Collective behaviour can be separated into two divisions, crowds and masses, which can be further subdivided, one of the most dangerous being an acting crowd. During World War II, an acting crowd known as the Nazi party brought forward the massacre of millions. After the war, in 1943 Raphael Lemkin, a Jewish-Polish lawyer, created the term genocide to describe the mass extermination of various groups. He combined Latin word “genos” (race or tribe) with another Latin term “cide” (to kill). After the holocaust, Dr. Lemkin fought for the recognition of genocide under international law. Thanks to his efforts, the UN Convention of Genocide was created. (Analysis: Defining Genocide 2) Today, genocide is seen as one of the most heinous crimes …show more content…
(Genocide in Darfur 2) Problematic life circumstances create a sense of chaos and disarray regarding the understanding of an individual’s role within their surroundings. (Staub 305) A lack of basic needs will not directly lead to genocide, but this will cause individuals to go through a psychological process that will result in the affected group harming members of another group. (Staub 305) As explained by psychology professors Craig Anderson and L. Rowell Huesmann, “The right situations can provoke most people to behave aggressively…” (Anderson & Huesmann 299) However, truly aggressive acts, like that on the scale of genocide only occur when there is a combination situational instigator. (Anderson 304) For example, the threat of war combined with political and economic turmoil.
There are various instigating factors, as mentioned above, but the most common and damaging found in genocide is war. The human psyche is influenced easily in times of war. When faced with the environment war, the psyche is shaped in such a manner that it is more likely to target and kill a certain a group when found in this situation. (Maritz 5) Paul Bartrop, who by studying major wars predating WWII has determined that a strong correlation exists between genocide and war. (Bartrop 522) Bartrop also states that, “…because of the Nazi Holocaust a precedent in technological mass murder was established…” (Bartrop 522) Today, this quote is disputed as it unsure if the Holocaust
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
The strongest and most influential emotion, hate, can drive man to do horrendous acts. Such as, in Eliezer Wiesel's memoir Night, tells the story of the millions of death caused by the evil that controls man. Although Wiesel does not use the word “genocide,” his account of his experience shows that it was definitely genocide that he witnessed. To start off, classification,
“How fortunate for governments that the people they administer don’t think” (Hitler, Mein Kampf). As time passed, there has been many times in history where a genocide has occurred. A genocide is a one-sided massacre from one party toward an ethnic or different group of people. As genocides occurred, questions such as “Why do people kill?” and “How can people allow these atrocities to occur?” are asked. There have been many theories made up as people researched the reason behind genocides. Throughout different centuries in history, genocides such as the Holocaust, the Rwandan genocide, and the Asian genocide, have occurred because of the negative psychological effects on the people caused by propaganda, corrupted leaders, and differences in ethnic groups.
Do you think you have the right to live? Do you think others should decide for you? Genocide is a humanitarian disaster to our society and it has created inhumanity in our world. Because of many devastating murders, the world learned what genocide really is. Raphael Lemkin, a Polish-Jewish legal scholar, created the term “genocide,” defining it as acts commited to destroy a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group (BKE). Humanity is coming together and realizing the serious results of genocide and are creating awareness; however, it may not be possible to resolve ethnic cleansing due to the following reasons: the lack of adequate awareness, the struggle to change one’s beliefs and ideas, and history always repeats itself.
Simultaneously, Uving (1998) mentions “violent tendencies exist in all people, and they ‘break through’ when the social norms that keep group hostility in check break down… the problem with these explanations is that they are very general and do not explain why genocide occurs at a specific time” (p. 213). This section from Uvin’s writing explains that aggressive tendencies exist in everyone, often used by psychologist, is general and does not explain why genocides occured. Subsequently, Uving (1998) writes “ Another important physiological explanation of people’s participation in violence states that, with the right justification, nearly all people would be willing to obey orders to severely harm other people… it is said that monarchist, unquestioning, obedience, or conformist nature of the Rwandan traditional mentality made Rwandans inclined to follow orders” (p. 213,214). This illustrates how psychologist believe that people are obedient and will kill if there is justification, but Uvin argues that they are not obedient but instated they have a tradition of monarchy which influenced them to follow orders to kill.
Genocide is an important human rights issue. When a person or persons take it into their hands to violate someone’s given rights, it should be considered an act punishable. For people to understand the severity of their actions, their actions must have serious consequences. These consequences must be so extreme to the relevance to the act punishable that those who are planning on partaking in a similar act are made well aware of the possible punishments. If people are better educated on the subject of genocide, the reports of genocidal cases might decrease, making genocide a less extreme problem not only in the United States, but the entire world.
