United Nations Genocide Convention Research Articles

INTERNATIONAL LEGAL ANALYSIS OF THE BOYCOTT PRODUCTS SUSPECTED OF SUPPORTING GENOCIDE

This jurnal explores the significance of boycotting products suspected of supporting genocide within the framework of international law. The complex relationship between human rights, state responsibility to prevent genocide, and the international community's response to violations of international norms is at the heart of this investigation. The study defines boycott as a form of isolation undertaken by individuals or groups against an entity, encompassing actions like blacklisting, embargoes, and blockades, targeting various products from consumer goods to academic and sports products. Governments, either individually or collectively, issue boycott resolutions, as exemplified by Arab countries' historic boycott against Israel. The paper also introduces other forms of boycotts, such as investment withdrawal, divestment, and sanctions, citing examples like Sudan. Framing the discussion within the context of the United Nations Genocide Convention, the jurnal argues that product boycotts can serve as tools for enforcing compliance with the convention, holding states accountable for preventing genocide. Moreover, product boycotts play a vital role in the international public sphere, mobilizing global public opinion and exerting social, economic, and political pressure on perpetrators of genocide. The study addresses critical questions, focusing on the role of product boycotts as sanctions in international law and their impact on garnering global support and pressuring perpetrators, while providing a voice to victims. The research methodology employed is normative legal research, relying on literature review and secondary legal sources, including journals, articles, and news related to the international legal analysis of the boycott of products suspected of supporting genocide. The jurnal concludes by emphasizing the importance of boycotting products suspected of supporting genocide within the international legal framework, not only as a form of protest but as a

Implicit Rhetoric of Genocide in Khushwant Singh’s Train to Pakistan (1956)

The article explores the complex nexus of the legal and the literary by re-envisioning the idea of genocide as a legal, social as well as political concept, as the violence engendered by it continues to cast its shadow over humankind. The relevance of Khushwant Singh’s novel Train to Pakistan lies in its vivid portrayal of how mass passions of religious antagonism result in gripping accounts of bloodshed and forced expulsion of ordinary people in South Asia. The paper also seeks to contest the narrow understanding of genocide where the victim and perpetrator communities are perceived as exclusive categories. Through this exemplary novel, the paper attempts to foreground how fictional narratives mirror the basic conceptualizations of genocide as enshrined in the United Nations Genocide Convention (1948). The paper delves into the blurred distinction between victim and perpetrator communities in the context of partition in South Asia. The article engages in a close textual analysis to shed light on the synthesis of the literary and legal context of genocide in Khushwant Singh’s Train to Pakistan. The paper establishes how reading the novel from the legal point of view underscores the contentious nature of genocide that prevailed during the time of Partition.

The Impact of Food Deprivation and Starvation on Mental Health: Blockade on Artsakh (Nagorno - Karabakh)

Starvation is the deliberate deprivation of food that occurs when perpetrators impede the victims from accessing the necessities to sustain life. Throughout history, starvation had been utilized as a form of genocide by many past regimes. It is used as a method to enforce a surrender from the victim or as a military strategy during warfare. Genocide, one of the most devasting crimes against humanity, as defined by Rafael Lempkin and categorized by the United Nations Genocide Convention, is the deliberate attempt to annihilate a certain ethnic, religious, or social group of people. The purpose of this article is to examine the immediate and lasting effects of the cognitive, psychological, and mental aspects of starvation. In this current blockade of Artsakh, a dispute arises in the Artsakh region, also known as the Nagorno-Karabakh region, between Azerbaijan and the Republic (unrecognized) of Artsakh. Since December 12, 2022, ecologists from Azerbaijan have blocked the Berdzor (Lachin) Corridor, the only route that linked Artsakh to the world, thus preventing the transportation of fuel, medicine, and food. Russian peacekeepers have been stationed at the Corridor in Artsakh; however, the Azerbaijan government has consolidated its blockade and has disregarded the appeals made by the Russian peacekeepers. In this article, the effects of starvation on the cognitive, psychological, and mental functioning of the human body are presented as they related to historical genocide. The impacts of starvation and malnutrition can be highly detrimental, leading to long-lasting impacts, and can disrupt the balance of essential nutrients and neurotransmitters in the brain, such as serotonin and dopamine. Malnourishment also impairs cognitive function, leading to symptoms like fatigue, weakness, irritation, poor memory, and attention deficit. Fluctuating blood sugar levels and imbalanced hormones caused by starvation impact emotional regulation and increase the risk of developing mood disorders. The blockade of Artsakh could potentially cause both severe short term and long-term damage to the mental health of the victims. Since the blockade occurred more than 250 days ago, detrimental damages have already occurred. This article strongly calls upon the international community to take immediate action against this blockade and help prevent future genocide. Keywords: Starvation, Genocide, Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh), blockade, Lachin corridor, bioactive compound, functional foods

