Genocide and Its Prevention: The Concept and the Factors Behind It

25 min

A word that did not exist

Before 1944 there was no word for the crime of trying to destroy a whole people. Raphael Lemkin, a Polish-Jewish lawyer who had fled to the United States and lost most of his family in the Holocaust, made one. In his book Axis Rule in Occupied Europe (1944) he joined the Greek genos (race, people) and the Latin -cide (killing) to form "genocide". Lemkin then spent years persuading governments to make it a crime under international law. Ask yourself why naming a crime might help to prevent it.

Raphael Lemkin (1900 to 1959), the lawyer who coined the word "genocide", in an undated portrait print from his papers. Photo: Raphael Lemkin collection, Center for Jewish History, New York, no known copyright restrictions, via Wikimedia Commons.

The legal definition

On 9 December 1948 the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. In Article I the states that join it "undertake to prevent and to punish" genocide, in peace or in war. Article II defines genocide as any of five acts "committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such".

Figure 1. The key to the definition is intent: the aim of destroying a group because of who its members are.

Definition

Genocide: acts such as killing or seriously harming members of a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, committed with intent to destroy that group in whole or in part.

Genocide prevention: all the actions taken to stop genocide from happening, to stop it once it has begun, and to make sure it never happens again: by states, international organisations, communities and individuals.

Genocide ideology: in Rwandan law (Law N° 59 of 2018), an act done in public that shows an ideology supporting or advocating the destruction, in whole or in part, of a national, ethnic, racial or religious group.

Genocides recognised by courts

Genocide	When	Recognised by
The Holocaust: the murder of about six million Jews by Nazi Germany and its collaborators	1941 to 1945	The Nuremberg trials judged the crimes as crimes against humanity; the term genocide was used in the indictment
The 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda: more than one million people killed in about 100 days	April to July 1994	The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, which in 1998 gave the first conviction for genocide by an international court; Rwandan courts and Gacaca
Srebrenica, Bosnia and Herzegovina: the killing of about 8,000 Bosniak men and boys	July 1995	The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and the International Court of Justice
Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge: genocide against the Vietnamese and Cham minorities	1975 to 1979	The Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (2018)

Factors that may lead to genocide

No single cause produces genocide. Historians and the UN identify factors that, combined, make it possible:

A history of division and discrimination against a group, often built into law. In Rwanda, colonial rule turned Hutu, Tutsi and Twa, which were social categories, into fixed labels on identity cards from the 1930s; governments after 1959 used them to exclude Tutsi.
An ideology of exclusion that presents one group as dangerous, foreign or less than human.
Bad governance: an authoritarian state, no free press and no independent courts.
Impunity: earlier massacres that went unpunished teach killers that they can act without consequences.
War, economic crisis or political upheaval, which leaders exploit to blame a group.
Hate propaganda spread by media and leaders.
Organised capacity: militias, weapons and lists.
International indifference: outside powers that look away.

Warning

Use the correct name. Write "the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi". Terms such as "ethnic conflict" or "civil war" hide who was targeted and why; "double genocide" is a form of denial. The UN General Assembly marks 7 April as the International Day of Reflection on the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda.

Tip

Group + intent + act. When asked whether events amount to genocide, test the three parts of the definition in turn. Intent is usually the hardest to prove, and courts infer it from plans, speeches, orders and the pattern of killing.

Important

Discuss. Lemkin believed that naming a crime and writing it into law would help prevent it. Using the factors above, explain why law alone is not enough.

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Practice

Who coined the word genocide, and from which two words?
When was the Genocide Convention adopted, and what two duties does Article I place on states?
Name the four kinds of group protected by the Convention.
Give the five acts that can constitute genocide.
Explain, with an example, how impunity can be a factor leading to genocide.
"Genocide is caused by hatred between peoples." Evaluate this statement.

Show answersHide answers

Raphael Lemkin, in 1944, from the Greek genos (race, people) and the Latin -cide (killing).
9 December 1948; to prevent and to punish genocide.
National, ethnical, racial and religious groups.
Killing members; causing serious bodily or mental harm; inflicting conditions of life calculated to destroy the group; preventing births; forcibly transferring children.
When earlier killings of a group go unpunished, organisers learn they can act without consequences. In Rwanda, massacres of Tutsi from 1959 and in the early 1990s went largely unpunished before 1994.
The statement is too simple. Genocide is organised by leaders who build an ideology of exclusion, use propaganda, create militias and exploit crises, often on top of divisions created by history (such as colonial labels). Hatred is spread deliberately; it is a tool, not a natural cause.

Sources and credits

Articles I and II of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (1948), United Nations; short phrases quoted word for word.
Law N° 59 of 2018 on the crime of genocide ideology and related crimes, Republic of Rwanda, via RwandaLII; definition summarised.
Victim count: Government of Rwanda count of victims (Ministry of Local Government), 1,074,017 people.
Photo: Raphael Lemkin, Photograph 6, Center for Jewish History, New York, via Wikimedia Commons, no known copyright restrictions.

Written by Ganzaa: the diagram, the table, the analysis and the exercises.

1A word that did not exist

2The legal definition

3Genocides recognised by courts

4Factors that may lead to genocide

A word that did not exist

The legal definition

Genocides recognised by courts

Factors that may lead to genocide