Persecution And Genocide

Essay from the year 2015 in the subject Law - European and International Law, Intellectual Properties, grade: -, , language: English, abstract: Despite sharing historical roots, genocide and persecution are increasingly considered two separate crimes with divergent legal elements that represent two different social wrongdoings. Genocide is a crime aimed at the destruction of groups, characterized by intent to destroy the group, whereas persecution is an offense aimed at serious discrimination against individuals, characterized by the mass or systematic character of the killing. Therefore, this paper will tackle the question of moral difference between genocide and persecution and ask why genocide can still be considered the “crime of crimes” if, contrary to persecution, it does not even require a mass-scale attack or a high number of victims. The most convincing approach argues that genocide risks more ancillary harm due to the additional intent not only to harm current group members, but also to destroy the group itself. Genocide per se is not worse than persecution, but it is more likely to expand into massive devastation. This is the reason why even “small” genocides need to be prosecuted, punished and prevented by international law.

This book explores genocide and persecution in Kosovo, including the historical and cultural background of long-running disputes between Kosovo and Serbia and other territories in the former Yugoslavia, particularly focusing on the 1999 war in Kosovo and the mass killings of Kosovo Albanians by Serbs. Readers are introduced to issues surrounding the 1999 war in Kosovo and the aftermath, including whether the atrocities committed by Serbs against Kosovo Albanians rose to the level of genocide. Personal narratives are from people touched by the events in Kosovo, including the story of a 10-year-old Albanian boy who lost his family to Serb violence, and a Roma woman who experienced persecution at the hands of Kosovo Albanians. Critical information is broken out and encapsulated into charts, timelines, and graphs.

"In this study Polish emigre Raphael Lemkin (1900-1959) coined the term 'genocide' and defined it as a subject of international law"--Provided by publisher.

Using the framework of genocide, this volume analyzes the patterns of persecution of the Roma in Nazi-dominated Europe. Detailed case studies of France, Austria, Romania, Croatia, Ukraine, and Russia generate a critical mass of evidence that indicates criminal intent on the part of the Nazi regime to destroy the Roma as a distinct group. Other chapters examine the failure of the West German State to deliver justice, the Romani collective memory of the genocide, and the current political and historical debates. As this revealing volume shows, however inconsistent or geographically limited, over time, the mass murder acquired a systematic character and came to include ever larger segments of the Romani population regardless of the social status of individual members of the community.

This book addresses the most crucial religious freedom issue of our day. It explores various facets of the persecution of Christians in the Middle East, ISIS's ideology, their relationship to Islam as practiced by most Muslims, and the nature of religious freedom. It is essential reading for all concerned about religious persecution.

This multi-disciplinary volume is one of the few collections about social change covering various cases of mass violence and genocide. In life under persecution, social relations and social structures were not absent and not simply replaced by an ethno-racial order. The studies in this book show the influence of social structures like gender, age and class on life under persecution. Exploring practices in family and labor relations and of collective action, they counter claims of an atomization of society or total uprootedness of victims. Despite being exposed to poverty and want and under the permanent threat of political violence, persecuted people tried to develop their own agency. Case studies are about the Jewish and Armenian persecutions, Rwanda, the war of decolonization in Mozambique and civilian refuges in Belarus during World War II. The authors are a mix of experienced scholars and young researchers.