Genocide is theintentional destruction of apeople[a] inwhole or in part. The term was coined in 1944 byRaphael Lemkin. It is defined in Article 2 of theConvention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (CPPCG) of 1948 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: killing members of the group; causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; deliberately inflicting on the group's conditions of life, calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; [and] forcibly transferring children of the group to another group."[1]
The preamble to the CPPCG states that "genocide is a crime under international law, contrary to the spirit and aims of theUnited Nations and condemned by the civilized world", and it also states that "at all periods of history genocide has inflicted great losses on humanity."[1] Genocide is widely considered to be the epitome of humanevil,[2] and has been referred to as the "crime of crimes".[3][4][5] ThePolitical Instability Task Force estimated that 43 genocides occurred between 1956 and 2016, resulting in 50 million deaths.[6] TheUNHCR estimated that a further 50 million had been displaced by such episodes of violence.[6]
The debate continues over what legally constitutesgenocide. One definition is any conflict that theInternational Criminal Court has so designated. Mohammed Hassan Kakar argues that the definition should include political groups or any group so defined by the perpetrator.[7] He prefers the definition from Frank Chalk and Kurt Jonassohn, which defines genocide as "a form of one-sided mass killing in which a state or other authority intends to destroy a group so defined by the perpetrator."[8]
In literature, some scholars have popularly emphasized the role that theSoviet Union played in excluding political groups from the international definition of genocide, which is contained in theGenocide Convention of 1948,[9] and in particular they have written thatJoseph Stalin may have feared greater international scrutiny of the political killings that occurred in the country, such as theGreat Purge;[10] however, this claim is not supported by evidence. The Soviet view was shared and supported by many diverse countries, and they were also in line with Raphael Lemkin's original conception,[b] and it was originally promoted by theWorld Jewish Congress.[12]
Raphael Lemkin applied the concept of genocide to a wide variety of events throughouthuman history. He and other scholars date the first genocides toprehistoric times.[15][16][17] Ancient sources like theHebrew Bible have been cited by some scholars as acts of genocide[18][19] although this is criticised by biblical scholars who argue that such a description is anachronistic.[20] Genocide in the ancient world often consisted of the massacre of men and the enslavement or forced assimilation of women and children—oftenlimited to a particular town or city rather than applied to a larger group.[21] Potentialmedieval examples are found in Europe, even though experts caution against applying a modern term likegenocide to such events.[22] Overall, premodern examples that can be considered genocide were relatively uncommon.[23] Beginning in theearly modern period,racial ideologies emerged as a more important factor.[24]
According to Frank Chalk,Helen Fein, and Kurt Jonassohn, if a dominant group of people had little in common with a marginalized group of people, it was easy for the dominant group to define the marginalized group as asubhuman group; the marginalized group might be labeled a threat that must be eliminated.[25]
The expansion of various European colonial powers, such as theBritish andSpanish Empires, and the subsequent establishment ofcolonies on indigenous territory frequently involved acts of genocidal violence againstindigenous groups in the Americas (includingBrazil,Paraguay,Canada, and theUnited States),Australia, Africa, and Asia.[26] According to Lemkin,colonisation was in itself intimately connected with genocide.[27][page needed] He saw genocide as a two-phase process: in the first, the indigenous population's way of life was destroyed; and in the second, the newcomers impose their way of life on the indigenous group.[28][29]
According toDavid Maybury-Lewis, imperial and colonial forms of genocide are enacted in two main ways, either through the deliberate clearing of territories of their original inhabitants to make them exploitable for purposes of resource extraction or colonial settlements, or through enlisting indigenous peoples asforced laborers incolonialist orimperialist projects of resource extraction.[30] The designation of specific events as genocidal is often controversial.[31]
During the 17th centuryBeaver Wars, the Iroquois destroyed several large tribal confederacies—including the Mohicans, Huron, Neutral, Erie, Susquehannock, and northern Algonquins—with extreme brutality. The exterminatory nature of the mode of warfare practised by the Iroquois caused some historians to label these events as acts of genocide.[32]
A group of 34non-governmental organizations and 31 individuals, calling themselves African Citizens, referred to theRwanda: The Preventable Genocide report prepared by a panel headed by former Botswana presidentQuett Masire for theOrganisation of African Unity, which later became theAfrican Union.[52] African Citizens highlighted the sentences, commenting: "Indisputably, the most important truth that emerges from our investigation is that the Rwandan genocide could have been prevented by those in the international community who had the position and means to do so. ... The world failed Rwanda. ... [The United Nations] simply did not care enough about Rwanda to intervene appropriately."[53]Chidi Odinkalu, former head of theNational Human Rights Commission of Nigeria, was among those involved with African Citizens.[54]
