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Genocide is a term which, broadly, refers to actions committed with the intent to destroy a group of people, in whole or in part. Polish lawyer Raphael Lemkin coined the term in his book Axis Rule in Occupied Europe (1944).[1] 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[2]
Etymology[edit | edit source]
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.[1]
Controversies[edit | edit source]
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.[3]
Examples[edit | edit source]
Some infamous examples of events which are often considered to be genocide include but are not limited to:
- Genocide of the indigenous peoples of the Americas (1492–present)
- Taíno genocide (1493–1550)
- Native American genocide (1609–present)
- Dzungar genocide (1755–1758)
- Australian Aboriginal genocide (1788–present)
- Circassian genocide (1864–1867)
- Congolese genocide (1885–1908)
- Herero and Namaqua genocide (1904–1908)
- Armenian genocide (1915–1917)
- Palestinian genocide (1917–present)
- Libyan genocide (1929–1934)
- Jewish Holocaust (1941–1945)
- Romani Holocaust (1941–1945)
- Serbian genocide (1941–1945)
- Cambodian genocide (1975–1979)
- Bosnian genocide (1992–1995)
- Rwandan genocide (1994)
- Rohingya genocide (2017–present)
See also[edit | edit source]
References[edit | edit source]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Raphäel Lemkin (1944). Axis Rule in Occupied Europe. [PDF] Washington: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
- ↑ "Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide" (9 December 1948). Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. Archived from the original on 2022-04-13. Retrieved 2022-10-28.
- ↑ Margaret Kimberley (2023-12-13). "When Genocide Is No Longer Genocide" Black Agenda Report. Archived from the original on 2023-12-22.