Domicide (fromLatindomus, meaning home or abode, andcaedo, meaning deliberate killing, though used here metaphorically) is the deliberate destruction of housing by human agency in pursuit of specified goals.[1][2] It includes the widespread destruction of a living environment, forcing the incumbent humans to move elsewhere.[1][3]
The concept of domicide originated in the 1970s, but only assumed its present meaning in 2022, after a report by the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Adequate Housing, Balakrishnan Rajagopal.[2][4][5] Rajagopal has argued thatinternational law should be amended to consider domicide to be awar crime.[6]
Notable historical examples of domicide include: theAmericanBombing of Tokyo, which was the most destructive and deadly non-nuclear bombing in human history,[7] the bombing ofWarsaw andDresden and the destruction perpetrated by theKhmer Rouge inCambodia.[8]
TheIsraeli bombing of the Gaza Strip is considered to be one of the most destructive campaigns in recent history.[9] Balakrishnan Rajagopal, advisor to the United Nations on dams and Special Rapporteur on adequate housing accused Israel of committing domicide in theGaza Strip during theIsrael-Hamas war.[10][11]
John Porteus and Sandra Smith in their bookDomicide: The Global Destruction of Home also highlight theIndian Removal Act as a definite case of domicide.[12]
^Long, Tony (9 March 2011)."March 9, 1945: Burning the Heart Out of the Enemy".Wired. Archived fromthe original on 18 January 2025.1945: In the single deadliest air raid of World War II, 330 American B-29s rain incendiary bombs on Tokyo, touching off a firestorm that kills upwards of 100,000 people, burns a quarter of the city to the ground, and leaves a million homeless.
