Genocide: A Brief Consideration of Concept, Convention, International Law, and Current Contexts - Kirk Allison - August 9th - Friday Night Lecture

L’Abri Rochester

When you hear the word "genocide" what comes to mind? Likely an event of mass killing: perhaps 'the Armenians' (WWI) or Stalin starving out Ukraine (1932-33); extermination camps under National Socialism; or Pol Pot's 'killing fields' (Cambodia, 1975-79); or Rwanda (July 1994). Now, questions arise concerning the tactics and intent in Russia's war against Ukraine, and from the October 7 Hamas attack against Israel and Israel's response in Gaza (including claims submitted to the International Criminal Court). Thus, an overview might be timely. Looking at the emergence of the concept of genocide as coined by Raphael Lemkin, what survived of it in the 1947 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. And looking also at its application, including why, given enumerated criteria, genocide is so rarely charged by the International Criminal Court, despite widespread rhetorical use of the term in many contexts? Examples before and after the term was coined will be included.

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Kirk Allison teaches in the Health Humanities Program of the College of Saint Scholastica. He directed the Program in Human Rights and Health at the University of Minnesota (2006-2016) and is a member of the International Association of Genocide Scholars.