What is Genocide?: Home
Raphäel Lamkin coined the phrase "genocide" in 1944. The United Nations' Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide defines it as "the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group" by engaging in any of the following:
- 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.
United Nations Resources
- International LawSelection of some of the most relevant documents to the prevention and punishment of atrocity crimes.
- Genocide ConventionThe Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (Genocide Convention) is an instrument of international law that codified for the first time the crime of genocide.
- Prevention of GenocideTo prevent atrocity crimes, it is critically important to understand the root causes of these crimes. Atrocities crimes, particularly genocide and crimes against humanity, are not spontaneous acts.
GenocideWatch
- The 8 Stages of GenocidePrevention of genocide requires a structural understanding of the genocidal process. Genocide has eight stages or operational processes. The first stages precede later stages, but continue to operate throughout the genocidal process. Each stage reinforces the others. A strategy to prevent genocide should attack each stage, each process. The eight stages of genocide are classification, symbolization, dehumanization, organization, polarization, preparation, extermination, and denial.
Resources
Becoming Evil by ISBN: 0195148681Publication Date: 2002-06-27Political or social groups wanting to commit mass murder on the basis of racial, ethnic or religious differences are never hindered by a lack of willing executioners. In Becoming Evil, social psychologist James Waller uncovers the internal and external factors that can lead ordinary people to commit extraordinary acts of evil.
Examining Genocides by ISBN: 9781783489176Publication Date: 2017-06-02Mass killing through genocide haunts humanity as one of the most horrific forms of warfare. Scholars seek to understand what causes such violence, but it is still difficult to predict the onset of genocide. Why does violence sometime stop short of the genocide threshold, whilst others cross the threshold? Why do some genocides escalate to the point of triggering the state's collapse? Finally, why are some groups targeted and others spared?
Genocide: New Perspectives on its Causes, Courses, and Consequences by Publication Date: 2016The twentieth century has been called, not inaccurately, a century of genocide. And the beginning of the twenty-first century has seen little change, with genocidal violence in Darfur, Congo, Sri Lanka, and Syria. Why is genocide so widespread, and so difficult to stop, across societies that differ so much culturally, technologically, and politically?
Genocide: The Act as Idea by ISBN: 9780812248852Publication Date: 2016-12-13In Genocide: The Act as Idea, Berel Lang examines and illuminates the concept of genocide, at once articulating difficulties in its definition and proposing solutions to them. In his analysis, Lang explores the relation of genocide to group identity, individual and corporate moral responsibility, the concept of individual and group intentions, and the concept of evil more generally.
The Genocide Contagion by ISBN: 9781442254350Publication Date: 2016-07-15In The Genocide Contagion, Israel W. Charny asks uncomfortable questions about what allows people to participate in genocide--either directly, through killing or other violent acts, or indirectly, by sitting passively while witnessing genocidal acts.
The Politics of Annihilation by ISBN: 9781517905828Publication Date: 2019-03-19The Politics of Annihilation traces how the concept of genocide came to acquire such significance on the global political stage. In doing so, it reveals how the concept has been politically contested and refashioned over time. It explores how these shifts implicitly impact what forms of mass violence are considered genocide and what forms are not.
Teaching about Genocide: Volumes 1 & 2 by ISBN: 9781475847420Publication Date: 2018-12-14This book presents the insights, advice and suggestions of secondary level teachers and professors in relation to teaching about various facets of genocide. The contributions are extremely eclectic, ranging from the basic concerns when teaching about genocide to a discussion as to why it is critical to teach students about more general human rights violations during a course on genocide, and from a focus on specific cases of genocide to various pedagogical strategies ideal for teaching about genocide.
Why Not Kill Them All? by ISBN: 9780691092966Publication Date: 2006-08-06What dark impulses lurk in our minds that even today can justify the eradication of thousands and even millions of unarmed human beings caught in the crossfire of political, cultural, or ethnic hostilities? This question lies at the heart of Why Not Kill Them All? Cowritten by historical sociologist Daniel Chirot and psychologist Clark McCauley, the book goes beyond exploring the motives that have provided the psychological underpinnings for genocidal killings. It offers a historical and comparative context that adds up to a causal taxonomy of genocidal events.
