The Convention of Civilized Systems was a bill of rights that the Galactic Republic ratified by the time of the Clone Wars. It was put into effect to apply better methods of determining a species' sentience, and it additionally granted the rights of sentient Republic citizens to those who were deemed to deserve them. The decree provided various tests to ascertain sentience, and amendments to the act expanded its coverage to species in multiple star systems that appeared incapable of interstellar travel. However, the law in fact increased genocidal crimes against previously undocumented sentient species, as some individuals drove species to extinction and then covered up the massacres so as to avoid prosecution by the Republic.