On 20 November 2021,Genocide Watch predictedgenocide in Ethiopia, in the context of thewar in Tigray and also the violence across the Oromia, and the Benishangul-Gumuz (Metekel) regions that worsenedsince 2018.[55] On 21 November, Odinkalu called for genocide prevention, stating: "We need to focus on an urgent programme of Genocide Prevention advocacy on Ethiopia NOW. It may be too late in 2 weeks, guys."[54] On 26 November, African Citizens and Alton, Clark, and Lapsley also called for the predicted genocide to be prevented.[51][53]
TheRohingya genocide is an ongoing genocide of theMuslimRohingya people consisting of arson, rape, ethnic cleansing, and infanticide by theBurmese military. The genocide has so far consisted of two phases so: the first was a military crackdown that occurred from October 2016 to January 2017, and the second has been occurring since August 2017.[56][57]
The Chinese government has engaged in aseries of human rights abuses againstUyghurs and other ethnic and religious minorities inXinjiang.[58] Legislatures in several countries, including Canada,[59] the United Kingdom,[60] and France,[61] have passed non-binding motions describing China's actions as genocide. The United States officially denounced China's treatment of Uyghurs as a genocide.[62]
In 2001, theInternational Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia delivered its first conviction for the crime of genocide, against GeneralKrstić for his role in the 1995 Srebrenica massacre (on appeal he was found not guilty of genocide but was instead found guilty of aiding and abetting genocide).[75]
In February 2007, theInternational Court of Justice returned a judgment in theBosnian Genocide Case. It upheld the findings of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia that genocide had been committed in and around Srebrenica but did not find that genocide had been committed on the wider territory ofBosnia and Herzegovina during the war. The court also ruled thatSerbia was not responsible for the genocide nor was it responsible for "aiding and abetting it", although it ruled that Serbia could have done more to prevent the genocide and that Serbia failed to punish the perpetrators.[76] Before this ruling, the termBosnian Genocide had been used by some academics[77][78][79] and human rights officials.[80]
In 2010,Vujadin Popović,Lieutenant Colonel and the Chief of Security of the Drina Corps of theBosnian Serb Army, andLjubiša Beara,Colonel and Chief of Security of the same army, were convicted of genocide, extermination, murder and persecution by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia for their role in the Srebrenica massacre and were each sentenced to life in prison.[81][82][83] In 2016 and 2017,Radovan Karadžić[84] and Ratko Mladić were sentenced for genocide.[85]
German courts handed down convictions for genocide during the Bosnian War.Novislav Djajic was indicted for his participation in the genocide, but the Higher Regional Court failed to find that there was sufficient certainty for a criminal conviction for genocide. Nevertheless, Djajic was found guilty of 14 counts of murder and one count of attempted murder.[86] At Djajic's appeal on 23 May 1997, theBavarian Appeals Chamber found that acts of genocide were committed in June 1992, confined within the administrative district ofFoca.[87] The Higher Regional Court (Oberlandesgericht) of Düsseldorf, in September 1997, handed down a genocide conviction againstNikola Jorgic, aBosnian Serb from theDoboj region who was the leader of a paramilitary group located in the Doboj region. He was sentenced to four terms oflife imprisonment for his involvement in genocidal actions that took place in regions of Bosnia and Herzegovina, other than Srebrenica.[88] On 29 November 1999, the Higher Regional Court (Oberlandesgericht) of Düsseldorf "condemned Maksim Sokolovic to 9 years in prison for aiding and abetting the crime of genocide and for grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions."[89]
TheInternational Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) is a court under the auspices of the United Nations for the prosecution of offences committed during theRwandan genocide during April and May 1994, commencing on 6 April. The ICTR was created on 8 November 1994 by the UN Security Council to resolve claims in Rwanda, or by Rwandan citizens in nearby states, between 1 January and 31 December 1994. For approximately 100 days from the assassination of PresidentJuvénal Habyarimana on 6 April through mid-July, at least 800,000 people were killed according to aHuman Rights Watch estimate.[90][91][92]
As of mid-2011, the ICTR had convicted 57 people and acquitted 8. Another ten persons were still on trial while one (Bernard Munyagishari) is awaiting trial; nine remain at large.[93] The first trial, ofJean-Paul Akayesu, ended in 1998 with his conviction for genocide and crimes against humanity.[94]Jean Kambanda, the interim prime minister during the genocide, pleaded guilty. This was the world's first conviction for genocide, as defined by the 1948 Convention.[95]
