Afroza Anwary

Question 1

Genocide definition

Answer 1

*According to the convention of the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide
* Lemkin

Question 2

According to the convention of the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide

Answer 2

The Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (Convention) of 1948 : Article II of the 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.’
Think about the Native Americans

Question 3

Lemkin’s view

Answer 3

Lemkin defined genocide as (he introduced the concept genocide)
* 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’.
* According to Lemkin, the goal of genocide was the ‘disintegration of the political and social institutions of culture, language, national feelings, religion, and the economic existence of national groups, and the destruction of the personal security, liberty, health, dignity, and even lives of the individuals belonging to such groups.’

Question 4

Problems of the Genocide Convention

Answer 4

Problems of the Genocide Convention
* A schism exists between the social understanding of genocide as a crime of scale and the legal understanding of genocide as a crime of intent.
* In most popular understandings, genocide is associated with scale: with “mass atrocity”; “mass slaughter”; “mass destruction”; and “mass death.
Legally, genocide does not require a particular scale of mortality.
* Genocide is simply the intention to destroy a particular group.

Question 5

Remarks about genocide

Answer 5

For most people, genocide is linked with scale (how many people are killed). But legal it has nothing to do with scale, it has to do with intention. So how is it possible they still focus on the number?
Intention is very difficult to prove. In Myanmar, In the Democratic Republic of Congo it is difficult that it is mentioned, officiated that a certain group should be killed <-> Hitler who had it in writing.