The term ‘war’ as defined by the Oxford Dictionary is explained as “a state of armed conflict between different countries or different groups within a country” (Oxforddictionaries.com, 2016). The concept of war has created contrasting views on the relationship between war and genocide as well as the effect that war has on genocide. The term ‘genocide’ literally means ‘the killing of a race’ and is arguably the most atrocious crime conceivable (Gunter, 2011). It is a specific term that refers to crimes that are committed against groups with intent to destroy their existence (Ushmm.org, 2016). There are various motives and numerous reasons as to why genocides may occur, however this paper will seek to address the extent to how, if at all, the concept of war being a necessary condition for the occurrence of genocide, as well as looking at correlations between war and genocide using specific examples to determine whether war is a necessary condition or not.
Darfur is the western region of the African country of Sudan. Currently, the people of Darfur have been continually attacked by the Sudanese army and by proxy-militia controlled by the Sudanese government. Families are being uprooted and starved, children tormented and murdered by the thousands and women raped without punishment. Innocent civilians in Darfur continue to be victims of unthinkable brutality. Many people have become homeless and seek protection in refugee camps in Chad. Yet despite its outward appearance, Darfur has a vast ethnic diversity and a complex, ancient system of resolving conflict. Genocide has occurred in several places around the world, but in Darfur there are certain reasons why it
Ever since the holocaust in World War 2 there has been more than a dozen genocides, not only in Germany where it started, but from all over the world. Most of these genocides had started off from one race thinking they are better or superior to another. Races that thinks they are better start blaming the other race for economic problems they face like, political, social & many other things. They think the only way to fix this problem is to get rid of the race that they believe is cause of their problems thus causing the being of a genocide. There’s been genocides that people don’t even know that have happened & that the holocaust was the only genocide known. I’m going to name & example some of the different genocide that have happened since
Genocide, it is not just murder, it is extermination. The world has lost an abounding amount of lives due to the vicious acts of genocide. There have been many ‘preventive’ measures being performed such as the conference in Montreal held in 2007. At said conference the United Nations (officials) not only spoke about preventing genocide, they also listened to 75 year-old, Marika Nene. Nene experienced the anti-gypsy massacres that occurred during World War II. “I had no choice. I had to give myself up to the soldiers (...) they violated me. I still have nightmares about it.” Genocide has affected millions of lives and Marika Nene is just one of them. Many have often inquired the following question, ‘can the world resolve the problem of genocide?’
Genocide occurs in several nations and causes millions of lives to be lost. The slaughter of innocent men, women, and children continue daily, and will happen until the world and its people grow tired of the unnecessary loss of life and work to aid those in need. Darfurians are a prime example of what can happen when ones lives are not valued because of the difference in beliefs.
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
Genocide, a dire event, has been recurring time and time again throughout history. In the past, there was the Holocaust, where Hitler exterminated over six million Jews based on his anti-semitic views. Elie Wiesel, a Jewish author, has become a very influential man in educating the world of the true events of the Holocaust due to his involvement in the disaster. Presently, a genocide is occurring in the Darfur region of southern Sudan, in which according to Cheryl Goldmark, “a systematic slaughter of non-Arab residents at the the hands of Arab militiamen called Janjaweed” has been taking place since 2003. (1) Not only is genocide a tragic historical event, it also continuously occurs today.
The "intent to destroy" certain groups is unique to the characterisation of genocide. Closely related categories of international law "crimes touching humanity" aredescribed as adverse or calculated attacks against citizens.This timeline marks the growth of the term "genocide" and its systematization into international law.
Initially, the term genocide covered national, racial, ethnic and religious groups as the only groups protected by genocide convention (Naimark 41). However, many scholars have debated to consider and include other groups that may help to liberate the people from the poor governance and threat from autocratic leadership of any given society such as political, cultural, economic, ideological and social groups. These groups play a vital role in promoting cultural and social values of people and cannot be undermined. It is, therefore, logical to respect and protect any attempt to destroy them. On the other hand, political groups are indeed essential to promoting democracy in the country. They discourage and condemn corrupt practices and exploitation of citizens by their leaders. Hence, these groups need protection as they play a prominent role in the society. This is because selfish political leaders may attack