TheKhmer Rouge, led byPol Pot,Ta Mok, and others, perpetrated the mass killing of ideologically suspect groups, ethnic minorities such as ethnic Vietnamese, Chinese or Sino-Khmers, Chams, and Thais, former civil servants, former government soldiers, Buddhist monks, secular intellectuals and professionals, and former city dwellers. Khmer Rouge cadres who were defeated in factional struggles were also liquidated in purges. Man-made famine and slave labor resulted in many hundreds of thousands of deaths.[96] Craig Etcheson suggested that the death toll was between 2 and 2.5 million, with a most likely figure of 2.2 million. After spending five years excavating 20,000 grave sites, he concluded that "these mass graves contain the remains of 1,386,734 victims of execution."[97]Steven Rosefielde argued that the Khmer Rouge were not racist by claiming that they did not intend to exterminate ethnic minorities, and he also stated that the Khmer Rouge did not intend to exterminate the Cambodian people as a whole; in his view, the Khmer Rouge's brutality was the product of an extreme version of communist ideology.[98]
On 6 June 2003, the Cambodian government and the United Nations reached an agreement to set up theExtraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC), which would focus exclusively on crimes committed by the most senior Khmer Rouge officials during the period ofKhmer Rouge rule of Cambodia from 1975 to 1979.[99] The judges were sworn in during early July 2006.[100][101][102] The investigating judges were presented with the names of five possible suspects by the prosecution on 18 July 2007:[103]
Khieu Samphan at a public hearing before the pre-trialCambodia Tribunal on 3 July 2009
Kang Kek Iew was formally charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity and detained by the Tribunal on 31 July 2007. He was indicted on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity on 12 August 2008.[104] His appeal was rejected on 3 February 2012, and he continued serving a sentence of life imprisonment.[105]
Nuon Chea, a former prime minister, was indicted on charges of genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity, and several other crimes under Cambodian law on 15 September 2010. He was transferred into the custody of the ECCC on 19 September 2007. His trial began on 27 June 2011.[106][107] On 16 November 2018, he was sentenced to life in prison for genocide.[108]
Khieu Samphan, a former head of state, was indicted on charges of genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity, and several other crimes under Cambodian law on 15 September 2010. He was transferred into the custody of the ECCC on 19 September 2007. His trial also began on 27 June 2011.[106][107] On 16 November 2018, he was sentenced to life in prison for genocide.[108]
Ieng Sary, a former foreign minister, was indicted on charges of genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity, and several other crimes under Cambodian law on 15 September 2010. He was transferred into the custody of the ECCC on 12 November 2007. His trial began on 27 June 2011.[106][107] He died in March 2013.
Ieng Thirith, wife of Ieng Sary and a former minister for social affairs, was indicted on charges of genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity, and several other crimes under Cambodian law on 15 September 2010. She was transferred into the custody of the ECCC on 12 November 2007. Proceedings against her have been suspended pending a health evaluation.[107][109]
Some of the international jurists and the Cambodian government disagreed over whether any other people should be tried by the Tribunal.[103]
Theracial conflict inDarfur,Sudan,[112] which started in 2003,[113][114] was declared a genocide byUnited States Secretary of StateColin Powell on 9 September 2004 in testimony before theSenate Foreign Relations Committee.[115][116] Since that time however, no other permanent member of the UN Security Council has followed suit. In January 2005, anInternational Commission of Inquiry on Darfur, authorized byUN Security Council Resolution 1564 of 2004, issued a report stating that "the Government of the Sudan has not pursued a policy of genocide."[117] Nevertheless, the Commission cautioned that "The conclusion that no genocidal policy has been pursued and implemented in Darfur by the Government authorities, directly or through the militias under their control, should not be taken in any way as detracting from the gravity of the crimes perpetrated in that region. International offences such as the crimes against humanity and war crimes that have been committed in Darfur may be no less serious and heinous than genocide."[117]
In March 2005, the Security Council formally referred the situation in Darfur to the ICC, taking into account the Commission report but without mentioning any specific crimes.[118] Two permanent members of the Security Council, the United States and China, abstained from the vote on the referral resolution.[119] As of his fourth report to the Security Council, the Prosecutor found "reasonable grounds to believe that the individuals identified [in theUN Security Council Resolution 1593] have committed crimes against humanity and war crimes", but did not find sufficient evidence to prosecute for genocide.[120]
In April 2007, the ICC issued arrest warrants against the former Minister of State for the Interior,Ahmad Harun, and aJanjaweed militia leader,Ali Kushayb, for crimes against humanity and war crimes.[121] On 14 July 2008, the ICC filed ten charges ofwar crimes against Sudan's presidentOmar al-Bashir, three counts of genocide, five ofcrimes against humanity, and two of murder. Prosecutors claimed that al-Bashir "masterminded and implemented a plan to destroy in substantial part" three tribal groups in Darfur because of their ethnicity.[122] On 4 March 2009, the ICC issued a warrant for al-Bashir's arrest for crimes against humanity and war crimes but not for genocide. This is the first warrant issued by the ICC against a sitting head of state.[123]