Updates to United Nations Genocide Convention

Updates to United Nations Genocide Convention

‘End the dominance of the Uyghur ethnic group’: an analysis of Beijing’s population optimization strategy in southern Xinjiang

ABSTRACT Chinese academics and politicians argue that Xinjiang’s ‘terrorism’ problem can only be solved by ‘optimizing’ its ethnic population structure. High ethnic minority population concentrations are considered a national security threat. ‘Optimizing’ such concentrations requires ‘embedding’ substantial Han populations, whose ‘positive culture’ can mitigate the Uyghur ‘human problem’. Scenarios that do not overburden the region’s ecological carrying capacity entail drastic reductions in ethnic minority natural population growth, potentially decreasing their populations. Population ‘optimization’ discourses and related policies provide a basis to assess Beijing’s ‘intent’ to destroy an ethnic minority population in part through birth prevention per the 1948 United Nations Genocide Convention. The ‘destruction in part’ can be assessed as the difference between projected natural population growth without substantial government interference and reduced growth scenarios in line with population ‘optimization’ requirements. Based on population projections by Chinese researchers, this difference could range between 2.6 and 4.5 million lives by 2040.

Beyond The Good Earth: Transnational Perspectives on Pearl S. Buck, by Jay Cole and John Haddad, eds.

<i>Beyond</i> The Good Earth: <i>Transnational Perspectives on Pearl S. Buck</i>, by Jay Cole and John Haddad, eds.

California's Yuki Indians

This article summarizes the heretofore incomplete and disputed assessment of the Yuki genocide, narrates the cataclysm, reevaluates state and federal culpability, and explains how this catastrophe constituted genocide under the 1948 United Nations Genocide Convention. Finally, the article explores how other case studies and the convention may inform future research on genocide in California and the United States in general.

Genocide Against Indigenous Peoples: The Experiences of the Truth Commissions of Canada and Guatemala

The truth commission of Guatemala stated that a genocide was committed against Indigenous Peoples in Guatemala. The truth commission of Canada concluded that a cultural genocide was committed against Aboriginal Peoples in Canada. The article questions the contribution of the truth commissions of Guatemala and Canada to the recognition of a genocide. Their contribution is analyzed in two areas. The article argues that the work of the two truth commissions shows that the context of a country and the perception of the crime influence the findings on genocide. It also states that the work of the two truth commissions on genocide is part of a movement towards an evolution of the 1948 United Nations Genocide Convention.

Det negative omslag i ‘Aldrig igen!’ – om historiepolitiske manipulationer af moralske imperativer

In Negative Dialektik, Theodor W. Adorno claimed that after the Second World War a new categorical imperative was imposed on mankind: namely, to prevent Auschwitz – or something similar – from happening again. Today – 60 years after the United Nations Genocide Convention came into effect – it is difficult to remain optimistic about the preventive character of Adorno’s “Never Again!” imperative. In spite of its existence, the second half of the 20th Century was filled with ethnic violence andgenocide. This article undertakes a philosophical analysis of the “Never Again!” refrain and questions whether this new imperative is as preventive as we assume. The analysis looks at how Serbian nationalism used (and misused) history and expressions as “Never again!”. This example shows us that the impulse of moral abhorrence in “Never again!” does not necessarily lead to preventing atrocity, but can be an incitement to initiate new ones.

