Genocide

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Genocide has been defined as the deliberate killing of people based on their ethnicity, nationality, race, religion, or (sometimes) politics, as well as other deliberate actions leading to the physical elimination of any of the above categories. There is disagreement over whether the term genocide ought to be used for politically-motivated mass murders in general (compare "democide").

The term genocide was coined by Raphael Lemkin, a Polish Jew, in 1944, from the roots genos (Greek for family, tribe or race) and -cide (Latin for killing). In the wake of the Nazi Holocaust, Lemkin successfully campaigned for the acceptance of international laws, defining and forbidding genocide. This was achieved in 1951, with the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.

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Definitions of genocide

Much debate about genocide revolves around the proper definition of the word genocide. Opponents of government massacres often insist that the word's usage should include such massacres, even if international law has a narrower scope. These advocates complain that a narrower definition may be seen as exculpating the totalitarian governments that, they claim, killed over 100 million of their own citizens during the 20th century.

Others insist that the word should be used only in the accepted sense in international law, which limits the scope to "national, ethnical, racial or religious" groups, even if this excludes some massacres. These advocates claim that their preferred usage is closer to the word's literal meaning and to the primary meanings found in dictionaries. However, the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary [1] (http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?book=Dictionary&va=genocide) definition reads as follows: "the deliberate and systematic destruction of a racial, political, or cultural group".

Genocide as a crime under international law

The Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide was adopted by the UN General Assembly in December 1948 and came into effect in January 1951. It contains an internationally-recognized definition of genocide which was incorporated into the national criminal legislation of many countries, and was also adopted by the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, the treaty that established the International Criminal Court (ICC). The Convention (in article 2) defines genocide as "any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, 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.

The first draft of the Convention included political killings but that language was removed at the insistence of the Soviet Union. The exclusion of social and political groups as targets of genocide in this legal definition has been criticized. In common usage of the word, these target groups are often included.

Common usage also sometimes equates genocide with state-sponsored mass murder, but genocide, as defined above, does not imply mass-murder (or any murder) nor is every instance of mass-murder necessarily genocide. Neither is the involvement of a government required. The word 'genocide' is also sometimes used in a much broader sense, as in "slavery was genocide", but this usage diverges from the legal definition set by the UN.

International law

All signatories to the above mentioned convention are required to prevent and punish acts of genocide, both in peace and wartime, though some barriers make this enforcement difficult. Genocide is dealt with as an international matter, by the UN, and can never be treated as an internal affair of a country. It is commonly accepted that, at least since World War II, genocide has been illegal under customary international law as a peremptory norm, as well as under conventional international law. Acts of genocide are generally difficult to establish, for prosecution, since intent, demonstrating a chain of accountability, has to be established.

Related concepts

Genocide is also called a crime against humanity, though the initial "definition" of that concept; established during the Nuremberg trials, was restricted to acts committed during wartime or directed against the peace and would therefore not have included all acts of genocide. As mentioned above, state-sponsored mass murder is sometimes equated with genocide. Democide has been suggested as a more precise term for this, but it is rarely used. Genocide is a common term referring to deliberate policies promoting mass killing. The term genocide also generally carries an ethnic connotation, though the delineation of ethnic groups is easier to frame as simply 'foreign' to the culprit party. Genocidal Massacre may refer to a single event which meets the criteria for genocide but stands alone, rather than being part of a sustained campaign.

The term ethnic cleansing gained prominence in the Yugoslav wars of the 1990s, and now refers generally to displacement, deportation, and forced relocation of ethnic groups from a particular area. This is usually accompanied by destruction of the displaced group's property, and/or its seizure and redistribution to members of the displacing group. The Convention does not specifically define these activities as genocide, and whether or not ethnic cleansing in itself qualifies as genocide under the Convention has been disputed; it was argued, for example, that the Serbs' intent in Bosnia was not to destroy Muslims and Croats, merely to force them to live elsewhere. A similar argument was made for Iraq's early relocation of Kurds out of rural areas and away from the Iranian border. However, in practice, ethnic cleansing is generally carried out by means of other activities which clearly do meet the Convention's definition of genocide: wholesale killing of resisters or those unfit to relocate (elderly, disabled, hospitalized, etc.); brutal forced marches; deprivation in refugee or concentration camps; relocation into desolate areas providing no means of support. Forced relocation of Native American tribes throughout the European colonization of North America can now be seen as another defining example of ethnic cleansing.

Cultural genocide refers to the deliberate destruction of cultural practices or artifacts. Ethnocide, culturecide and others may describe acts which lead to loss or extinction of a culture over time. These phenomena may or may not occur in conjunction with acts qualifying as genocide under the Convention, and the terms are often used to emphasize that a culture can be destroyed by non-violent means. The vocabulary, currently lacking any international consensus or basis in international law, is not precisely defined. Use of "genocide" and -cide for these purposes has been criticized as inflammatory; those who believe that (direct, violent) genocide is a particular crime without parallel will naturally object to any attempt to equate other cultural phenomena to it.

Genocide in history

Main article: Genocides in history

Genocide appears to be a regular and widespread feature of the history of civilisation. The phrase 'Never again' often used in relation to genocide is sadly contradicted right up to the present day.

Determining which historical events constitute genocide and which are merely criminal or inhuman behavior is not a clear-cut matter. Furthermore, in nearly every case where accusations of genocide have circulated, partisans of various sides have fiercely disputed the interpretation and details of the event, often to the point of promoting wildly different versions of the facts. An accusation of genocide is certainly not taken lightly and will almost always be controversial. The Genocides in history article should be understood in this context and not regarded as the final word on these subjects.

Notes

[1] Figures from controversial book by R. J. Rummel, "Death by Government".
[2] Figure from Encyclopędia Britannica

Further reading

  • Elizabeth Becker, When the War Was Over: Cambodia and the Khmer Rouge Revolution, Public Affairs, 1986, 1998, paperback, 519 pages, ISBN 1891620002
  • Barbara Harff, Early Warning of Communal Conflict and Genocide: Linking Empirical Research to International Responses, Westview Press, August 2003, paperback, 256 pages, ISBN 0813398401
  • Ben Kiernan, Ed., Genocide and Democracy in Cambodia: The Khmer Rouge, the U.N., and the International Community, 335 pp. (1993). ISBN 0938692496
  • Samantha Power, "A Problem from Hell": America and the Age of Genocide, Basic Books, 640 pages, ISBN 0465061508 (hardcover, 2002), ISBN 0060541644 (paperback, 2003), 2003 Pulitzer Prize for Nonfiction
  • Eric Richard, The Highland Clearances, Barlinn Books, 2000, ISBN 1841580406

External links

de:Völkermord es:Genocidio eo:Genocido fr:Génocide nl:Genocide ja:ジェノサイド pl:Ludobójstwo sl:Genocid fi:Kansanmurha sv:Folkmord uk:Геноцид zh:种族灭绝


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