Dr. David Nersessian
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- September 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199588909
- eISBN:
- 9780191594557
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199588909.003.0002
- Subject:
- Law, Human Rights and Immigration, Public International Law
This chapter details the rapid development of genocide from an academic concept to a substantive international crime. It provides a brief overview of the etymology of the term ‘genocide’ following ...
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This chapter details the rapid development of genocide from an academic concept to a substantive international crime. It provides a brief overview of the etymology of the term ‘genocide’ following its first usage by Professor Raphael Lemkin in 1944 to describe Nazi atrocities during World War II. It details the early usages of the concept in subsequent criminal trials of Nazi offenders, as well as the definition of genocide in the 1948 Genocide Convention. It also discusses the critical (and controversial) decision of the Convention's drafters to exclude political groups, thereby limiting the Convention to national, ethnic, racial, and religious collectives. Acts intended physically or biologically to destroy these four groups thus are condemned as ‘genocide’, whereas the identical criminal conduct—directed instead at other human collectives—is not.Less
This chapter details the rapid development of genocide from an academic concept to a substantive international crime. It provides a brief overview of the etymology of the term ‘genocide’ following its first usage by Professor Raphael Lemkin in 1944 to describe Nazi atrocities during World War II. It details the early usages of the concept in subsequent criminal trials of Nazi offenders, as well as the definition of genocide in the 1948 Genocide Convention. It also discusses the critical (and controversial) decision of the Convention's drafters to exclude political groups, thereby limiting the Convention to national, ethnic, racial, and religious collectives. Acts intended physically or biologically to destroy these four groups thus are condemned as ‘genocide’, whereas the identical criminal conduct—directed instead at other human collectives—is not.
Samuel Totten, William S. Parsons, and Robert K. Hitchcock
- Published in print:
- 2002
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520230286
- eISBN:
- 9780520927575
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520230286.003.0003
- Subject:
- Anthropology, African Cultural Anthropology
This chapter clarifies some key issues on the prevention of genocidal atrocities. It states that the definition of the term indigenous peoples is problematic, since in many places groups may migrate ...
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This chapter clarifies some key issues on the prevention of genocidal atrocities. It states that the definition of the term indigenous peoples is problematic, since in many places groups may migrate and identify themselves in different ways. It identifies the four key characteristics of indigenous peoples (as stated by the Independent Commission on International Humanitarian Issues), and distinguishes physical genocide, cultural genocide, “ecocide,” and other typologies of genocide. This chapter also tries to show how such devastation is often implicitly or explicitly legitimated by metanarratives of modernity.Less
This chapter clarifies some key issues on the prevention of genocidal atrocities. It states that the definition of the term indigenous peoples is problematic, since in many places groups may migrate and identify themselves in different ways. It identifies the four key characteristics of indigenous peoples (as stated by the Independent Commission on International Humanitarian Issues), and distinguishes physical genocide, cultural genocide, “ecocide,” and other typologies of genocide. This chapter also tries to show how such devastation is often implicitly or explicitly legitimated by metanarratives of modernity.