On December 29, 2023,South Africa filed anapplication instituting proceedings with the International Court of Justice againstIsrael, alleging that it had violated its obligations under the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (the "Genocide Convention") during its2023 offensive in the Gaza Strip.[127] South Africa's standing is based on theerga omnes partes nature of the Genocide Convention, which allows and obligates States Parties to the convention to take measures to prevent and punish the crime of genocide. South Africa requested indication of provisional measures by the court, including that Israel end its military operations, to "protect against further, severe and irreparable harm to the rights of the Palestinian people under the Genocide Convention", triggering an urgent preliminary hearing. Public hearings on the provisional measures question were held on January 11 (oral arguments by South Africa) and January 12 (oral arguments by Israel), respectively.[128]
^By 1951, Lemkin was saying that the Soviet Union was the only state that could be indicted for genocide; his concept of genocide, as it was outlined inAxis Rule in Occupied Europe, coveredStalinist deportations as genocide by default, and differed from the adopted Genocide Convention in many ways. From a 21st-century perspective, its coverage was very broad, and as a result, it would classify any grosshuman rights violation as a genocide, and many events that were deemed genocidal by Lemkin did not amount to genocide. As theCold War began, this change was the result of Lemkin's turn toanti-communism in an attempt to convince the United States to ratify the Genocide Convention.[11]
^Towner 2011, pp. 625–638;Lang 2005, pp. 5–17: "On any ranking of crimes or atrocities, it would be difficult to name an act or event regarded as more heinous. Genocide arguably appears now as the most serious offense in humanity's lengthy—and, we recognize, still growing—list of moral or legal violations.";Gerlach 2010, p. 6: "Genocide is an action-oriented model designed for moral condemnation, prevention, intervention or punishment. In other words, genocide is a normative, action-oriented concept made for the political struggle, but in order to be operational it leads to simplification, with a focus on government policies.";Hollander 2012, pp. 149–189: "... genocide has become the yardstick, the gold standard for identifying and measuring political evil in our times. The label 'genocide' confers moral distinction on its victims and indisputable condemnation on its perpetrators."
^Schabas 2009, p. 160: "Rigorous examination of the travaux fails to confirm a popular impression in the literature that the opposition to the inclusion of political genocide was some Soviet machination. The Soviet views were also shared by a number of other States for whom it is difficult to establish any geographic or social common denominator: Lebanon, Sweden, Brazil, Peru, Venezuela, the Philippines, the Dominican Republic, Iran, Egypt, Belgium, and Uruguay. The exclusion of political groups was originally promoted by a non-governmental organization, the World Jewish Congress, and it corresponded to Raphael Lemkin's vision of the nature of the crime of genocide."
^Hinlicky, Paul R.; Reno, R.; Jenson, Robert; Wilken, Robert; Radner, Ephraim; Root, Michael; Sumner, George (2021)."Rahab, confessing YHWH, tricks her king, saving Joshua's spies and her own family 2:1–24".Joshua (Brazos Theological Commentary on the Bible). Baker Publishing Group. p. unpaginated.ISBN978-1-4934-3113-7. Retrieved28 December 2024.anachronistic imposition of the contemporary notion of genocide on Joshua by pointing to the cultural-religious matrix of herem rather than to the modern racial-biological-genetic matrix of genocide
^Jones 2006, p. 3: "The difficulty, as Frank Chalk and Kurt Jonassohn pointed out in their early study, is that such historical records as exist are ambiguous and undependable. While history today is generally written with some fealty to 'objective' facts, most previous accounts aimed rather to praise the writer's patron (normally the leader) and to emphasize the superiority of one's own gods and religious beliefs."
^Lemkin, Raphael (1944).Axis Rule in Occupied Europe: Laws of Occupation, Analysis of Government, Proposals for Redress. The Lawbook Exchange. Washington, DC:Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Division of International Law. p. 79.Genocide has two phases: one, destruction of the national pattern of the oppressed group; the other, the imposition of the national pattern of the oppressor. This imposition, in turn, may be made upon the oppressed population which is allowed to remain, or upon the territory alone, after removal of the population and the colonization of the area by the oppressor's own nationals. Denationalization was the word used in the past to describe the destruction of the national pattern.
^Jones, Ryan Patrick (22 February 2021)."MPs vote to label China's persecution of Uighurs a genocide".Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. Archived fromthe original on 15 August 2024.A substantial majority of MPs — including most Liberals who participated — voted in favour of a Conservative motion that says China's actions in its western Xinjiang region meet the definition of genocide set out in the 1948 United Nations Genocide Convention. ... The final tally was 266 in favour and zero opposed. Two MPs formally abstained.
^Institute for War and Peace Reporting, Tribunal Update: Briefly Noted (TU No 398, 18 March 2005)."Institute for War & Peace Reporting - IWPR".{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
^Oberlandesgericht Düsseldorf, "Public Prosecutor v Jorgic", 26 September 1997 (Trial Watch)Nikola JorgicArchived 24 February 2014 at theWayback Machine
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