Genocide

Genocide is a term that refers to the intentional destruction of a group of people (usually a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group), in whole or in part. Raphael Lemkin coined the term in his book Axis Rule in Occupied Europe (1944). The United Nations defines genocide 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 conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part
• Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group
• Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group

Etymology

It consists of the Greek prefix genos, meaning race or tribe, and the Latin suffix cide, meaning to kill.

Raphael Lemkin first coined the term in Axis Rule in Occupied Europe.

Controversies

In 2023, the Wall Street Journal released an opinion article called "Is It Time to Retire the Term 'Genocide'? The Meaning of Genocide," which does not mention the UN definition. The article seeks to question the meaning of genocide to prevent it from being used against the USA and other Western countries.

Examples

Common examples of genocides include but are not limited to:

• Genocide of the indigenous peoples of the Americas (1492–present)
• Dzungar genocide (1755–1758)
• Australian Aboriginal genocide (1788–present)
• Circassian genocide (1864–1867)
• Herero and Namaqua genocide (1904–1908)
• Armenian genocide (1915–1917)
• Holocaust (1941–1945)
• Cambodian genocide (1975–1979)
• Rwandan genocide (1994)
• Rohingya genocide (2017–present)
• Palestinian genocide (1917-present)

See also

• We Charge Genocide