Genocide
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'''Genocide''' is the attempted destruction of an entire "people," most often a [[nation]] or ethnicity. These attempts can range from merely destroying all of the things that make a nation (forced language policies, destruction of history), to forced sterilization of the group (to prevent further generations from being born), to attempts at whole-scale extermination (as was done in the [[Holocaust]].) The word was coined in 1943 by Raphael Lemkin, a Polish scholar, to describe Nazi Germany's eliminationist policies towards European Jews. | '''Genocide''' is the attempted destruction of an entire "people," most often a [[nation]] or ethnicity. These attempts can range from merely destroying all of the things that make a nation (forced language policies, destruction of history), to forced sterilization of the group (to prevent further generations from being born), to attempts at whole-scale extermination (as was done in the [[Holocaust]].) The word was coined in 1943 by Raphael Lemkin, a Polish scholar, to describe Nazi Germany's eliminationist policies towards European Jews. | ||
| − | It should be noted that, without coercion of some sort, there is no genocide. Therefore, completely peaceful assimilation of one group into another cannot be considered genocide,<ref>Such as when the Manchu rulers of China assimilated into Chinese culture</ref> nor can [[miscegenation|inter-marriage]] between groups.<ref>despite what [[Metapedia|some people]] say</ref> In the wake of the Rwandan genocide, however, large-scale rape, when carried out to destroy or break up a group as described below, is beginning to become seen as an act of genocide also.<ref>See the Rome Statute Explanatory Memorandum</ref> This would considerably (and, arguably, justifiably) expand the definition and range of the crime of genocide - in [[Burma]]'s Karen provinces, for example, | + | It should be noted that, without coercion of some sort, there is no genocide. Therefore, completely peaceful assimilation of one group into another cannot be considered genocide,<ref>Such as when the Manchu rulers of China assimilated into Chinese culture</ref> nor can [[miscegenation|inter-marriage]] between groups.<ref>despite what [[Metapedia|some people]] say</ref> In the wake of the Rwandan genocide, however, large-scale rape, when carried out to destroy or break up a group as described below, is beginning to become seen as an act of genocide also.<ref>See the Rome Statute Explanatory Memorandum</ref> This would considerably (and, arguably, justifiably) expand the definition and range of the crime of genocide - in [[Burma]]'s Karen provinces, for example, Burmese soldiers are ordered to rape Karen women;<ref>[http://burmalibrary.org/docs3/Horton-2005.pdf|Guy Horton, ''Dying Alive'']</ref> since Karen culture is patrilineal, this then leads to a drastic reduction in Karen births,<ref>Martin Smith, ''Burma: Insurgency and the Politics of Ethnicity''</ref> to say nothing of the spread of STDs, and intense psychological and physical trauma to the victims. |
==Official definition== | ==Official definition== | ||
Revision as of 09:17, 12 March 2012
Genocide is the attempted destruction of an entire "people," most often a nation or ethnicity. These attempts can range from merely destroying all of the things that make a nation (forced language policies, destruction of history), to forced sterilization of the group (to prevent further generations from being born), to attempts at whole-scale extermination (as was done in the Holocaust.) The word was coined in 1943 by Raphael Lemkin, a Polish scholar, to describe Nazi Germany's eliminationist policies towards European Jews.
It should be noted that, without coercion of some sort, there is no genocide. Therefore, completely peaceful assimilation of one group into another cannot be considered genocide,[1] nor can inter-marriage between groups.[2] In the wake of the Rwandan genocide, however, large-scale rape, when carried out to destroy or break up a group as described below, is beginning to become seen as an act of genocide also.[3] This would considerably (and, arguably, justifiably) expand the definition and range of the crime of genocide - in Burma's Karen provinces, for example, Burmese soldiers are ordered to rape Karen women;[4] since Karen culture is patrilineal, this then leads to a drastic reduction in Karen births,[5] to say nothing of the spread of STDs, and intense psychological and physical trauma to the victims.
