AIPR Raphael Lemkin Seminar for Genocide Prevention

Global Government Edition

Oswiecim, Poland

November, 2015

Goals of the Seminar

• (1) To familiarize participants with the concept of genocide and other atrocity crimes, and examine the processes by which genocide occurs.

• (2) To empower participants with the practical competencies (knowledge and skills) necessary to prevent genocide from ever taking place, prevent further atrocities once genocide has begun, and prevent future atrocities once a society has begun to rebuild after genocide.

 • (3) To examine critically and reinforce the emergent norm of the

Responsibility to Protect, recognizing that sovereignty is not a privilege but a responsibility.

• (4) To develop a worldwide network of state officials who will take action to prevent genocide and other atrocity crimes.

Structure of the Week

• Monday: Introductions and Context• Tuesday: Process and Place• Wednesday: Upstream Prevention

– Frameworks for Genocide and Atrocity Crimes Prevention

• Thursday: Midstream Prevention – Responding to Genocide, War Crimes, Ethnic

Cleansing, and Crimes Against Humanity• Friday: Downstream Prevention

– Transitional Justice and Dealing with the Past• Saturday: Genocide and Atrocity Crimes

Prevention in Action

What Do We Owe Each Other?

• Participant-Focused Seminar• Chatham House Rule• Respect for Other Participants, Staff, and

Instructors• Adherence to Seminar Expectation of Being

Fully Present– Complete Reading(s) Prior to Instructional Module– Attendance at Instructional Modules– Professional Courtesy of Arriving On-Time for

Instructional Modules (at beginning of modules as well as after coffee and meal breaks)

– Turn Off or Silence Cell Phones

The “Power of Place”

“Introduction to the Concepts of Genocide, Atrocity Crimes, and

Prevention”

Dr. James WallerCohen Professor of Holocaust & Genocide Studies,

Keene State College (NH)Academic Programs Director,

Auschwitz Institute for Peace and Reconciliatione-mail: jwaller@keene.edu

November 2015

Learning Objectives

• Understand the…– (1) history and evolution of the term

“genocide”;– (2) term’s key defining characteristics as

enshrined in the UN Genocide Convention;– (3) significant conceptual problems

surrounding the definition of “genocide”;– (4) relation of the term “genocide” to the

broader category of atrocity crimes;– (5) importance of preventing genocide and

mass atrocity.

An Assassination in Berlin

• Soghomon Tehlirian, Survivor of Armenian Massacres

• Assassination of Mehmed Talaat– March 15, 1921

A Student’s Question

• Raphael Lemkin (1900-1959)

• University of Lvov (Poland)

• Concept of State Sovereignty

• League of Nations – Madrid (1933)

League of Nations – Madrid, Spain (October, 1933)

• “Acts Constituting a General (Transnational) Danger Considered as Offences Against the Law of Nations”

• Protected Groups– Ethnic, Religious, or

Social Collectives

• Acts Defined as Criminal – Acts of Barbarity– Acts of Vandalism

• Jurisdictional Responsibility– Universal Enforcement

“A Crime Without a Name”: Defining Genocide

• Churchill BBC Speech (August 24, 1941)

• Axis Rule in Occupied Europe (1944)– “Genocide” = Geno

(race, tribe) + Cide (killing)

Axis Rule in Occupied Europe (1944)

• …“a coordinated plan of different actions aiming at the destruction of essential foundations of the life of national groups, with the aim of annihilating the groups themselves. The objectives of such a plan would be disintegration of the political and social institutions, of culture, language, national feelings, religion, and economic existence of national groups, and the destruction of the personal security, liberty, health, dignity, and even the lives of the individuals belonging to such groups…Genocide is directed against the national group as an entity, and the actions involved are directed against individuals, not in their individual capacity, but as members of the national group.”

