{"id":183793,"date":"2021-04-26T12:00:02","date_gmt":"2021-04-26T11:00:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=183793"},"modified":"2021-05-01T03:40:35","modified_gmt":"2021-05-01T02:40:35","slug":"reflections-on-genocide-as-the-ultimate-crime","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2021\/04\/reflections-on-genocide-as-the-ultimate-crime\/","title":{"rendered":"Reflections on Genocide as the Ultimate Crime"},"content":{"rendered":"

26 Apr 2021 – Subsequent to our article addressing alleged genocide by China against the Uyghur people, President Joe Biden declared the Armenian massacres of 1915 to be an instance of \u2018genocide.\u2019 The following paragraph addresses this issue in summary form:<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cBiden has added another dimension to the misuse of \u2018genocide,\u2019 making another indirect controversial intrusion on past memories and present realities by fulfilling on behalf of the United States Government his campaign pledge to declare what befell the Armenian community in 1915 as \u2018genocide\u2019 on April 24, 2021 without bothering to clarify whether this was a legal, political, or moral assessment of events that occurred in the midst of World War I. The Nuremberg Judgment was very clear that for action to legally qualify as an international crime it must have been preceded by the enactment of the relevant legal norm. Otherwise, it is an instance of retroactive criminalization, and cannot validly be prosecuted, however abhorrent. As we know the word \u2018genocide\u2019 was a linguistic innovation of the 1940s, and it only became criminalized by the adoption of the Genocide Convention in 1948. For Biden to come along in 2021 and pronounce these events as genocide is again to trivialize this ultimate crime for the sake of domestic political gain and as a way of demeaning Turkey because of some foreign policy differences. If genuinely motivated for historical redress, a responsible approach might have been to call for an independent international inquiry to interpret the events, giving Turkey, as well as representatives of the Armenian community, an opportunity to present its narrative which is more an explanation than a justification.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n

APRIL 23, 2021<\/p>\n

Reflections on Genocide as the Ultimate Crime<\/a><\/h1>\n

BY\u00a0ALFRED DE ZAYAS \u2013 RICHARD FALK<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

This photograph depicts the Armenian leader Papasyan seeing what\u2019s left after the horrendous murders near Deir-ez-Zor in 1915-1916.
Photograph Source: Bodil Katharine Bi\u00f8rn \u2013 National Archives of Norway \u2013 Public Domain<\/p><\/div>\n

The misuse of the word genocide is disdainful toward relatives of the victims of the Armenian massacres, the Holocaust, the Rwandan genocide \u2013 and as well a disservice to both history, law, and the prudent conduct of international relations. We already knew that we were adrift in an ocean of fake news. It is far more dangerous to discover that we are also at risk of being immersed in the turbulent waters of \u201cfake law\u201d. We must push back with a sense of urgency. Such a development is not tolerable.<\/p>\n

We thought that Biden\u2019s election would spare us from menacing corruptions of language of the sort disseminated by Donald Trump, John Bolton and Mike Pompeo. We thought that we would no longer be subjected to evidence-free allegations, post-truth and cynical concoctions of fact. It now seems we were wrong.<\/p>\n

We recall Pompeo\u2019s bragging about the usefulness of lying, we listened to his incendiary allegations against Cuba, Nicaragua, his outlandish claims that Hezbollah was in Venezuela, his antics on behalf of Trump \u2014 all in the name of MAGA.<\/p>\n

Donald Trump and Mike Pompeo did not succeed in making America great again. They did succeed in lowering the already low opinion that the world had of America as a country that played by the rules set forth in international. A decisive development in this downward spiral was George W. Bush\u2019s megacrime \u2014 the unprovoked invasion and devastation of Iraq, which UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan called an \u201cillegal war\u201d on more than one occasion. We observed Barak Obama\u2019s involvement in the destruction of Libya, given a bitter resonance by Hillary Clinton\u2019s unspeakable words on Qaddafi\u2019s demise uttered with imperial glee: \u201cWe came, we saw, he died\u201d. We cannot forget Trump\u2019s criminal economic sanctions and financial blockades punishing whole societies in the midst of a crippling pandemic. These were crimes against humanity committed in our name. Such sanctions reminded us of merciless medieval sieges of towns, aimed at starving whole populations into submission. We think back to the one million civilian deaths resulting from Germany blockading Leningrad 1941-44.<\/p>\n

No, to make America great again, it seems perverse to suppose that this can come about by continuing to behave as an international bully, threatening and beating up on entire peoples. No, in order to make America respected and admired in the world we can and should start by reviving the legacy of Eleanor Roosevelt, by rediscovering the spirit and spirituality of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and more broadly reenacting the peace-oriented humanism of John F. Kennedy.<\/p>\n

We can and should be demanding more from Joe Biden and Antony Blinken. Evidence-free allegations of \u201cgenocide\u201d in Xinjiang, China, are unworthy of any country, and most of all, of the country that wants to act as the prime international champion of human rights. Raphael Lemkin would turn in his grave if he learned that the crime of \u201cgenocide\u201d has been so crassly instrumentalized to beat the drums of Sinophobia. The sudden flurry of United States interest in the fate of the Uyghur people seems less motivated by compassion or the protection of human rights than lifted from the most cynical pages of the Machiavellian playbook of geopolitics.<\/p>\n

