History is a phenomenon that has the propensity to repeat itself. Genocides have been committed throughout history, even before the term was assembled in 1944 and accepted by the United Nations in 1946 as a crime under international law. According to the United Nations, genocide is defined as “intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group.” A minimum of twenty-seven genocides have been documented across the world. During the 20th century, the Armenian Genocide and the Ukrainian genocide (Holodomor) transpired. Currently, in the 21st century, the world is witnessing another brutal genocide occurring in Myanmar. A kindred pattern of events is perceived throughout the duration of genocides along with
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,
“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.
Throughout history, instances of genocide, mass murder, and extreme acts of violence are widespread and pervade through every culture and society. As demonstrated by Panh, Lifton, and O’Brien, similar examples of excessive violence can occur in widely different situations. In order for such violence to occur, there first must exist certain systematic factors. In this paper, I will argue that conditions of instability within a country allow for changes in belief and perception, and these changed perceptions leads to dehumanization and the loss of human rights. The Holocaust, the Cambodian genocide and the Vietnam War, all follow this pattern to some extent. First, I will compare and contrast the ways in which the Holocaust and Cambodian genocide follow this pattern, as well as explore the separate factors within each and possible solutions to these factors. Next, I will discuss the dramatically different Vietnam War, compare and contrast it to the other two, and explore how the uniqueness of the Vietnam War impacts the possible solutions for the loss of human rights within this situation.
Throughout time, history has been recorded from the perspective of the victors. It is this bias within the archives that shape the views and motives of the groups involved. As a result of this influence the general way of thinking, and recollection of historical events has been altered to a certain degree to conform to the conqueror’s ideals. Society turns a blind eye to the horrors of the past, preferring to plead ignorance than to face the reality of the cruelty humans are capable of. There are parts in history that conversely cannot be ignored, such as the genocide in Rwanda, 9-11, Terror in Paris and the most historical, the holocaust in World War II, where the true extent of human vindictiveness came to light. In spite
Ultimately, however, we are left with few examples of successful intervention in genocide studies, as even the Sinjar intervention failed to lead to sustained international cooperation. In both cases, however, independent or small coalitional action seems to be much easier to produce than international action. While this itself is not surprising, it does once again force us to confront the question whether the International community can enforce human rights in cases of gender based violence and
In 1975, approximately 2 million former government employees, army personnel and intellectuals were executed in the hands of the Cambodian leader, Pol Pot’s Khmer Rouge, while others were killed by disease, exhaustion and malnutrition (Document 2). Similarly, in 1989, students in Tiananmen Square were murdered as machine guns shot “right at the chests and heads of the students” (Document 3). In the Rwandan Genocide of 1994, approximately 500,000 people were raped, tortured, beaten and killed; and the UN Security Council failed to reinforce the troops they sent as their mandate restricted them from stopping the killing. However after the genocide ended, the UN attempted to hold prosecutions for crimes against humanity that occurred during the genocide, but national prosecutions seemed far-fetched as the “Rwand[an] justice system [was] destroyed” (Document 4). The many heinous acts that have been committed thus far may be viewed as stepping stones to improve, as society learns from its
In Darfur, a region in Sudan an estimated 200,000 to 500,000 people are killed, beginning in the year to 2003 until the present day. Many of these people of a certain tribe or certain region of the country of Sudan are killed and due to that genocide is the consequence. Genocide is defined as the deliberate killing of a large group of people. Throughout the years many people have tried to prevent genocide, ever since World War II, which was a main war involving genocide. In the novel Ender’s Game this is one of the main human rights issue’s.
The Holocaust is something that we must never forget. Its occurrence relied only “upon the indifference of bystanders in every land” (Zukier). Even today we stand by while innocent lives are taken. The recent conflicts in Rwanda or Bosnia, or past conflicts in Cambodia, are merely three examples. Wherever genocide occurs one thing is sure to happen– individual lives become lost in massive numbers and the tolls are so large
“History repeats itself”, is a commonly used phrase and it is one that can be found to hold true in many situations. Throughout history there have been many incidents in which mass murder has occurred. A modern day example of mass murder in a conflict that is ongoing is the genocides occurring in Darfur, Sudan. The corrupt government in the country supports a group called the Janjaweed, which is the militia group that is mainly responsible for the large number of Darfur residents that have been murdered, raped, or displaced (1). Although the exact number is not known, most sources estimate around 400,000 people have died and another 2,500,000 have been displaced (1). The conflict started in 2003 and although it is not as severe as it has
“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” -George Santayana (as originally written). This much has always been true to those who study the seemingly extinguished conflicts of the former world. The undeniable fact of it is, history can and will repeat itself, lest society seeks to learn from it. In order for society to learn from the tragedies of yesteryear, certain changes must take place, because change is essential for growth - which in turn fuels further change: a fundamental cycle that society must commence. Without change and growth, humanity is thrown into a state of chaos and destruction; one’s logical thinking may get the best of them. In order to grasp control over the recurrences of history, Some supposedly
The powerful movement in response to the Darfur genocide showed us that by acting together, we can compel our elected leaders to act on their responsibility to protect innocent men, women and children from brutal regimes. " This should all start with taking action. Even though we know what has previously happened through history; genocides still happen for a number of reasons. One of which being that some powers of government aren't making the right choices, which end up putting everyone at risk. We need to create a change to prevent Genocides before history repeats itself; if we don’t demand
When people say history repeats itself, they are not lying. A modern conflict in today’s world can relate to the events that happened in a play written in the 1500’s. The play, The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet, by William Shakespeare, can relate to the ongoing Syrian Civil War. In both circumstances, people not anticipating the consequences of their actions made decisions. It resulted in devastating tragedies, all started by an ancient grudge. Which forced the government to retaliate in violence against the perpetrators, involuntarily displacing innocents, and the loss of many people or requiring them to flee
Walking briskly through the halls of school, a boy knocks into someone and their papers fall. Do you have the courage to stop to help them? Or do you keep following the mainstream flow of students through the corridors? Most importantly, does any of this really matter? The answer is, yes it does. As of right now, in 2016, according to CNN’s Genocide Tracker, “over 36.9 million people have died around the world due to genocide.” Genocide is defined most commonly as the systematic and purposeful extermination of a specific group due to race, religion, ethnicity, gender association, political affiliation, disabilities, and more. Mass killings have been happening as early as the 1700’s when the Chinese Manchu Qing Dynasty systematically killed the Dzungar Buddhist peoples. Since then, over 30 documented genocides and even more undocumented genocides have occurred. Knowing this awful fact, we must begin to look into what ways can humans yield psychological courage, to cease global genocides. From a psychological perspective, these mass killings make one wonder how a human could commit such sadistic and horrific crimes against other humans. The reason may be found in the psychology of why people fear, why people form groups, and why people are so willing to go along with the majority. In short, to battle genocides, society must not only understand the psychology behind fear, group mentality, and why people conform, but have the courage to break out of these psychological
In the past two years, a genocide has been going on in Myanmar that little people around the world know about. The victims that have been affected by this mass murder are the Rohingya Muslims, who originated from the subcontinent of India and are a minority group that makes up 5% of the country’s population. Today, the physical and emotional abuse endured by the Rohingya Muslims prevails a prominent issue in the Middle East. Over in Burma, many of the Muslims are murdered, beaten, or attacked by various religious groups, while government officials either stand and watch or occasionally help.