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Genocide is one of the most obvious, and heinous crimes against humanity. In 1946, following the atrocities of World War II, the United Nations held the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide At the convention, the General Assembly of the United Nations established a declaration (Resolution 96) whereby it defined genocide as well as the appropriate action that would be taken by the international community in order to punish genocide. Article II of the declaration defines genocide as “acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole, or in part, a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group. The definition laid out by the convention sparked much debate because of the phrase “intent to destroy, in whole or in part.” The question and problem comes with how one interrupts “part”. For example, could the murder of one individual constitute genocide? Because of this definition, the United States considered not ratifying the convention; it did so only with the understanding how of it interprets the phrase. At the time, many critics with in the United States argued that because of this phrase, racially motivated lynchings of the 1950’s could be considered genocide. Throughout the twentieth century there was acts committed that would be considered genocide and proving that the United Nations was correct in establishing the Genocide Convention. There were many incidents of mass murders during the past century that would be considered acts of genocide; however for the purpose of this paper only eight of those events will be examined.