Making Genocide a Crime Under International Law

• Nuremberg Trials (1945-46)

• Appeals to the United Nations

UN Drafting History of the Genocide Convention

Passage of the Genocide Convention

• December 9, 1948 – General Assembly of the United Nations unanimously passed the “Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide” (commonly known as the “Genocide Convention”). – Sixth Committee Draft Adopted Without

Alterations– 55 Delegates Voted “Yes;” None Voted No

• January 12, 1951 – The Genocide Convention was ratified by 20 member states of the United Nations and became official international law.

Participation in the Genocide Convention (142 States)

Light Green = Signed and RatifiedDark Green = Acceded or Succeeded (Party to the Convention but Not Original Signatory)Yellow = Signed but Not Ratified (Dominican Republic)Grey = Nonparties to the Genocide Convention (approximately 50 nations)

UNCG Definition (1951)

• Article 2: In the present Convention, genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such: – (a) Killing members of the group; – (b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the

group; – (c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life

calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;

– (d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;

– (e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.

Protected Groups• National, Ethnical, Racial, or

Religious• Major Concerns

– Violates Fundamental Principle of Equality Before the Law

– Objective Identities are Not Self-Evident or Stable

• Perhaps Perpetrators’ Subjective Definition of Victim Group Matters Most

• Broadening of Protected Groups in Domestic National Courts – Ethiopia, Bangladesh, Cambodia,

Columbia, Ecuador, Panama, Costa Rica, Cote d’ Ivoire, Peru, Poland, Slovenia, Lithuania, Paraguay, France, and Romania

Acts Defined as Criminal • Defining Characteristics of Acts of Destruction

– (a) killing members of the group,– (b) causing them serious bodily or mental harm to

members of the group,– (c) deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life

calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part,

– (d) imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group,

– or (e) forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.

• Determination of “Intent”– What does intent mean? – How does intent differ from motive?– How do we prove intent?

• Meaning of “In Whole or in Part”

Jurisdictional Responsibility

• Article 6: “Persons charged with genocide…shall be tried by a competent tribunal of the State in the territory of which the act was committed, or by such international penal tribunals as may have jurisdiction with respect to those Contracting Parties which shall have accepted its jurisdiction.”

• Universal Jurisdiction in Customary International Law• What is the relation of “genocide” to the broader

category of atrocity crimes?• War Crimes• Crimes Against Humanity• Ethnic Cleansing

• War Crimes– May Be Isolated or Sporadic– Violations of Laws or Customs

of War– Committed During Armed

Conflict• Crimes Against Humanity

(1907)– Widespread and Systematic– No Intent to Destroy in Whole

or Part– Apply in War and Peace

• Ethnic Cleansing– Rendering an Area Ethnically

Homogenous

Conclusion

• “…preventing genocide is an achievable goal. Genocide is not the inevitable result of ‘ancient hatreds’ or irrational leaders. …There are ways to recognize its signs and symptoms, and viable options to prevent it at every turn if we are committed and prepared. Preventing genocide is a goal that can be achieved… with the right blueprint.”– Genocide Prevention Task Force (2008)

Continuum of Genocide Prevention Strategies

• Primary PreventionPrimary Prevention– Upstream PreventionUpstream Prevention– ““Before” Analysis of Before” Analysis of

Structural Risk FactorsStructural Risk Factors

• Secondary Prevention– Midstream Prevention– Immediate, Real-Time Relief

Efforts During Crisis

• Tertiary Prevention– Downstream Prevention– “After” Efforts to Foster

Resiliency in Post-Genocide Society

Prevention Applied at All Stages

of Conflict Cycle

Why does genocide and atrocity prevention matter?

• Preventing Genocide and Mass Atrocity Reduces…– Human Costs

• Protection/Preservation of Human Life & Security

– Instability Costs• Contributes to National & Regional Peace

– Economic Costs• Prevention Less Costly Than Intervention or Rebuilding

– Diplomatic Costs• Reinforces State Sovereignty