as a protected group. Such an omission denies the common etymological “racial” ancestry shared by those groups included in the Genocide Convention and disabled persons. Further, it denies the historical fact that the Holocaust victimized persons with disabilities, along with other categories of groups already protected. Thus, the Genocide Convention should be amended to include disabled persons.