Topic 3: GLOBAL HUMAN RIGHTS ISSUE

GENOCIDE

DEFINITION
Genocide

is the deliberate and systematic destruction, in whole or in part, of an ethnic, racial, religious, or national group. The term "genocide" was coined by Raphael Lemkin (19001959), a Polish-Jewish legal scholar, in 1943, genos (Greek) means family, tribe or race - gene; cide (Latin) means to massacre/kill. General speaking, genocide does not necessarily mean the immediate destruction of a nation, except when accomplished by mass killings of all

 It

is intended rather to signify a coordinated plan of different actions aiming at the destruction of essential foundations of the life of national groups, with the aim of annihilating the groups themselves. The objectives of such a plan would be the disintegration of the political and social institutions, of culture, language, national feelings, religion, and the economic existence of national groups, and the destruction of the personal security, liberty, health, dignity, and even the lives of the

A legal definition is found in the 1948 United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (CPPCG).

Article 2 of CPPCG -"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 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.
Article 3 of CPPCG; The following acts shall be punishable; Genocide, conspiracy to commit genocide, direct and public incitement to commit genocide, attempt to commit genocide and complicity in genocide.

The first genocide of the 20th Century occurred when two million Armenians living in Turkey were eliminated from their historic homeland through forced deportations and massacres.

Holocaust

Greek - means completely burnt The Holocaust is the term generally used to describe the genocide of approximately six million European Jews during World War II, as part of a programme of deliberate extermination planned and executed by the National Socialist German Workers Party (Nazi) regime in Germany led by Adolf Hitler (Other groups were persecuted and killed by the regime, including the Gypsies; Soviets, particularly prisoners of war; Communists; ethnic Poles; other Slavic people; the disabled; homosexuals; and political and religious dissidents. Many scholars do not include these groups in the definition of the Holocaust, defining it as the genocide of the Jews, or what the Nazis called the "Final Solution of the Jewish Question." Taking into account all the victims of Nazi persecution, the total number of victims is estimated to be nine to 11 million)

Holocaust

The persecution and genocide were accomplished in stages. Legislation to remove the Jews from civil society was enacted years before the outbreak of World War II. Concentration camps were established in which inmates were used as slave labour until they died of exhaustion or disease. Where the Third Reich conquered new territory in eastern Europe, specialized units called Einsatzgruppen murdered Jews and political opponents in mass shootings. Jews and Roma were crammed into ghettos before being transported hundreds of miles by freight train to extermination camps where, if they survived the journey, the majority of them were killed in gas chambers. Every arm of Germany's bureaucracy was involved in the logistics of the mass murder, turning the country into what one Holocaust scholar has called "a genocidal state."

Map showing locations of Nazi CoMap showing locations of Nazi Concentration & Death camps.ncentration & Death camps.

A mass shooting

Examples of genocide around the world

1)

The Rwandan Genocide was the 1994 mass murder of an estimated 800,000 people. Over the course of approximately 100 days from the assassination of Juvnal Habyarimana on April 6 through mid-July, at least 800,000 people were killed, according to a Human Rights Watch estimate. Other estimates of the death toll have ranged between 500,000 and 1,000,000 (a commonly quoted figure is 800,000) or as much as 20% of the country's total population.

 The

killing was well organized, and by the time it had started, the Rwandan militia numbered around 30,000 . Some militia members were able to acquire AK-47 assault rifles by completing requisition forms. Other weapons, such as grenades, required no paperwork and were widely distributed.

2)The second case is Darfur Genocide. The Darfur Conflict is an ongoing guerrilla conflict or civil war centered on the Darfur region of Sudan. It began in February 2003 when the Sudan Liberation Movement/Army (SLM/A) and Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) groups in Darfur took up arms, accusing the Sudanese government of oppressing black Africans in favor of Arabs. One side of the conflict is composed mainly of the official Sudanese military and police, and the Janjaweed, a Sudanese militia group recruited mostly from the Afro-Arab Abbala tribes of the northern Rizeigat region in Sudan. Although the Sudanese government publicly denies that it supports the Janjaweed, it has been accused of providing financial assistance to the militia and of participating in joint attacks targeting civilians.

 There

are various estimates on the number of human casualties, ranging from under twenty thousand to several hundred thousand dead, from either direct combat or starvation and disease engendered by the conflict. There have also been mass displacements and coercive migrations, forcing millions into refugee camps or over the border and creating a large crisis.

 The

Sudanese government and the JEM signed a ceasefire agreement in February, 2010, with a tentative agreement to pursue further peace. The JEM has the most to gain from the talks, and could see semi-autonomy much like South Sudan. However, talks have been disrupted by accusations that the Sudanese army launched raids and air strikes against a village, violating the February agreement. The JEM, the largest rebel group in Darfur, has said they will boycott further negotiations.

3)The third case is Bosnian Genocide. The term Bosnian Genocide is used to refer either to the genocide committed by Bosnian Serb forces in Srebrenica in 1995, or to ethnic cleansing that took place during the 1992-1995 Bosnian War. In the 1990s, several authorities, in line with a minority of legal scholars, asserted that ethnic cleansing as carried out by elements of the Bosnian Serb army was genocide. These included a resolution by the United Nations General Assembly and four convictions for genocide in German courts, (the convictions were based upon a wider interpretation of genocide than that used by international courts). In 2005, the United States Congress passed a resolution declaring that "the Serbian policies of aggression and ethnic cleansing meet the terms defining genocide".

 However,

in line with a majority of legal scholars, the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) and the International Court of Justice (ICJ) have ruled that, in order for actions to be deemed genocide, there must be physical or biological destruction of a protected group and a specific intent to commit such destruction. To date, only the Srebrenica massacre has been found to be genocide by the ICTY, a finding upheld by the ICJ.

 4)The

fourth case is the Gaza genocide. The Gaza War was a threeweek armed conflict that took place in the Gaza Strip during the winter of 20082009. It was codenamed Operation Cast Lead) by the Israeli government. The conflict has been called the Gaza Massacre in the Arab world. It was referred to as the War in the South in Israeli media coverage while Al Jazeera called it the war on Gaza.

 On

19 December 2008 a fragile six-month IsraelHamas ceasefire was set to expire. Following Israel's violation of the ceasefire on November 4, there were sporadic violent clashes along the Israeli-Gaza border for the following two months until on 27 December Israel launched a wave of airstrikes against targets within the Gaza Strip with the stated aim of stopping rocket fire from and arms import into the territory Israeli forces attacked military targets, police stations and government buildings.

 Hamas

intensified its rocket and mortar attacks against Southern Israel, reaching the major cities of Beersheba and Ashdod for the first time. Israeli ground invasion began on January 3, 2009. The war ended on January 18, when Israel first declared a unilateral ceasefire, followed by Hamas' announcing a one-week ceasefire twelve hours later. Israel completed its withdrawal on January 21. The conflict left between 1,166 and 1,417 Palestinians and 13 Israelis killed.

The United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (CPPCG) and its effectiveness in preventing genocide

Conclusion
Genocide

is very inhumanity crime. As we attempt to learn the lessons of the genocide in Rwanda, two messages should be paramount. First, never forget. Second, never stop working to prevent genocide. However, we can see that the convention create by united nation is ineffectiven as the Israel(in Gaza genocide case) was not receive a punishment for their crime. So, United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide should be enforce strictly

Past year exam questions..

Question 2008 Explain the United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (CPPCG) and its effectiveness in preventing genocide (20 marks)

Question 2010 The United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (CPPCG) has effectively exercised its functions to prevent genocide.Do you agree to the above statement? Discuss. (20 marks)