Genocide: Difference between revisions
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Revision as of 00:11, 17 July 2023
An Evolving International Framework
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Genocide is a term created during the Holocaust and declared an international crime in the 1948 United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. The Convention defines genocide as any of the following acts committed with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group, as such: |
Evolving - changing |
1944 - The Crime is Named
Before 1944, no word existed to describe a coordinated assault on civilian populations. That year Raphael Lemkin, a Polish-Jewish legal scholar who had fled Nazi-occupied Poland and arrived in the United States in 1941, introduced the word "genocide" to give the crime a name. Raphael Lemkin prepares for a talk on UN radio, probably between 1947 and 1951. UN Photo above. |
coordinated - planned together
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1945-1946 - A New, but Limited, Legal Sanction is Issued
Allied forces codified the general principle of "crimes against humanity" into enforceable law and prosecuted Nazi war criminals for atrocities they committed against both their own and other nation's citizens. However, the law was limited in scope, applying only to crimes committed during an international conflict. Photo Above: Defendants in the dock at the International Military Tribunal (IMT) trial of war criminals, Nuremberg, Germany, November 1945. National Archives and Records Administration
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sanction - authorize
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1948 - An International Promise to Prevent and Punish Genocide is Made
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Due in no small part to the efforts of Raphael Lemkin, the UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide was unanimously adopted on December 9, 1948. The Convention entered into force on January 12, 1951, after more than 20 countries from around the world ratified it. 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. |
in no small part - mostly
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1950-1990s - The Promise Goes Unfulfilled
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Though massive atrocities against civilian populations were committed in the years following the Holocaust and throughout the Cold War, the very countries that signed their names to the Genocide Convention scarcely considered whether these crimes constituted genocide.  |
massive - huge |
1988 - The United States Ratifies the Convention
Despite facing strong opposition by those who believed it would diminish U.S. sovereignty, President Ronald Reagan signed the 1948 UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide on November 4, 1988. Among the Convention's most vocal advocates was Wisconsin Senator William Proxmire, who delivered more than 3,000 speeches before Congress arguing for its passage. |
Despite - (even though there is the existence of) opposition - (fighting force/bad feelings) diminish - reduce sovereignty - independent power (of a country) Genocide - Mass murder advocates - fighters (for something) |
1993 - The World Acts to Punish but Not to Halt Atrocities in the Former Yugoslavia
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Targeted civilian groups suffered brutal atrocities throughout the conflicts in the former Yugoslav republics of Croatia (1991-95) and Bosnia-Herzegovina (1992-95). Though the international community showed little will to stop the crimes as they were taking place, the UN Security Council did establish the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in The Hague. It was the first international criminal tribunal since the Nuremberg Trials after WWII and the first mandated to prosecute the crime of genocide.  Nonetheless, the single worst atrocity to occur in Europe since the Holocaust came two years later. In July 1995, the Bosnian Serb army overran the United Nations declared "safe haven" of Srebrenica. In the following days, they killed some 8,000 Bosniak men and boys. This incident would later be judged to constitute "genocide" by the ICTY. In total, 100,000 people died during the Bosnian conflict; some 80% of the civilians killed were Bosniaks. |
civilian - (non-military related) civilians - people not in the military |
1994 - After the Genocide Ends, the World Creates a Tribunal for Rwanda
From April through mid-July, at least 500,000 civilians, mostly of the Tutsi minority, were murdered with devastating brutality and speed while the international community looked on. In October, the UN Security Council extended the mandate of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia to include a separate but linked tribunal for Rwanda, the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, located in Arusha, Tanzania. |
civilians - people not in the military devastating - terrible and destructive brutality - animal-like violence Council - (group of people who advise or govern) mandate - an order, usually with support of a majority Tribunal - Court |
1998 - The First Conviction for Genocide is Won
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On September 2, 1998, the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda issued the first conviction for genocide after a trial, declaring Jean-Paul Akayesu guilty for acts he engaged in and oversaw as mayor of the Rwandan town of Taba.  |
Tribunal Court conviction (act of being found guilty of a crime) genocide mass murder of people engaged in started/working at |
1998 - A Permanent Court to Prosecute Atrocities against Civilians is Established
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Through an international treaty ratified on July 17, 1998, the International Criminal Court was permanently established to prosecute genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes. The treaty reconfirmed the definition of genocide found in the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. It also expanded the definition of crimes against humanity and prohibits these crimes during times of war or peace. Crimes Against Humanity: Any of the following acts when committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack directed against any civilian population, with knowledge of the attack: (a) Murder; (b) Extermination (c) Enslavement (d) Deportation or forcible transfer of population (e) Imprisonment or other severe deprivation of physical liberty in violation of fundamental rules of international law (f) Torture (g) Rape, sexual slavery, enforced prostitution, forced pregnancy, enforced sterilization, or any other form of sexual violence of comparable gravity (h) Persecution against any identifiable group or collectivity on political, racial, national, ethnic, cultural, religious, gender as defined in paragraph 3, or other grounds that are universally recognized as impermissible under international law, in connection with any act referred to in this paragraph or any crime within the jurisdiction of the Court (i) Enforced disappearance of persons (j) The crime of apartheid (k) Other inhumane acts of a similar character intentionally causing great suffering, or serious injury to body or to mental or physical health.  |
treaty - agreement (between countries) ratified - approved prosecute - (start a trial in court against someone/perform an action) genocide - mass murder of people crimes against humanity - horrible, shocking crimes Humanity - People/(the kindness of people) widespread - (existing all over a large area) systematic - well-thought-out civilian - (non-military related) Extermination - elimination Enslavement - (capture into slavery) Deportation - (removal from a country) transfer - move (from one place to another) Imprisonment - (state of being locked in a prison) severe - extreme deprivation - (not having something wanted or needed) liberty - freedom fundamental - basic sterilization - to make someone not able to sexually reproduce comparable - similar Persecution - Abuse/mistreatment identifiable - (able to be seen or picked out) collectivity - (quality of being a member of a group) ethnic - (related to a group of people with the same race, culture, religion, etc.) gender - (male, female, or other identified status) universally - (existing (the same) everywhere) impermissible - not allowed jurisdiction - legal control/area of legal control persons - people apartheid - racial separation practiced in South Africa up until 1994 inhumane - cruel and shocking similar - almost the same intentionally - (on purpose) |
2004 - U.S. Declares that Genocide Is Occuring in Darfur, Sudan
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Testifying before the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee on September 9, 2004, Secretary of State Colin Powell declared that "genocide has been committed in Darfur." Though the United Nations and other governments agreed on the scale of atrocities being committed against civilians, they did not declare them "genocide."  |
Testifying - Saying in court/giving proof genocide - mass murder of people atrocities - horrifying crimes civilians - people not in the military |
