Genocides in the World: Consequences and Prevention

25 min

A date remembered for more than a century

Each year on 24 April, Armenians in Armenia and across the world gather to remember. On that day in 1915, during the First World War, the authorities of the Ottoman Empire arrested hundreds of Armenian community leaders and intellectuals in Constantinople (now Istanbul). Over the next two years Armenians were deported from their homes in Anatolia and marched towards the Syrian desert; around one million died, and many thousands of women and children were forced into Muslim households and converted. More than a hundred years later, the event still divides two neighbouring states: the government of Türkiye accepts that many Armenians died but rejects the word "genocide", while most genocide scholars and many states use it.

The Armenian case shows two things this lesson studies: that genocide has happened on several continents, and that its consequences last far longer than the killing.

Definition

Diaspora: a people scattered far from its homeland, often by violence. Example: most Armenians today live outside Armenia, many of them descendants of survivors of 1915.

Reparations: payments, land, services or other measures by which a state or perpetrator makes amends to victims for a grave wrong. Example: Germany's 2021 offer of development aid to Namibia for the Herero and Nama genocide.

Transitional justice: the courts, truth-telling, reparations and reforms through which a society deals with mass crimes after violence ends.

Responsibility to Protect (R2P): the principle, accepted by all UN member states at the 2005 World Summit, that every state must protect its population from genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity, and that the international community must help and, if a state manifestly fails, act collectively through the UN Security Council.

Genocides of the twentieth century

Figure 3. Six genocides of the twentieth century. Bars show the main period of killing; the two in the 1990s lasted weeks or months and are drawn wider than to scale. Drawn by Ganzaa.

Genocide	Perpetrators and victims	Scale (estimates)	How it has been recognised
Herero and Nama, German South West Africa (now Namibia), 1904–1908	German colonial troops against the Herero and Nama peoples, after a rebellion; on 2 October 1904 General Lothar von Trotha ordered that Herero be driven out or killed	Tens of thousands; most of the Herero people and about half of the Nama	In May 2021 Germany said it now called the events genocide and offered €1.1 billion of development aid over 30 years; many Herero and Nama leaders rejected the deal as too small and made without them
Armenians, Ottoman Empire, 1915–1923	The Ottoman government (Committee of Union and Progress) against its Armenian citizens	Around one million dead	Recognised by most scholars and many states, including Germany (2016) and the United States (2021); rejected by the government of Türkiye
The Holocaust, Nazi Germany and occupied Europe, 1941–1945 (persecution from 1933)	The Nazi state against the Jews of Europe; Roma, disabled people and others were also murdered	About six million Jews	Judged at Nuremberg (1945–1946) as crimes against humanity, before the Convention existed; the case that led to the Convention
Cambodia, 1975–1979	The Khmer Rouge regime against its own people, and especially against the Cham Muslim and Vietnamese minorities	About 1.7 million dead from execution, starvation and forced labour	In November 2018 a UN-backed court in Phnom Penh convicted two Khmer Rouge leaders of genocide against the Vietnamese, and one of them also against the Cham
The 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi, Rwanda, April to July 1994	The interim government, the army and militias such as the Interahamwe against the Tutsi; Hutu who opposed it were also killed	More than one million; the Government of Rwanda counts 1,074,017 victims	The ICTR (1994–2015) and Rwanda's courts; named by the UN General Assembly in 2018
Srebrenica, Bosnia and Herzegovina, July 1995	Bosnian Serb forces against Bosniak (Bosnian Muslim) men and boys	About 8,000 killed	Judged genocide by the ICTY (Krstić, 2004) and the International Court of Justice (2007)

Warning

Handle numbers and names with care. Victim figures are estimates; give them with "about" and, where you can, name who counted. Do not invent comparisons of which genocide was "worst": each destroyed a different people in a different way. And state recognition fairly: say who recognises an event as genocide and who disputes it, rather than writing as if there were no debate.

Consequences of genocide in general

The killing ends; its effects do not. Across the cases above, the consequences fall into six groups:

Kind	What it means	Examples from the cases
Demographic	Loss of population, especially of adults of working age; distorted age and sex structure	Around one Cambodian in five died under the Khmer Rouge; Srebrenica lost most of its Bosniak men and boys
Social and psychological	Orphans, widows and child-headed households; trauma passed from parents to children; broken trust between neighbours	Survivors' children in many countries describe growing up with their parents' silence and fear
Economic	Destroyed property, farms, businesses and skills; land seized	Herero and Nama land was taken by settlers, and land remains a political question in Namibia today
Political and regional	Collapse of the state; refugees crossing borders; new wars	Relations between Armenia and Türkiye are still strained, and their border has been closed since 1993
Cultural	Languages, religious life, schools and heritage of the group destroyed	Most of the Jewish communities of eastern Europe, with their schools and synagogues, disappeared
Legal and international	New laws and courts; questions of reparation and apology	The Genocide Convention (1948); the ICTY (1993), the ICTR (1994) and the International Criminal Court (2002)

Tip

Use the six kinds as a plan. For "discuss the consequences of genocide", make each paragraph one kind of consequence: name it, explain how genocide causes it, and give one dated example. Six well-developed paragraphs beat a list of twenty single words.

