What is genocide? Many times in life and in the media, the word genocide is thrown around for many reasons including a lack of knowledge of the actual definition of the word genocide. Genocide is a cruel but unique occurrence in history. Genocides are thought out, politically driven, and are against a group of defenseless people. A Polish Jewish man named Raphael Lemkin coined the word genocide. He combined both a Greek and a Latin word to make the word genocide. Lemkin possessed 5 categories of genocide. The 5 definitions are: (1) intentional group annihilation; (2) the intend was conceptualized; (3) how the mode of annihilation is defined; (4) how the agent of annihilation is defined and finally (5) how the victim of annihilation is defined. …show more content…
Many countries sometimes turn a blind eye to genocide and the signs of genocide. Some of the signs of genocide can easily be determined by change in political power, changes in race relations, and an incline in hostility between two countries. Also a way to stop genocide is by creating a clear definition of genocide that isn’t too specific and too vague. America and Turkey have been denying their role in genocide in their countries for several years and have been protected because U.N’s definition of genocide is too vague. In my effort to learn about genocide I have come up with a formula to make a clear definition of genocide. Genocide first has to have Agent. In other words genocide has to have a perpetrator to commit the crime. As I described earlier, the agent must be an organized group defined by the perpetrator. Also the Agent is almost always an organized majority or state with a political agenda. The political agenda is very important because all genocides are politically driven and have a political …show more content…
In other words, this is the group of people who are being affected. These people are always either a member of a group, race, nationality, political group, and or class. The people are targeted based on beliefs and involuntary qualities that are not changeable. This means that you cannot change the quality that is being targeted. A good example would be the color of your skin or the size of your feet. The next step to making a clear definition is the mode. The mode is the effect that the genocide causes on the people. In both the U.N’s definition and in lempkin’s definition the word annihilation and destroy are used to symbolize death or removal. These are descriptive but to make a clearer definition we must go into depth on the mode and the effect it has on the people. Lastly but the most important part of a clear definition is the intent. As the U.N and Lemkin stated earlier; the intent was to destroy in whole or in part. I believe the most descriptive definition is, “genocide is an organized group or state as defined by the perpetrator with a purposeful attempt at the physical destruction, in whole or in part, a group with a specific class, race, nationality, religion, political belief, and/or any other involuntary trait. I believe this definition can apply to all genocides in history. With this definition less countries will be able to deny the previous cases of
Genocide develops in eight stages that are predictable, but yet preventable. It is a complex process that usually occurs in chronological order (Rummel). The crime involves any acts committed with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial, or religious group, such as killing members of the group, causing bodily harm to members, trying to prevent births within the group, and/or forcibly transferring children to another group (Rummel). Additionally, there are two research purposes of genocide. The first includes the definition as the intention to murder people because of their group membership, and the second includes any intentional government murder of unarmed and helpless people for whatever reason, which is another word for democide (Rummel). “As a crime, the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (UHCG), defined genocide as the intention to destroy any type of group for any reason as such” (Rummel). In short, many different interpretations for the word genocide, but every explanation ends the same
Webster's dictionary defines genocides as the deliberate killing of people who belong to a particular racial, political, or cultural group. Genocide has existed for thousands of years, and while there are many examples of these horrific events, some of the most well known are the holocaust and the genocide in Rwanda 1994. The United States’ responses to these killings as well as the way in which they ended were similar, but the driving force behind each differed.
What is a genocide? A genocide is when one ethnic, racial, or religious group tries to destroy and eliminate another. This extermination is usually done through cruel and brutal methods. It is our responsibility to learn about the genocides to help prevent them from occurring in the future. Genocides have been occurring for centuries and, unfortunately, still take place today. We are going to focus on two particular genocides: the Jewish genocide (more commonly know as the Holocaust) and the Armenian genocide.
Genocide is an extremely broad subject with various different definitions. Genocide could be one or more leaders trying to get rid of a large group of people by killings or attacks, or it can be against a smaller group of people in a less violent manner. Genocide has been a very extreme problem in society and various reports of genocidal events have been recorded in history, but how does one go about finding the precise and accurate definition of a “genocide”? Genocidal acts are placed into different categories and are defined in different degrees. The Commission on Human Rights has set up seven treaties that describe acts of genocide. Regardless of committees’ attempts to limit or abolish acts of genocide, genocide was a very important
What is genocide you ask? Genocide is the deliberate killing of an astronomically immense group of people, especially those of a concrete ethnic group or nation.
The definition of genocide, according to the United Nations, was the attempt to destroy “a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group” by killing members, causing mental or bodily harm, harsh living conditions, prevention of births, and separating children from their families. There are four patterns of genocide, which do not always occur in every genocide since they’re not all the same. The four patterns include persecution, which is hostility and ill-treatment, especially toward a specific race, political, or religious belief done by the ruler or government. Next is displacement or when a group of people is forced to leave their native country. Continuing, public humiliation is another pattern that freely shows off a group of people being tortured or persecuted in plain sight. Finally when selective groups of people face at terrible fate while another group is spared the same fate as them is selective murder. Those were the four, very cruel and unfair, patterns of genocide.
