CALL IT GENOCIDE
USING THE WORD ‘GENOCIDE’ IS A BIG DEAL
Politicians and world leaders are careful to avoid saying it, preferring to use ‘ethnic cleansing’ instead. Why? Because it is a legally specific and a politically charged word that requires action by the U.N.
Once you say ‘Genocide’, there’s no going back. It’s an accusation of human rights violations and once a country is accused of committing genocide, the rest of the world is responsible for ending it.
What is Genocide?
The United Nations first defined genocide in 1948 in The Genocide Convention. The treaty outlines that any of the acts commited with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial, or religous group constitutes as genocide. Below are four acts of the five outlined in the treaty that Myanmar is guilty of commiting.
In the Media
Article: Macron says Rohingya crisis in Myanmar is ‘genocide’
Macron’s use of the word “genocide” marks his strongest verbal attack yet on the military drive against the Rohingya. Link
Video: Seven Noble Laureates Acknowledge the Genocide in Burma
Nobel Laureates Tawakkol Karman from Yemen, Adolfo Perez Esquivel from Argentina, Desmond Tutu from South Africa, Jody Williams from the United States, Shirin Ebadi from Iran, Leymah Gbawee from Liberia, and Mairead Maguire from Northern Ireland describe the situation of the Rohingya in Burma as a genocide. Link
Article: International Tribunal Verdict
The Permanent Peoples’ Tribunal (PPT) is an international opinion tribunal, independent from any state authority. It examines cases regarding violations of human rights and the rights of people. Link
Video: It’s not Ethnic Cleansing. It’s genocide.
What is the importance of the word genocide and why it is a big deal? Link
Video: Help BTF Stop the Rohingya Genocide
Link
Scholarly Articles
The Slow-burning Genocide of Myanmar Rohingya
University of Washington | June 2014 | by Maung Zarni and Alice Cowley
Over the past thirty-five years, the state in Myanmar has intentionally formulated, pursued and executed national and state-level plans aimed at destroying the Rohingya people in Myanmar. This destruction has been state-sponsored, legalized, and initiated by a frontal assault on the identity, culture, social…
Harvard Gazette | November 7, 2014 | By Alvin Powell, Harvard Staff Writer
Burma’s Rohingya people are being slowly squeezed from their homeland by decades-long government policies that critics say deny them citizenship, health care, work, and schooling, with such tactics punctuated by…
Myanmar’s Democratic Transition: What does that mean for the Persecuted Rohingya?