Genocide and Global Queer Politics

ABSTRACTThis article presents a critical analysis of the relationship between the concept of genocide and global queer politics, offering an original mapping and examination of the discourse of genocide in this respect. Starting from the beginnings of genocide discourse with Lemkin and the United Nations Genocide Convention, existing literature is analysed to reveal circumscribed usage in relation to non-heterosexual lives. The methodology combines analysis of genocide discourse with case studies. The article maps and analyses the historically shifting form of genocide discourse, including through attention to the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, and demonstrates how the patriarchal and heteronormative origins of this discourse continue to have effects that exclude queer people. This analysis is developed, in particular, in relation to the absence of sexuality, gender, sexual orientation or gender identity as group categories in the Genocide Convention. Interwoven with this analysis of discourse, case study analysis is used in relation to Nazi Germany, Uganda and the Gambia to establish genocidal processes focused on homosexuality in each. The scope of claims for anti-homosexual acts of genocide is thus extended in Nazi Germany and Uganda, and such a claim is initiated in the Gambia, while appreciating the complex relation of “homosexuality” to African sexual identities. It is also argued that new definitions of groups from the Rwanda tribunal represent openings for some kinds of queer politics. The concluding section then draws on the discourse analyses of Foucault and postcolonial studies to initiate discussion of the potential discursive effects of invoking genocide in relation to homosexuality or queer politics, in particular contexts. It is argued that a greater consciousness of genocide in queer analysis and politics would be desirable, even while the existing terms of genocide discourse must be contested.

‘The realities of power’: David Stoll and the story of the 1982 Guatemalan genocide

ABSTRACTIn a short opinion piece published in late 2013, anthropologist David Stoll claimed that genocide did not occur in Guatemala under the military dictatorship of José Efraín Ríos Montt (1982–83), that the charges against the former general and his subsequent conviction were unsubstantiated, and that human rights conditions for the country’s Indigenous peoples, including the Ixil population of northern Quiché department, actually improved under his government. By looking at the definition of protected groups under the United Nations Genocide Convention, and such basic notions as perpetrator motives and intent in international humanitarian law, this article will address Stoll’s latest contribution to a ‘counter-narrative by Guatemalans who perceive that their side of the story [was] left out’ of the 2013 genocide trial.

Colonial genocide in indigenous North America

Andrew Woolford, Jeff Benvenuto, and Alexander Laban Hinton eds., Colonial Genocide in Indigenous North America. Durham: Duke University Press, 2014. 360 pages. ISBN 978-0-8223-5779-7. $26.95 USD paperback.In recent years, the field of studies has experienced a great deal of attention with various scholars exploring different approaches, limitations, and perspectives. One focus concerns Raphael Lemkin's intentions when he developed the concept of genocide which became the cornerstone of the United Nations Genocide Convention in 1948. Some prefer a more stringent approach and view in largely legal terms with a heavy focus on special intent, while others have argued that Lemkin had a broader vision in mind: one that encompasses colonialism and the experiences of indigenous populations. Colonial Genocide in Indigenous North America is a book that situates itself firmly within this latter stance. The expansion of studies into alternative arenas such as the impact of colonial practices on Indigenous populations fundamentally challenges the traditional perception of with its heavy reliance on intent, deterrence and prosecution.In this volume, the editors Andrew Woolford, Jeff Benvenuto, and Alexander Laban Hinton have compiled a selection of essays drawn from the proceedings of a recent conference on colonial that make a compelling case for understanding the topic as less of an event and more of a process, especially where colonialism is concerned. Taking a critical studies approach and written by a variety of distinguished scholars, this book attempts to tackle many debates and perspectives. It reformulates as a series of processes and structural arrangements that are inherently destructive, and from this perspective, genocidal. Essentially, those who apply to colonial relationships make the argument that is less an intentional episodic form of violent and destructive action, and more of a type of relationship characterized by an asymmetry of power in the political, economic, and social spheres. As such it is inherently destructive to native cultures and peoples.In its approach to these various viewpoints, this edited volume is organized into four sections, Intersections and Trajectories, Erasure and Legibility, Transformations, and (Re)Imaginings. In the first section, the contributing authors provide insights on different levels of genocidal penetration and connections within society, while the second section discerns the that enabled the development of against Indigenous populations in North America. Such policies include the honoring of murderous acts of settlers by the US government (Madley), prejudices, beliefs, and truths as perpetrated by society (Whaley, Logan), as well as that led to the creation of an extensive boarding school system (Patzer). The third section of the book is concerned with the institutionalization and power distribution within North American settler society. The chapters by Jacobs, Benvenuto, Ladner, and Samson provide a glimpse at the workings of governmental power on Indigenous relations. In the fourth and final section, Gone addresses the debates concerning historical trauma as an indicator of genocide, a contention that is widely disputed, even within this book. …

