Genocide term had its origination in the Armenian holocaust, defined by Raphael Lemkin in 1944. It is deliberately killing racial, ethnic, or particular groups as a whole with the intention of destruction. It was considered to be the first and the last mass murder of humans after the Nazi’s holocaust incident, but time decided another way for it. There have been many genocide incidences happened in the history.
These are the Armenian genocide, European genocide, Cambodia, Rwanda, Sudan, and Rohingya massacre with 10,000 tolls. (Genocide Watch, 1998) The paper gives insight into the theoretical and practical knowledge about the genocide and preventive campaigns by the peacemaker United Nations. The argument of genocide as preventable or unpreventable will be discussed by the data.
The work on the prevention of genocidal incidence merged with the development of the convention of 1948 on the prevention and execution of genocidal criminals. The designed proposal contained the details of genocide in relation to the legislation system of various countries to be implemented. It highlighted a few things about genocide in the draft:
Article II of the convention declares any act as a crime with the intention to destroy or harm any specific group or ethnic group as:
1. The murder of any specific group.
2. Mental harm and body torture to any particular group.
3. any act of Intentionally destroying the peace and life of the people.
4. Any limitations on birth within a particular group
5. Migration of the people to another group.
The whole convention’s objective was made clear to be adopted for the civilizing and humanitarian mission to protect the rights of humans and their existence for now and for future generations. (Koko.Wordpress,2010)
Genocide prevention is possible, but for this, it has to be done strategically through knowledge of the genocide process. Genocide happens in eight stages. The process starts with classification, the symbolization of cultures and people to distinguish them. The prevention at these early stages requires one to understand the middle ground for the prevention of genocide. The government should forbid specific tagging of people, such as banning yellow badge usage by the Jews as devised by the government to prevent the Nazi symbol for Jews from causing genocide.
The next stage is dehumanization, which makes the group less human in the perspective of each other. The prevention of dehumanization can be ensured by checking on the hate speeches delivered by the crowds, the leader’s denunciation of the use of hatred strategies as culturally acceptable, reduction in propaganda, and punishment for the creation of slaughters. Genocide happens with the involvement of military groups with particular groups. The prevention can be brought forward through the UN for the issuance of the ban on those specific people’s visas so that they cannot travel and be the source of propaganda in various other regions. A commission should be made to investigate the onset of genocide and violations on the state level.
Extremist groups instigate hatred and differentiate propaganda among all classes. The government can ensure the ban on social interaction with these groups, security protocols for other people to be the victims of the extremists, and assist in the deprivation of the extremists to make them unsuccessful in their plans. Refuges camps and armed forces intervention inaction should be prepared by the UN Security Council. The order of regional forces as backup must plan also.at the stage of extermination. The responsibility should be on the individual and state levels to derive possible preventive strategies and efforts to secure the rights of every individual. (Stanton, H.G,2003)
Genocide is a violation of foreign law. It is a subject of foreign policy, and the UN invited dispute and agreed executives of the legislation for the treaty process. (Lawrence, 1991, p.4-5) Policymakers in the UN have exclusive advisors for the genocide early warning signals that gather information from humanitarian rights people and all open sources around the world. The special advisor addresses the public about the onset of war crimes or genocides with the aim of reducing the risk of it. Recommendations for generations have helped bring peace to people. The policy advisor can use a particular strategy such as ethnocentric’ which states all humans are brought up with different cultures, languages, etc., and we all humans are the same. And no one is allowed to dehumanize others (Ulfelder, J, 2015).
There should be the responsibility and inclusion of inter-religious leaders to deliver humanizing lectures and to promote compassion. It can eradicate ethnic genocide conflict among groups with shared ground culture thinking. The International Criminal Court is paying its responsibility to arrest all the impure persons spreading genocide. The judicial system must prevail without any political involvement to save the criminals. The ICC has the right to exercise jurisdiction in any state over genocide people. Special tribunals were established, such as ICTR Rwanda and ICTY. They keep people from severe genocides. This accountability system for genocide criminals can prevent genocide.
The rate of genocide has diminished in the past century, and the intensity of violations against civilians has dropped. Progress in the reduction of genocide has resulted from the efforts of UN genocidal policies and initiatives. (UN)
Genocide is preventable. The need for prevention is to gain knowledge of genocide and develop models to assess the field. The United Nations has developed a proposal on genocide prevention and is strengthening the prevention of genocide. The work on a prevention strategy is growing daily, and it is possible.
References
Genocide watch. The International Alliance to End Genocide. 1998. http://www.genocidewatch.org/aboutgenocide/8stagesofgenocide.html. 1998.
Koko.Wordpress. Genocide: An Essay. 2010. https://kodiko.wordpress.com/2010/10/13/genocide-an-essay/.
Lawrence, J. L. “The United States and the genocide convention.” Lawrence, J. L. The United States, and the genocide convention. Duke University Press, 1991. 4-5. https://books.google.com.pk/books?id=H5KPAAAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false.
Stanton, H.G. How can we prevent genocide ? 6 June 2003. https://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/COMM.6.24.03.HTM. 2003.
Ulfelder, J. Genocide is Going Out of Fashion. 14 May 2015. http://foreignpolicy.com/2015/05/14/genocide-is-going-out-of-fashion/. 2015.
UN. Outreach Programme on the Rwanda Genocide And the United States. n.d. http://www.un.org/en/preventgenocide/rwanda/about/bgpreventgenocide.shtml.