Genocide is a well-defined term in international law \u2013 in the 1948 Genocide Convention and Article 6 of the Rome Statute.The most respected international tribunals have separately agreed that proof of the crime of genocide depends on an extremely convincing presentation of factual evidence, including documentation of an\u00a0intent<\/em>\u00a0to destroy in whole or in part national, ethnic, racial or religious group. The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, the International Court of Justice \u2013 all have endeavoured to provide authoritative tests of \u201cintent,\u201d treating intent as the essential element in the crime of genocide. This jurisprudence is what should be guiding our politicians in reaching prudent conclusions as to whether there exist credible grounds to put forward accusations of genocide, given its inflammatory effects. We should be asking whether the factual situation is clouded, calling for an independent international investigation followed by further action if deemed appropriate, and in nuclear-armed world, we should be\u00a0extremely careful before making such an accusation.<\/p>\n

Mike Pompeo\u2019s allegation that China was committing genocide in Xinjiang was unsupported by even a hint of evidence. It was a particularly irresponsible example of ideological posturing at its worst, and besides, an embrace of reckless geopolitics. That is why it is so shocking to us that the 2021 US State Department Human Rights Report repeats the \u201cgenocide\u201d charge in its Executive Summary, yet doesn\u2019t even bother to mention such a provocative charge in the body of the report. This is an irresponsible, unreasonable, unprofessional, counter-productive, and above all, dangerously incendiary allegation, which could easily spiral out of control if China should choose to respond in kind. China would be on firmer ground than Pompeo or the State Department if it were to accuse the United States of \u201ccontinuing genocide\u201d against the First Nations of the Americas, Cherokees, Sioux, Navajo, and many other tribal nations. We can only imagine the angry backlash if it hadbeen China that had been the first to put forward loose talk about genocide.<\/p>\n

By making non-substantiated claims the U.S. Government is seriously undermining its own authority and credibility to revive its role as global leader. To play this constructive international role is not on display by \u201cweaponizing\u201d human rights against China \u2013 or Russia. Instead, a foreign policy dedicated to the genuine promotion of human rights would call for international cooperation in conducting reliable investigations of gross violations of human rights and international crimes, wherever they occur \u2013 whether it be in India, Egypt, China, Russia, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Myanmar, Yemen, Brazil, Colombia. We would hope that Biden\u2019s Washington is confident enough to be even receptive to investigations undertaken in response to allegations of violations against the United States of America and its closest allies in Europe and elsewhere.<\/p>\n

The Orwellian corruption of language by U.S. Government officials, the double-standards, the dissemination of fake news by the mainstream media, including the \u201cquality press\u201d and CNN, self-anointed as \u201cthe most trusted name in news\u201d are eroding our self-respect. Indeed, the manipulation of public opinion undermining our democracy as we succumb to the exaggerations of the wrongs of others that give an added bite to hostile propaganda, and are leading the world to the very edge of a forbidding geopolitical precipice, and in the process, heightening the prospects of a new cold war \u2013 or worse.<\/p>\n

The Biden Administration at the very least should show respect for the American people and for international law by stop cheapening the meaning of the word \u201cgenocide\u201d and cease treating human rights as geopolitical tools of conflict. Such irresponsible behavior may soothe the nerves of Trumpists, and fashion a fa\u00e7ade of unity based on portraying China as the new \u2018evil empire,\u2019 but it\u2019s a foreign policy ploy that should be rejected as it seems a recipe for global disaster.<\/p>\n

__________________________________________<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/em>Richard Falk is a member of the\u00a0TRANSCEND Network<\/strong><\/a>, an international relations scholar, professor emeritus of international law at Princeton University,\u00a0Distinguished Research Fellow, Orfalea Center of Global Studies,\u00a0UCSB,\u00a0author, co-author or editor of 60 books, and a speaker and activist on world affairs.\u00a0In 2008, the\u00a0United Nations Human Rights Council<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0(UNHRC) appointed Falk to two three-year terms as a\u00a0United Nations Special Rapporteur <\/strong><\/a>on \u201cthe situation of human rights in the\u00a0Palestinian territories<\/strong><\/a> occupied since 1967.\u201d Since 2002 he has lived in Santa Barbara, California, and associated with the local campus of the University of California, and for several years chaired the Board of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation. His most recent book is\u00a0<\/em>On Nuclear Weapons, Denuclearization, Demilitarization, and Disarmament\u00a0(2019). <\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Alfred de Zayas is a lawyer, writer, historian, expert in the field of human rights and international law and retired high-ranking United Nations official.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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

26 Apr 2021 – The misuse of the word genocide is disdainful toward relatives of the victims of the Armenian massacres, the Holocaust, the Rwandan genocide \u2013 and as well a disservice to both history, law, and the prudent conduct of international relations. We already knew that we were adrift in an ocean of fake news. It is far more dangerous to discover that we are also at risk of being immersed in the turbulent waters of \u201cfake law\u201d. We must push back with a sense of urgency. Such a development is not tolerable.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":145696,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[2183,865,1643,1988,2002,2497,1412],"class_list":["post-183793","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-transcend-members","tag-armenia","tag-genocide","tag-genocide-convention","tag-holocaust","tag-native-americans","tag-palestinians","tag-rwanda"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/183793","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=183793"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/183793\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/145696"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=183793"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=183793"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=183793"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}