Lemkin's Forewarning: The Perverse Consequences of Expanding the Use of Force

Despite the 1948 United Nations Genocide Convention, which established a legal obligation for the world “to prevent and to punish” genocide, the international community has repeatedly failed to intervene to prevent this crime. In 2005, the United Nations addressed this failure by endorsing the Responsibility to Protect (R2P), a norm that expands the number of human rights abuses justifying intervention beyond genocide. R2P appears as if it could only have a positive effect, but drawing on original documents contained in the United Nations archives in Geneva, current debates in criminal law, and evidence from recent cases of mass atrocity, this paper argues that broad normative frameworks expanding intervention to protect human rights beyond the right to life may result in perverse consequences that are detrimental to genocide prevention. The broader implication of this finding is that while the international community should attempt to protect all human rights through peaceful means, military intervention should be reserved for the most egregious human rights abuse, for the crime of crimes, for genocide alone.

Locality and the Hidden Realities of Genocide

This article looks at the significance of local circumstances, including direct encounters between victims and assailants, in the genocide process. In what scholars term “the micropolitical turn in the study of social violence,“ the argument here considers the encounter from the perspectives of both constituent parties. Assailants often acted before they thought, raising questions about the premise of intention and calculation that anchors the defining Article 2 in the United Nations Genocide Convention. Victims in local encounters express in their accounts a recognition of their assailants and describe what amounts to a betrayal of the trust they invested in their compatriots. Expressions of recognition in witness accounts attenuate victims' resentment and recrimination, opening a space that permitted possibilities for postgenocide reconciliation and even qualified forgiveness.

Editor’s Introduction

Editor’s Introduction Herb Hirsch The present issue of Genocide Studies and Prevention is a combined issue. Since the previous two volumes, “60 Years after the Ratification of the Genocide Convention: Critical Reflections on the State and Future of Genocide Studies, Parts 1 and 2” were longer than usual, the editors decided to combine Volume 7, Issues 2 and 3 into a single issue. It is a general issue containing a wide variety of material and should be, we hope, of interest to a broad range of readers. This issue continues the tradition followed by Genocide Studies and Prevention throughout its now seven years of publication as a peer-reviewed, print journal dedicated to publishing a wide variety of high-quality manuscripts devoted to the understanding and prevention of genocide. The first of the six articles examines a topic of great interest, but one which has seen little in the way of scholarly material: it examines state-induced famine and use of prisons as possible mechanisms of genocide—or, at least, massive human rights violations—in North Korea. Rhoda Howard-Hassmann examines the famine that took place from 1994 to 2000 which, she estimates, killed 3–5% of North Korea’s population. She notes that there appears to be “little recourse under international law to punish the perpetrators of state-induced famine.” Yet, she points out that it might fit some of the criteria of genocide under the United Nations Genocide Convention. Her conclusion looks at how strategic, political “concerns about North Korea’s nuclear weapons outweigh humanitarian concerns about North Korea’s citizens.” Of course, there is nothing unusual in this state of affairs since political calculations always trump humanitarian concerns in international politics. In the second article, “A System, Society, and Community Perspective on Genocide,” Adrian M. Gallagher points out that genocide scholars often miss the point that the very definition of genocide is open to interpretation. Their perceptions are, he argues, warped by a view of the world which helps to explain the different perspectives. Gallagher then uses the “concepts of an international system, an international society, and an international community to demonstrate how one’s worldview holds implications for how one understands genocide.” These two articles are followed by two case studies: the first addresses the leadership of Roméo Dallaire in the UNAMIR mission to Rwanda and the next, the fourth in the volume, focuses on the 1965–1966 genocide in East Timor. In “The True Measure of Success: The Leadership of Roméo Dallaire in the United Nations Assistance Mission for Rwanda,” Sarah Devonshire evaluates Lieutenant General Dallaire’s actions prior to the beginning of the genocide. She concludes that his attempts to fulfill UNAMIR’s directives—“despite resistance on all sides”—disproves arguments that his failure of leadership “was a primary contributor to the outbreak of the Rwandan Genocide.” This is followed by an examination of mass murder in Indonesia and East Timor in the 1960s and 1970s. In “Foreshadowing Future Slaughter: From the Indonesian Killings of 1965–1966 to the 1974–1999 Genocide in East Timor,” Kai Thaler argues that the failure to stop the earlier mass killing in Indonesia allowed the “establishment of genocidal regimes that institutionalize genocide as a tactic of repression and power consolidation.” This was exactly what happened with the “New Order government of Indonesia, which committed mass killings of known and alleged Communists throughout Indonesia in 1965–1966 and later carried out a genocidal colonial occupation of East Timor.” He notes parallels between [End Page 145] the actors and tactics, and concludes that the “Indonesian case illustrates the necessity of punishment for genocide to preclude a culture of impunity that encourages both previous and new offenders.” The fifth contribution to this joint issue shifts gears to examine psychological factors in the possible dissolution of human bonds which contribute to genocidal behaviors. In “Thy Brother’s Keeper? The Relationship between Social Distance and Dehumanization Intensity during Genocides,” Lisa Haagensen and Marnix Croes hypothesize that “the degree of social distance between the perpetrator group and the victim group prior to the outbreak of genocide is inversely related to the degree of dehumanization severity employed by the perpetrator group during...

