Genocide
During a genocide, a group (often a government, army, or paramilitary) tries to destroy another group because of their ethnicity, race, nationality, and/or or religion. Genocide is always an intentional act - never an accident.[1]
In a genocide, the targeted (victim) group is killed in large numbers. However, genocide also involves other methods. These include preventing the group from being able to survive (for example, by starving them); forcing them to assimilate; destroying their culture; and/or stopping them from having children.[1]
Genocide is often motivated by hatred or fear of the targeted group, like racism or antisemitism. Other genocides happen for political reasons.
The word "genocide"
[change | change source]The word "genocide" was made up by Raphael Lemkin, a Polish Jew, in 1944. It combined the words genos (Greek for "family, tribe or race") and -cide (from the Latin occidere, "to kill").[2]
In 1933 Lemkin spoke at a League of Nations conference on international criminal law in Madrid. He delivered an essay called the Crime of Barbarity. On 11 August 1933, a group of Assyrians[3] were massacred in Iraq. This reminded Lemkin of the Armenian Genocide during World War I.[3] In his essay, Lemkin described genocide and called it a crime against international law.[2]
Examples of genocide
[change | change source]Early 20th century
[change | change source]Several major genocides happened in the early 20th century.
In the Herero and Namaqua Genocide (1904-1907), soldiers of the German Empire killed thousands of indigenous people in German South West Africa (now Namibia).[4]
Between 1915-1917, the Young Turks in the Ottoman Empire committed the Armenian Genocide. During this genocide, most Armenians were deported, assimilated, forced to convert to Islam, and/or killed.[5]
World War II
[change | change source]The word "genocide" was first used to describe the Holocaust,[2] when Nazis killed 6 million Jews and millions of others during World War II.[6]
The Ustase of Croatia also committed genocide during World War II. They killed about a million Serbs in death camps, especially Jasenovac.[7]
In the 1937 Nanjing Massacre, the Imperial Japanese Army attacked, raped, tortured, and murdered thousands of people in China.[8]
After World War II
[change | change source]Between 1975 and 1979, the Khmer Rouge (led by Pol Pot) killed 1.5 million to 2 million ethnic minorities and religious groups in the Cambodian Genocide. This was a quarter of Cambodia's 1975 population.[9]
The 1994 Rwandan Genocide is another well-known example. In a short time, Hutu people killed about a million Tutsi people (along with Hutus who were against the genocide).[10]
During the Bosnian Genocide in 1992-1995, The Bosnian Serb Forces killed around 100,000 ethnic Bosniaks in Bosnia and Herzegovina.[11][12] The largest killing happened in the village of Srebrenica, in what is called the Srebrenica massacre. Over 8,000 were killed in that massacre alone.[12]
The Darfur conflict began in Sudan in 2003. The United States government and many others have described it as a genocide.[13][14][15]
Laws today
[change | change source]In 1948 the United Nations passed the Genocide Convention, which defined genocide and made it a crime against international law.[16]
Today, the International Criminal Court has the power to judge anyone who has participated in a genocide.[1]
Related pages
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References
[change | change source]- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 "How the Court Works". International Criminal Court. Retrieved September 26, 2024.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Irvin-Erickson, Douglas (2017). Raphael Lemkin and the Concept of Genocide. University of Pennsylvania Press. ISBN 978-0-8122-4864-7.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Raphael Lemkin - EuropeWorld, 22/6/2001
- ↑ Olusoga, David; Erichsen, Casper W. (2010). The Kaiser's Holocaust: Germany's forgotten genocide and the colonial roots of Nazism (1. publ ed.). London: Faber and Faber. ISBN 978-0-571-23141-6.
- ↑ Bevan, Robert (2006). "Cultural Cleansing: Who Remembers The Armenians". The Destruction of Memory. London: Reaction Books. pp. 25–60.
- ↑ "Holocaust | Definition, Concentration Camps, History, & Facts". Encyclopedia Britannica. 2024-09-25. Retrieved 2024-09-26.
- ↑ "Ustaša | Fascist Regime, Genocide & War Crimes | Britannica". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 2024-09-26.
- ↑ Chang, Iris (1998). The Rape of Nanking: The Forgotten Holocaust of World War II. A Penguin book history. London: Penguin Books. ISBN 978-0-14-027744-9.
- ↑ Chandler, David (2018). A History of Cambodia. Routledge. ISBN 978-0-429-96406-0.
- ↑ Dallaire, Roméo; Beardsley, Brent (2004). Shake Hands with the Devil: The Failure of Humanity in Rwanda. London: Arrow Books. ISBN 978-0-09-947893-5.
- ↑ Holocaust Encyclopedia. "Bosnia and Herzegovina". United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Retrieved 2024-09-26.
- ↑ 12.0 12.1 United Nations (January 30, 2015). "Appeal Judgement Summary for Popović et al" (PDF). International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia. The Hague. Retrieved September 26, 2024.
- ↑ "Genocide In Darfur - Holocaust Museum Houston". hmh.org. 2023-08-02. Retrieved 2024-09-26.
- ↑ Holocaust Encyclopedia. "Darfur". United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Retrieved 2024-09-26.
- ↑ Hagan, John; Rymond-Richmond, Wenona; Palloni, Alberto (August 2009). "Racial Targeting of Sexual Violence in Darfur". American Journal of Public Health. 99 (8): 1386–1392. doi:10.2105/AJPH.2008.141119. ISSN 0090-0036. PMC 2707480. PMID 19542043.
- ↑ "Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (PDF)" (PDF). United Nations Audiovisual Library of International Law. 1946.