Abstract
The situation in Darfur illustrates the difficulties the international community faces when it comes to deal with acts of genocide. Genocide has been defined as a crime in international law, an international Convention has been signed and international tribunals have been created to try individual criminals. The International Criminal Court has jurisdiction to try genocides (there are 4 ratione materiae: the crime of aggression, war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide ). The recognition of genocide by countries and tribunals has important legal and political consequences that are why there is some reluctance to characterize some events like in Namibia in 1904 or in Armenia in 1905. It is interesting to analyze the Rwandan case of 1994 because it was a key moment of the new signification of genocide, the (absence of) reaction of the world community and the consequences for other cases like Yugoslavia, or now Darfur.
