Genocide: The Yazidi's In Northern Iraq

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

“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.

According to Daniel Goldhagen, genocides are constantly being underestimated, which causes the never ending realities of the past repeating itself. From high officials to ordinary citizens, people often overlook the pattern and causes of these systematic killings. One of these includes the UN, which was created to prevent another World War, and to protect the rights of sovereignty of member states. This organization serves to solve international issues, but has failed and continues to fail to prevent genocides. Even though this group signed in 1948 a UN document, Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, which punished and still punishes people guilty of genocide, not one life was ever saved from that declaration. The reason is because most at first want to deny that these extreme situations could happen ever again. Sadly,

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.

Throughout human history, mass killings have occurred on groups of people purely based on false stereotypes or rumors, built up aggression, power dominance, or physical attributions such as race. In the past 150 years, there has been a spike in the number of genocides, despite the culture that the killing takes place in. Therefore, it is impossible whether to deem these monstrous acts are of natural human, cultural, or sociological nature. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the causes, processes, and effects of the Holocaust and the Rwandan Genocide in terms of reification when comparing and contrasting the two horrific events. Additionally, elements of the logic of illogic and a doctrine of false concreteness will be discussed in an in-depth effort to uncover the mindset of these horrific atrocities.

In December 1948, the then members of the United Nations General Assembly, without contention, passed the Convention on Genocide. It defined what the crime of genocide entailed and that it was an act to be prevented and its perpetrators punished. It has been 66 years since then and we have not been able to fulfill this promise - shattering its very principles time and time again - in places such as

Hollie Nyseth Brehm’s article, “The Crime of Genocide”, digs deep into the violent conditions and acts that eventually cause genocides. To begin with, genocide refers to a deliberate or intentional act of committing an action that destroys the existence of an ethic, racial or religious group of

This stage of genocide is called polarization. Polarization is where they separate the population. The SS and Nazis used propaganda to convince the german population the the Jewish people were the root of all evil. They used posters and videos to make this happen. Poster depicted Jews as being ape-like with large noses and a slanted forehead. The most prevalent example of this is the Hitler Youth, they were brainwashed using propaganda so they would believe that everything Hitler said was morally right. The people that rebelled and did not believe the propaganda were eliminated. The next stage of genocide and the first step of the systematic killing is preparation. Preparation is when the target group is put together and combined to make it easier for extermination. In the Bosnian Genocide men and women were moved to concentration camps where they would be held until they were killed. The Serbs overthrew the law enforcement and roamed the streets rounding up Bosniaks, making sure none got away. They executed anyone that was thought to be strong enough to rebel instantly.

The horrors of genocide are terrible and can’t seem realistic to a person, but it still goes on. Preventative measures must be put in place to stop perpetrators in their

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

“Why is the killing of a million a lesser crime than the killing of an individual?” -Raphael Lemkin referring to genocides. Genocides are organized exterminations committed with intent to destroy a whole group based on religion, ethnicity, and race. The Holocaust, the Armenian genocide, Darfur, and the Rwanda genocide were all terrible events in history, but why did they occur? The form of genocide had existed since the perception of superiority and inferiority was known. As a superior group gains more and more power, they make an image of their perfect society in their head and strive towards it. They would decimate those who opposed them and anyone they saw as inferior, which is an example of how a genocide can start. Hitler was the leader of the Nazis, and he pursued his plans to annihilate the entire “inferior” race of Jews, which he thought was a burden to his empire. In the Armenian genocide, the Young Turks attempted to terminate the Armenians, which they also thought were inferior and untrustworthy. Although the Holocaust and the Armenian genocide are both genocides in which a specific group of people were being targeted, they differ in terms of leaders and their purpose for starting the genocide, the races that were targeted and how they were killed, and the impact it has on people today. (history.com)

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.

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).