A Useful Toolbox for Genocide Research

Genocide: A Normative Account by Larry May focuses on several normative and conceptual issues associated with the crime of genocide, including the meaning of “destruction,” the relationship between individual intent and collective action, and the role of motive in the assessment of guilt. May's ultimate and somewhat controversial goal is to create “a deflated idea of genocide” (p. 19) to enable the successful prosecution or defense of the crime. Certain flaws in his argument aside, May's study contributes constructively to the ongoing discussion in the genocide literature about the inherent difficulties associated with the international genocide statute (Drumbl 2007; Goldhagen 2009:233–261). Genocide is divided into five sections. Part A focuses on the group as the object of destruction. May relies on a nominalist conception of groups to argue that groups targeted for destruction are those which are recognizable as coherent and stable by their members and the larger society. Group cohesiveness does not rely on immutable characteristics alone, but also on the perceptions of individuals. This line of reasoning is particularly useful because it permits the inclusion of cultural and political groups long-excluded by the United Nations Genocide Convention.

California's Yuki Indians: Defining Genocide in Native American History

This article summarizes the heretofore incomplete and disputed assessment of the Yuki genocide, narrates the cataclysm, reevaluates state and federal culpability, and explains how this catastrophe constituted genocide under the 1948 United Nations Genocide Convention. Finally, thearticle explores how other case studies and the convention may inform future research on genocide in California and the United States in general.