“As defined in article 2 of the Convention of the Prevention of the Crime of Genocide, genocide is any act with intent to liquidate a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group” (“Office of the UN...”1) . Genocide has been an issue around the world for several centuries, and sadly it continues to this day. There is one specific genocide that many historians study, the forced evacuation of the Chechens. Although this may be classified as a relocation, it was declared an act of genocide by the European Parliament in 2004 (Brauer and “Office of the UN…”).
Genocide is when mass murders are committed especially when they are committed on a certain religion or race. You’d think that something as big as millions or thousands of people being killed would get a lot of attention or cause many problems but it’s the opposite. People are being killed because of differences that are driving people apart instead of connecting them. They read newspapers hearing about the terrible things going on around them and didn’t care. They looked outside seeing everything around them crumble, still not caring. Then, they were the ones who were being killed and tortured. By then it was too late to care, too late to stop it from happening. An example of this is the Holocaust and the Stolen Generation. The Holocaust and the Stolen Generation are some of the darkest periods of history although, they differed in the perpetrator’s reason behind them, the people who were impacted, and how they ended.
Genocide is one of the most frightening terms one could hear, sending shivers down your spine just to hear the word. Genocide is the intent of extermination of a national, ethnical, racial or religious group. One of the best known Genocide’s to the world is known as the Holocaust. Germans exterminated over 6 million Jews in just a couple of years. Families were torn apart, and some of the worst things you could ever do to a human being were done in these times. After the Holocaust everyone said Never Again, but it has happened over and over. If we follow the steps to preventing genocides, we can stop history from repeating itself and keep the people of the world safe.
Genocide is one of the evillest moral crimes any ruling authority such as a government can commit against its people and it happens more than we think. A general definition of Genocide is the intention to destroy or murder people because of their race, beliefs, or even political and economic status. As we have been taught in this course Raphael Lemkin, created the term ‘Genocide’ 1944. Lemkin combined the ancient Greek word ‘genos’ which means race and the Latin word ‘cide’ which translates to killing. There are many examples of genocide in the world but the most recognizable is that of the Holocaust and how the German powers that be sought and attempted to kill all Jews. A recent example is the Rwandan Genocide in 1994 where the assassination of Juvénal Habyarimana caused a violent reaction resulting in mass killings. In efforts to reduce Genocide, the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (UNCG) was adopted by the United Nations in 1948 and was placed in force in 1951. On July 1, 2002 the International Criminal Court (ICC) came into force. The ICC not only accepted the UNCG’s definition of Genocide but expanded it to include crimes against humanity such as enslavement, deportation, torture, rape, enforced disappearance and apartheid. There have been many organizations created throughout the world to defend and prevent genocide and even communities, religions and even colleges are forming organizations and these are just some examples of how
A genocide according to Dictionary.com, is “the deliberate killing of a large group of people, especially those of a particular ethnic group or nation.” Genocides can happen when someone of power wants to eliminate a potential threat, spread terror among enemies, to aquire economic wealth, or to implement a belief or ideology.
The crime of genocide is one of the most devastating human tragedies throughout the history. And the word genocide refers to an organised destruction to a specific group of people who belongs to the same culture, ethnic, racial, religious, or national group often in a war situation. Similar to mass killing, where anyone who is related to the particular group regardless their age, gender and ethnic background becomes the killing targets, genocide involves in more depth towards destroying people’s identity and it usually consists a fine thorough plan prearranged in order to demolish the unwanted group due to political reasons mostly. While the term genocide had only been created recently in 1943 by Raphael Lemkin, a Polish-Jewish legal
To many Americans, the feeling of being a bystander as countries slaughter their own people has been in legal debate since 1933, it has gradually developed into a concept that can be applied in many situations, both historical and contemporary. The meaning of the phrase genocide is the cleansing of a race or ethnicity in a country. There has been evidence that this phrase can be used to describe past and present day massacres being committed around the world and how media has changed its perception on this issue overtime.
The term "genocide" was developed during the Holocaust and announced an international crime during the 1948 United Nations Convention that focused on Prevention and Punishment of genocide as a crime. Genocide is, therefore, defined as deeds committed with the aim of destroying, in whole or partially, anethnical, national, religious or racial group.Such acts include, killing followers of the group, causing serious physical or mental harm to followers of the group, intentionallyimposing on the group conditions of living aimed at bringing about its physical loss, imposing measures envisioned to prevent new births within the group, or compulsorily transferring children of the society to a different group.
Genocide is a term that can be defined as a planned and systematic destruction of whole or parts of certain national, religious, race, ethnic, cultural or political group (Akhavan 21). Genocide is deliberated with a different set of actions for a purpose to destroy an essential foundation of life. Genocide is characterized with the massive killing of members of a group, causing mental or bodily injuries to a group of people, imposing mechanisms to prevent birth, removing particular group children and putting conditions of life in order to bring to an end existence of a particular group. Therefore, genocide is an illegal action and a crime recognized and punishable by international law (Charmy 35). For instance, Rwanda genocide is characterized by ethnic tensions within the country. Initially the definition of the term genocide as by genocide convection only comprised of racial, ethnic, national and religious groups. They argued that inclusion of other groups cannot strengthen but rather weakens it. This definition failed to recognize other groups such as political groups, economic and cultural groups that are essential elements of genocide. Genocide therefore, is generally considered the worst moral crime the ruling authority can commit against those it controls Naimark (2017).