WHAT IS GENOCIDE?

GENOCIDE

  Genocide is a term which is used to describe violence against members of a national, ethnic, racial or religious group with the intent to destroy the entire group. This term defines a crime which has been committed by humans throughout history; however, it was not defined as a crime until 1944. In 1944, Ramphel Lempkin, who was a Polish-Jewish lawyer, coined the word “genocide” in his text  “Axis Rule In Occupied Europe”. Defining  the features of “genocide” and the genocide timeline throughout history, especially during the late period. It is important  in order to understand the term.

  In 1944, Raphael Lempkin coined the term “genocide”. This term is a combination of  the Greek word genos which means race or tribe, and the Latin word cide which means to kill. Raphel Lempkin faced  massacres from his childhood to his adulthood. As a boy, he was horrified when he learnt/ed about  the examples massacres in history. As a adult, he confronted the  Nazis for their crimes against European Jews. As a result of these/all this, he defined the term “genocide”  in order to  enter it  into the world of international law in the hopes of punishing such crimes against humanity. The UN confirmed its Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, and this convention defined genocide as any of a number of acts “ committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group.” This definition involved killing or serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group. In addition to this, genocide is separated from other crimes against  humanity such as ethnic cleansing in terms of the aim.  Ethnic cleansing aims to expel a group from a geographic area by killing or other methods. It is important to understand crimes against humanity throughout history.

   When it comes to the genocide timeline after the definition and features, this timeline includes major conceptual and legal advances in the development of the term genocide. When Lempkin coined the term genocide , Nazi soldiers were killing European Jews. Adolf Hitler became Chancellor on January 30,1933, and The Nazi Party took control of Germany. Afterwards,  World War II began on September 1, 1939 when Germany invaded Poland. Polish Jews were killed or forced to live in ghettoes where disease and starvation triggered death. Nazi soldiers did not kill only Jews but also Gypsies, the disabled and homosexuals. All of those who were  termed “undesirables” with no future in the Nazi State were killed . After the war, the International Military Tribunal was established by US, Great Britain, France and The Soviet Union, and major Nazi German leaders were  put on trial on charges of crimes against peace, war crimes, and crimes against humanity. Crimes against humanity did not end with The Holocaust. War crimes and ethnic conflicts occurred in former Yugoslavia between 1992-1995.  The most tragic massacre in this war took place in Srebrenica, which is a small town in Bosnia. Serbian forces murdered as many as 8,000 Bosnian men and boys. The United Nations Security Council established The International Criminal Tribunal for  former Yugoslavia to judge war criminals. In 1994, members of The Hutu majority in Rwanda killed 500,000 to 800,000 people, most of whom were members of The Tutsi minority.  UN established The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, which was located in Tanzania. As with  former Yugoslavia, the international community did not make enough effort to stop the crimes while they were occurring.

    In conclusion, many crimes against humanity have been committed throughout history, and these crimes are still occurring in certain regions or provinces nowadays. The psychology of individuals and societies has been affected by these crimes. The term genocide was defined late. This negatively influenced the legal system, and people suffered.,  Humanity has to thank  Raphael Lempkin because  he coined the term “genocide”. Authorities started to punish genocide thanks to him.