Preventing genocide: who acts, and when

Article I of the Genocide Convention binds every state party to "prevent and to punish" genocide. Since the 1990s, after the failures in Rwanda and at Srebrenica, the world has built more tools for doing so. Figure 4 groups them by when they act.

Figure 4. Prevention at three levels, before, during and after. Drawn by Ganzaa from the UN Framework of Analysis for Atrocity Crimes and the Responsibility to Protect.

States carry the first duty: equal citizenship, fair courts, education, and laws against incitement.
The United Nations: since 2004 a Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide warns the Secretary-General and the Security Council; at the 2005 World Summit all member states accepted the Responsibility to Protect.
Regional organisations: Article 4 (h) of the Constitutive Act of the African Union (2000) gives the Union the right to intervene in a member state in respect of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity, a rule written with Rwanda in mind.
Courts: the International Criminal Court (since 2002) tries individuals; the International Court of Justice judges states. In November 2019 The Gambia brought a case against Myanmar over the treatment of the Rohingya, and in January 2020 the Court ordered Myanmar to take measures to prevent genocidal acts.
Civil society, media and individuals: journalists who report the warning signs, religious leaders who refuse hate, and citizens who protect their neighbours.

Important

Discuss. The Responsibility to Protect allows the Security Council to authorise force as a last resort. Supporters say this could have saved lives in Rwanda in 1994. Critics point to Libya in 2011, where a Council resolution to protect civilians ended in the overthrow of the government, and fear that powerful states will use "protection" as a cover for their own aims. How can the world act quickly against genocide without opening the door to abuse?

Oxford Martin School, University of Oxford: "What is the responsibility to protect (R2P)?", about two minutes, with Professor Jennifer Welsh, who later served as the UN Special Adviser on the Responsibility to Protect. Note the question she raises about who the "international community" is.

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Practice

Name four genocides of the twentieth century, with the country and the years of each.
Which genocide in the table took place in Africa before the Genocide Convention existed, and how has the state responsible responded since 2021?
Explain two social and two economic consequences of genocide in general.
Using the Armenian case, explain why denial is itself a consequence that harms relations between states.
Explain the three levels of prevention in Figure 4, giving one measure at each level.
What did Article 4 (h) of the African Union's Constitutive Act change, compared with the old principle of non-interference?
"International courts come too late to prevent genocide." Evaluate this statement, using at least two examples.

Show answersHide answers

Any four, for example: Herero and Nama, Namibia, 1904–1908; Armenians, Ottoman Empire, 1915–1923; the Holocaust, Europe, 1941–1945; Cambodia, 1975–1979; the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi, Rwanda, April to July 1994; Srebrenica, Bosnia and Herzegovina, July 1995.
The Herero and Nama genocide in German South West Africa (Namibia), 1904–1908. In May 2021 Germany said it called the events genocide and offered €1.1 billion of development aid over 30 years; many Herero and Nama leaders rejected the offer.
Social: orphans and widows; trauma passed between generations; broken trust in communities. Economic: loss of workers and skills; destroyed property and farms; land seized. Any two of each, explained.
Armenians and the government of Türkiye disagree about what happened in 1915. Because the event is not recognised in the same way, Armenians feel their dead are denied; the dispute has kept relations tense and contributed to their closed border.
Before a crisis: build resilience, for example equal citizenship laws. During a crisis: warn and act, for example early-warning reports and sanctions. After atrocities: repair and remember, for example trials and memorials. After-the-fact measures feed back into prevention.
It gave the Union the right to intervene in a member state in respect of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity. The Organisation of African Unity had stressed non-interference in internal affairs, which left Africa without a legal basis to act in Rwanda in 1994.
For: courts act after the crime; the ICTR was set up in November 1994, months after the killing, and the Cambodian judgment came almost 40 years later. Against: courts deter future leaders and punish incitement before killing starts; the ICJ's January 2020 order on Myanmar was a preventive measure; trials record the truth and fight denial. A balanced answer concludes that courts are necessary but not enough on their own.

Sources and credits

Armenian genocide, Wikipedia contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0: facts about 1915 checked against it, adapted by Ganzaa.
Holocaust Encyclopedia, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum; ICTY, Krstić case; International Court of Justice, Bosnia and Herzegovina v. Serbia and Montenegro; The Gambia v. Myanmar.
UN Office on Genocide Prevention and the Responsibility to Protect; 2005 World Summit Outcome, paragraphs 138 and 139; Constitutive Act of the African Union (2000), Article 4.
Victims of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi: Government of Rwanda count of victims (Ministry of Local Government).
Photo: Peace Palace, The Hague, Iamthestig, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
Video: "What is the responsibility to protect (R2P)?", Oxford Martin School, embedded from YouTube.

Written by Ganzaa: Figures 3 and 4, the tables, the analysis and the exercises.

This lesson adapts CC BY-SA material and is shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.

1A date remembered for more than a century

2Genocides of the twentieth century

3Consequences of genocide in general

4Preventing genocide: who acts, and when

A date remembered for more than a century

Genocides of the twentieth century

Consequences of genocide in general

Preventing genocide: who acts, and when