By the middle of the 1970s the
Genocide Convention had not been ratified by all of the members of the security council and appeared to be moribund after 20 years of inaction. Members of the Sub-Commission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities decided to investigate the subject and over the next decade launched a number of initiatives. which included publication of the Ruhashyankiko report in 1978 and the Whitaker report in 1985.
Ruhashyankiko Report Nicodème Ruhashyankiko was appointed as a special
Rapporteur in 1973 and produced a report
The Study on the Question of the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, that was approved by the Sub-Commission at its thirty first session (E/CN.4/Sub.2/416, 4 July 1979. The report was forwarded to the
United Nations Commission on Human Rights (UNCHR) with a recommendation that it be given the widest possible distribution, and the UNCHR made a decision to do so. Much of Ruhashyankiko's report was not found by the sub-committee to be controversial, for example his suggestion that the crime of genocide, like the crime of piracy, should be covered by
universal jurisdiction, and that an international criminal court be set up to try those accused of genocide. However, as his review of historical genocide ignited a political debate, Ruhashyankiko took the conservative line that it was impossible to draw up an exhaustive list and that attempting to do so could reignite old quarrels and be unacceptable to all of the member states of the United Nations. This drew the criticism of one member of the Sub-Commission who complained that "genocide of the Palestinians" had been omitted. But most of the criticism concerned a change which Ruhashyankiko made between the first draft and the final version of the report. The first draft had cited the
Armenian genocide, but that reference was deleted from the final version due to pressure from Turkey, an omission that was supported by only one member. Mitsue Inazumi draws the conclusion from the political debate that the Ruhashyankiko report started, that it was evocative of how divisive the dispute over historical genocides and alleged historical genocides is, while
William Schabas draws the conclusion that Ruhashyankiko backed down in naming the Armenian massacres as a genocide under the pressure from the Turkish state, and that "Ruhashyankiko's unpardonable wavering on the Armenian genocide cast a shadow over what was otherwise an extremely helpful and well-researched report". In 1983, it requested that the Commission On Human Rights ask the Economic and Social Council [ECOSOC] to appoint a new Special Rapporteur to undertake the task. Sub-Commission member
Ben Whitaker of the United Kingdom was appointed to the position and mandated to write a revised, updated study. His study,
Revised and Updated Report on the Question of the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, was received and noted by a resolution at the thirty-eighth session of the Sub-Commission in 1985. (E/CN.4/Sub.2/1985/6, 2 July 1985). The report consisted of a Forward, an Introduction, an Appendix, and four principal parts: Part I, Historical Survey; Part II, The Convention On The Prevention and Punishment of The Crime of Genocide; Part III, Future progress: The Possible Ways Forward; Part IV, List of Recommendations. It made a number of controversial proposals including recommendations that the Genocide Convention should be altered to include protection of groups based on politics and sexual orientation. Also "advertent omission" should become a crime and the defence of obeying
superior orders should be removed. The report also suggested that consideration should be given to
ecocide,
ethnocide, and
cultural genocide. The report created further controversy, because in paragraph 24 it stated that In the debates over whether to accept the report the Sub-Commission's final report stated: That opinions of the Sub-Commission were split came to the fore over the wording of the resolution to accept the report. In the end the second and weaker of two proposed resolutions was adopted, one that took note of the study and thanked Whitaker for his efforts and also noted "that divergent opinions have been expressed about the content and proposals of the report". Schabas states that "An attempt to strengthen the resolution by expressing the Sub-Commissions's thanks and congratulations for 'some' of the proposals in the report was resoundingly defeated".
1990s The Sub-Commission revisited genocide in 1993 and in 1994 recommended that an international court statute be prepared to facilitate the prosecution of genocide. It also recommended that an international committee be created to examine reports by States into their undertakings under Article 5 of the Genocide Convention. The committee also followed up on one of the Ruhashyankiko Reports ideas and suggested that the convention be improved by including a clause enabling the crime of genocide to be tried under universal jurisdiction. In a resolution dated 3 August 1995 the Sub-Commission concluded "that a veritable genocide is being committed massively and in a systematic manner against the civilian population in
Bosnia and Herzegovina, often in the presence of United Nations forces". Later the same month on 18 August, the Sub-Commission passed another resolution explicitly mentioning
Radio Démocratie-La Voix du Peuple, which had been stirring up
genocidal hatred in Burundi. ==Human rights and weapons of mass destruction==