To Massacre: A Perspective on Demographic Competition

To Massacre:A Perspective on Demographic Competition Ralph J. Hartley In 1974, during the Cypriot war, a lone Greek nationalist rationalized his mass murder of seven Turkish Cypriot women and children: "Afterwards, I noticed the child. What harm had it done, you ask? It was Turkish…Why did I shoot them? I'll tell you. Because it's war. Now, it had to be done in cold blood, you understand? You have to keep your nerve" (Loizos 1981:90). [italics original] Fein (1994:97) emphasized that genocidal behavior is "the purposeful action by a perpetrator to physically destroy a collectivity directly or through interdiction of the biological and social reproduction of group members." This man's reason for the killing of women and children is a conscious, explicit expression of genocidal behavior. Shaw's (2005:85-86) assertion that "small" accidental massacres are inevitable within modes of modern warfare where the "deliberate transfer of risks to civilians" is practiced complicates socio-psychological analyses of intent, where intent with which the act is committed is considered an active shared mental process. Behavior that involves genocidal intent does not have to be the primary design of the killer(s). Proximate goals can be as simple as immediate material gain. [End Page 237] Precedent for indiscriminant targeting of civilian non-combatants within environments of war in order to destroy the power and economy of an adversary permits the potential to blur the categorical orientation of genocidal actions (e.g. deWaal 2005, Dutton et al. 2005, Hewitt 1987, Markusen and Kopf 1995, Scherrer 1999, Slim 2003).1 It can be argued that the extent to which genocidal behavior plays a role in both inter- and intra-state war is an indicator of the level of intended dominance via destruction of the social and economic status of an adversary with an assigned identity. Shaw's (2003) thesis that genocidal activities are an extension of modern degenerate war against unarmed civilians at a multitude of scales sets the stage for a discussion of the underlying motivation of political actors and individual perpetrators for varied massacre events. Not all episodes of mass murder and summary execution, commonly considered a massacre, result from behavior that is considered, in legal parlance, genocidal (cf. Simon 1996). The description of an atrocity that includes mass killing as genocidal is susceptible to the variance in what constitutes genocidal behavior by social scientists, independent of the wording of the 1948 United Nations Genocide Convention (Scherrer 1999). The term genocidal massacre is used by Markusen (1999) and Shaw (2003:8) to describe an incident of mass killing in the context of directed genocide by an organized group or politically defined entity. Although it can be argued that the technological means of mass killing of non-combatants is not relevant when the act is intentional, as in aerial bombing, this discussion is focused on events where killers are in proximity and visually confront the individuality of their victims. Massacres that target households, extended families, neighborhoods, or villages constitute behavior grounded in competition at multiple scales. The killing of specific families in Algeria in 1997-1998, for example, served effectively to eliminate adversaries and to coerce and intimidate surviving rivals (Kalyvas 1999). Assigning these horrors of contemporary atrocity behavior that include rape, torture, and amputation to historical disputes or the complexities of modern social and political environments ignores our knowledge of human activities in pre-industrial societies. Despite the defining and categorization of genocide in the modern era, massacres, where the killing is conducted irrespective of sex or age, are well documented through time as humans formed cooperative social groups and competed with other non-affiliated groups for resources valuable at that time and in that space. In addition to historically documented massacres of indigenous villagers and residential camps by dominant militaries, archaeological investigations in numerous [End Page 238] areas of the world have encountered evidence of massacres at homesteads and villages where the inferred intent was to eliminate all inhabitants. Osteological analyses of remains at many of these sites indicate the killing did not discriminate on the basis of sex or age; children often being represented as a significant percentage of victims. Ethnohistorical sources and...

Beyond Good Intentions: Combating Linguistic Genocide in Education

Scientific imperialism involves outsiders creating knowledge about dominated groups. This applies to the relationship between indigenous or minority children, parents, teachers and communities on the one hand, and dominant groups (schools, teachers/administrators, us as researchers) on the other hand. How can we as outsiders work together with other oppressed groups to overcome the legacy and consequences of linguistic and cultural genocide and, in the process, create new and liberating histories for us all? The article examines how scientific imperialism has contributed, and continues to contribute, to linguistic genocide in the education of indigenous and minority children and outlines some of the challenges and opportunities that people are faced with when trying to change the genocidal situation. New forms of linguistic genocide based on subtractive bilingualism, ‘free market’ economics, parental ‘consent’ and ‘good intentions’ can be more harmful to indigenous and minority children than overt attempts at extinguishing the language and culture, because they are more difficult to analyse. In subtractive language learning, a dominant or majority language is learned at the cost of the mother tongue. Subtractive teaching subtracts from the children’s linguistic repertoire (instead of adding to it). The children undergoing this type of education, or at least their children, are forcibly transferred to the dominant group linguistically and culturally, and the education can cause them mental and physical harm; both are defined as genocide in the United Nations Genocide Convention. The most decisive educational factor in causing negative statistics of indigenous ‘performance’ is the use of the wrong teaching language (together with lack of indigenous content, methods and ethos in schools). An additive approach to bilingualism based on long-term, mainly mother-tongue medium (MTM) education, can be employed to preserve and enrich indigenous and minority languages and cultures. In large-scale studies of educational models for minorities, the amount of education through the medium of the mother tongue is the strongest predictor of both children’s competence and gains in English, and of their school achievement. The final part of the article focuses on the struggle to combat linguistic genocide in education and its consequences on the island of Kosrae in Micronesia.