Contents |
Official definition
The internationally recognised, legal definition of genocide may be found in Article II of the United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide:
In the present Convention, genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group, as such: (a) Killing members of the group; (b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; (c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; (d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; (e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.
Article III of the Convention delineates the following acts as punishable:
(a) Genocide; (b) Conspiracy to commit genocide; (c) Direct and public incitement to commit genocide; (d) Attempt to commit genocide; (e) Complicity in genocide.
The issue of what constitutes a 'part' of an ethnic group, however, is a contested legal problem - would it be an act of genocide if I killed a single member of group 'X', if she was the only X on my street and I wanted to make my street a 'Y'-only neighbourhood? Cases of this sort would technically fall under the remit of the above law, but are not usually treated as genocide. Hundreds of thousands of deaths are not necessary to reach a verdict of genocide, either, with the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia,[6] and the International Court of Justice[7] agreeing that it had taken place in the Srebrenica massacre, in which 'only' 8,000 were killed.
Eight Stages of Genocide
Gregory Stanton published a paper entitled The Eight Staged of Genocide and presented it to the US Dept. of State, the UN, and various other political bodies around the world. He outlined ways we identify true "genocide". While it is important for addressing questions like "Was the conquering of Native Americans, Native Canadians and Native South Americans a 'genocide' or was it simply the result of dominance in military actions", the Eight Stages of Genocide actually have a far more practical and important point. Identifying future genocides and preventing them before they happen[8]
- Classification - People separate themselves into "us/them" groups. This may initially be done on even terms and accepted by both parties, as with the African Tribal associations in Rwanda.
- Symbolization - One or both groups may begin to use hate speech, develop symbols (usually derogatory) to represent the "other", and isolate one group from the other.
- Dehumanization - pushing from simply defining another group as "not us" to being "insects", "plagues", "animals".
- Organization - Stanton suggests that a true genocide is always organized as such, with people in power invoking violence on others, pushing the rhetoric with words like "destroy" or "remove" the "other", or and "cleanse" and purify the "us". In many modern cases from Rwanda to China, military units were trained specifically to systematically destroy a culture and therefore the people.
- Polarization - The hate speech steps up; rhetoric becomes common and normal, and it is usually associated with the violence of terms like "cleanse".
- Preparation - (perhaps better understood as separation or isolation) The group in power begins to ward off, isolate, or even capture the "Other". At this point, victim groups are fully aware that it is not simply about rights or freedom, but their very life as a community or people.
- Extermination - (It should be noted that Stanton uses this term deliberately, because in his research the criminal party sees the victim population as bugs, viruses, etc., to be exterminated. They are not humans to be killed or murdered)
- Denial - The final stage is denial, where the perpetrators, the murderers justify what they did, and deny any wrong doing, cause it was "necessary", or the victims were simply unworthy of living.
Examples of genocide
- The Holocaust.
- The American Indian Holocaust[9]
- The de-Cossackization and Holodomor in the Soviet Union.
- The Turkish genocide of the Armenians during the First World War.
- The Croatian Ustaše's killings of Serbs, Jews, and Roma during World War II.
- The "ethnic cleansing" practiced by Serbs in post-Cold War Yugoslavia, notably the Srebrenica massacre.
- Efforts by prior generations of Japanese to erase the Ainu.
- The Rwandan genocide.
- The Cambodian genocide.
- Tasmanian Aborigines.
See also
- Race war, for conspiracy theories about hypothetical genocide.
Footnotes
- ↑ Such as when the Manchu rulers of China assimilated into Chinese culture
- ↑ despite what some people say
- ↑ See the Rome Statute Explanatory Memorandum
- ↑ Horton, Dying Alive
- ↑ Martin Smith, Burma: Insurgency and the Politics of Ethnicity
- ↑ Summary of the ICTY judgement on the case.
- ↑ Summary of the ICJ conclusions on the case.
- ↑ Genocide Watch, Stanton's Website
- ↑ The use of the term is heavily debated; though no modern historian questions that mass killings took place, there is a major debate surrounding the intent of Europeans in North and South America over the course of 500 or so years.