{"id":103694,"date":"2017-12-18T12:01:34","date_gmt":"2017-12-18T12:01:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=103694"},"modified":"2017-12-17T15:26:12","modified_gmt":"2017-12-17T15:26:12","slug":"a-responsibility-to-prevent-genocide","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2017\/12\/a-responsibility-to-prevent-genocide\/","title":{"rendered":"A Responsibility to Prevent Genocide"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Thousands of new Rohingya refugee arrivals cross the border near Anzuman Para village, Palong Khali, Bangladesh. Credit: UNHCR\/Roger Arnold<\/p><\/div>\n

12 Dec 2017<\/em> \u2013 Almost 70 years since the Genocide Convention was adopted, the international community still faces a continued and growing risk of genocide.<\/p>\n

On the International Day of Commemoration and Dignity of the Victims of the Crime of Genocide, the UN launched an appeal for member states to ratify the 1948 convention by the end of 2018.<\/p>\n

\u201cGenocide does not happen by accident; it is deliberate, with warning signs and precursors,\u201d said Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.<\/p>\n

\u201cOften it is the culmination of years of exclusion, denial of human rights and other wrongs. Since genocide can take place in times of war and in times of peace, we must be ever-vigilant,\u201d he continued.<\/p>\n

The Secretary-General\u2019s Special Advisor on the Prevention of Genocide Adama Dieng echoed similar sentiments, stating: \u201cIt is our inaction, our ineffectiveness in addressing the warning signs, that allows it to become a reality. A reality where people are dehumanized and persecuted for who they are, or who they represent. A reality of great suffering, cruelty, and of inhumane acts that have at the basis unacceptable motivations.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Convention defines genocide as \u201cacts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial, or religious group.\u201d This includes not only killing members of the group, but also causing serious bodily or mental harm and imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group.<\/p>\n

Despite the comprehensive definition of genocide in the Convention, genocide has recurred multiple times, Guterres said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are still reacting rather than preventing, and acting only when it is often too late. We must do more to respond early and keep violence from escalating,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

One such case may be Myanmar.<\/p>\n

After a year of investigation, the organization Fortify Rights and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum said that there is \u201cmounting\u201d evidence that points to a genocide against Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar with Burmese Army soldiers, police, and civilians as the major perpetrators.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Rohingya have suffered attacks and systematic violations for decades, and the international community must not fail them now when their very existence in Myanmar is threatened,\u201d said Cameron Hudson from the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum.<\/p>\n

\u201cWithout urgent action, there\u2019s a high risk of more mass atrocities,\u201d he continued.<\/p>\n

More than half of Myanmar\u2019s one million Rohingya have fled the country since violence reignited in August.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey tried to kill us all,\u201d 25-year-old Mohammed Rafiq from Maungdaw Township told researchers when recalling how soldiers gathered villagers and opened fire on them on 30 August. It has been the largest and fastest flow of destitute people across a border since the 1994 Rwandan Genocide, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was nothing left. People were shot in the chest, stomach, legs, face, head, everywhere.\u201d<\/p>\n

Eyewitness testimony revealed that Rohingya civilians were burned alive, women and girls raped, and men and boys arrested en masse.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese crimes thrive on impunity and inaction\u2026condemnations aren\u2019t enough,\u201d said Chief Executive Officer of Fortify Rights Matthew Smith.<\/p>\n

On the other side of the border, refugees find themselves living in overcrowded camps with limited access to food, water, and shelter. They are in need of treatment for not only their physical injuries, but also the mental and emotional scars from their traumatic experiences.<\/p>\n

IOM spoke to some of the survivor who made the treacherous journey by boat to Bangladesh including 8-year-old Arafat. His entire family including his parents, two brothers, and a sister drowned when the fishing boat carrying them capsized in stormy weather.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhere will I go now,\u201d he cried, transfixed with shock.<\/p>\n

The government\u2019s strict restrictions on Rohingya\u2019s daily lives also point to signs of genocide.<\/p>\n

In 2013, authorities placed a two-child limit on Rohingya couples in two predominantly Muslim townships in Rakhine State.<\/p>\n

Others have come forward to claim that the crisis in Myanmar may constitute genocide such as UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra\u2019ad al-Hussein and the British parliament\u2019s Foreign Affairs Committee.<\/p>\n

\u201cConsidering Rohingyas\u2019 self-identify as a distinct ethnic group with their own language and culture \u2013 and [that they] are also deemed by the perpetrators themselves as belonging to a different ethnic, national, racial or religious group \u2013 given all of this, can anyone rule out that elements of genocide may be present?\u201d al-Hussein asked.<\/p>\n

Though the UN Human Rights Council recently condemned the systematic and gross violations of human rights in Myanmar, the Security Council has failed to act on the crisis.<\/p>\n

As the UN appeals for the remaining 45 member states to ratify the Genocide Convention, what about nations like Myanmar who are already party to the document?<\/p>\n

The Convention requires all states to take action to prevent and punish genocide. Not only Myanmar, but the entire international community has failed to protect Rohingya civilians from mass atrocities.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe world has reacted with horror to the images of their flight, and the stories of murder, rape and arson brought from their still smoldering villages in North Rakhine State. But this horror will have to be matched by action on the part of the international community, if we are to avert a humanitarian disaster on both sides of the border,\u201d said IOM\u2019s Director-General William Lacy Swing.<\/p>\n

Perhaps the international community may need to consider additional mechanisms to address and prevent genocide, making sure \u2018never again\u2019 really means never again.<\/p>\n

To date, a total of 149 member states have ratified the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide.<\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 ipsnews.net<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

12 Dec 2017 \u201370 years since the Genocide Convention was adopted, we still face a continued and growing risk. \u201cGenocide does not happen by accident; it is deliberate, with warning signs and precursors,\u201d said UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. \u201cOften it is the culmination of years of exclusion, denial of human rights and other wrongs, and it can take place in times of war and in times of peace.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":102023,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[225],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-103694","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-spotlight"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103694","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=103694"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103694\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/102023"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=103694"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=103694"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=103694"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}