A Courting We Will Go
Published November 20, 2009 @ 08:14AM PT
The Genocide Convention was nearing completion. The crime, the punishable acts, and the perpetrators had all been defined. It was now necessary to establish the entity responsible for prosecuting the crime.
In drafting the articles pertaining to prosecution and jurisdiction the triumvirate of experts took a rather expansive and radical approach. Article VII of the Secretariat draft recognizes universal jurisdiction by requiring states to "punish any offender under this Convention within any territory under their jurisdiction, irrespective of the nationality of the offender or of the place where the offence has been committed." This would mean that states are responsible for prosecuting perpetrators of genocide regardless of where the crime took place or the nationally of the perpetrator.
Article IX committed states to hand over all persons guilty of genocide to an unspecified international court in cases where the state was unwilling to try offenders or if the state had supported the commission of genocide. However it should be noted that Lemkin opposed the inclusion of the first clause. He argued that such cases were of lesser importance. He, rather presciently, voiced his concern about offenders escaping punishment because of the complex process involved in turning over guilty parties to an international court. Article X was submitted in two drafts. The first gave the International Court of Justice criminal jurisdiction in all matters connected with international crimes. The second provided than an international court be set up to try the crimes of genocide. Lemkin spoke out against an international court, warning that such an action might be premature.
A Holocaust Victim on Facebook: Crude or Compelling?
Published November 19, 2009 @ 11:44AM PT
Holocaust education is important. Adolf Hitler famously quipped, "After all, who remembers the Armenians?" - education and remembrance are critical for moving the world closer to the still-hollow concept of "Never Again."
Devotees of the anti-genocide cause, both educators and advocates alike, constantly search for new ways to engage and expand their audience. But is a Facebook alter-ego of a child victim of the Holocaust going to far?
A 22-year-old Polish man created a Facebook page for Henio Zytomirski, a seven year old Jewish boy who perished in a Nazi concentration camp. The page is updated regularly with brief posts from the child's point of view, as if he is reliving the horrific experience:
"Winter has arrived. Every Jew must wear the Star of David with his last name. A lot has changed. German troops walk the streets. Mama says that I shouldn't be frightened, and always that everything is just fine. Always?"
I've written in the past about my unease with victim identification methods of education and advocacy. (The tactic has been widely discredited as a pedagogical tool.) While I recognize the need for creative approaches to grabbing and holding people's attention on such a depressing subject, putting words into the mouths of child ghosts seems rather tasteless.
Presidential Silence in Beijing on Sudan
Published November 18, 2009 @ 09:04AM PT
This is a guest post by Jerry Fowler, Save Darfur Coalition president.
Less than a month after his Administration proclaimed in its new strategy for Sudan that “American leadership is essential to a more effective multilateral approach,” President Obama left China early this morning without any public reference to having brought up Sudan with his hosts. There were background statements to journalists that it was on a list of things discussed. Such low-key treatment was a huge missed opportunity to enlist the support for the new strategy from a crucial country. It also was a rejection of the recent, bipartisan plea by 44 Members of Congress:
As you prepare to visit China, we strongly urge you to make Sudan a priority in your bilateral discussions. As you are well aware, China is a major arms supplier and source of economic strength to the regime in Khartoum, and has a vital role to play in any ultimate resolution of the multiple crises in Sudan.
The Congressional letter echoed a petition signed by tens of thousands of citizen-activists who asked for President Obama to call on the Chinese to work with the U.S. and:
Use their economic and political influence with Sudan to support the Darfur peace process, full implementation of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA), and significant structural, political and judicial reforms to Sudan.
The President’s public silence on Sudan in Beijing follows on a similar silence by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on her recent visit to Egypt – another country that is crucial to bringing peace to Sudan. Their failure to raise Sudan publicly in bilateral meetings with key countries sends an unfortunate message to the Sudanese government and other key actors: The United States is not leading for peace in Sudan.
Michael Gerson recently summed up the urgent need for leadership:
Only a president and his secretary of state can insist on boldness.
Absent that insistence, America's Sudan policy is in a holding pattern, waiting for the next crisis to refocus global attention. Meanwhile, women are raped, with impunity. Weapons are illegally imported, with impunity. Civilians are attacked, with impunity. And at some point, impunity becomes permission.
The “unstinting resolve” that Candidates Obama and Clinton pledged last year is needed now, more than ever.
Adolf Hitler, Soccer Coach?
Published November 18, 2009 @ 08:00AM PT
If I told you that one in 20 British schoolchildren think Adolf Hitler was a German soccer coach, would you be a.) appalled, or b.) skeptical?
The results of a survey of 2,000 children in the UK revealed that while most students aged 9-15 recognized Hitler's rightful role as one of history's most nefarious mass-murdering war-mongers, 13.5% of them thought he discovered gravity and 7% thought he was Germany's national soccer coach. It gets better: 15% said that Auschwitz was a WWII-era theme park, and 6% though the Holocaust was a celebration of the end of the war.
The survey, however, was multiple choice, which really begs the question: Are the pre-teens a.) really that dense, or b.) smart-asses?
Darfur: To the Victor Go the Spoils
Published November 17, 2009 @ 04:57AM PT
Is the genocide in Darfur complete?
Michael Gerson's provocative op-ed in the Washington Post last week argues that Khartoum has essentially achieved its "policy aims" in Darfur by "targeting disfavored ethnic groups, destroying their way of life and forcing millions into camps," and is set to seal the deal with a newly-announced plan to close camps for internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Darfur early next year. The troubling report comes despite the fact that numerous international observers, including the African Union's own panel on Darfur, recognize that the security situation remains too volatile to allow for safe returns, and that issues of land and property must be carefully dealt with in order to facilitate peaceful repatriation.
But Khartoum is clearly concerned with none of this. As Darfur expert Bec Hamilton wrote, the desire to close down the IDP camps goes hand-in-hand with President Omar al-Bashir's National Congress Party's (NCP) hell-bent desire to "legitimately" win next year's presidential elections.
But IDP issue goes beyond the NCP's plan to, as Enough blogger Amanda Hsiao aptly puts it, "sweep the IDP problem under the rug in time for elections." Getting back to Gerson's point, permanently (and forcibly) resettling 2.7 million Darfuri IDPs to a location of the government's choosing could very well be a last grand stand in the effort to eliminate the influence, if not fully the existence, of groups presenting a threat to the NCP's rule.
Darfur's Rebels Divorced from Reality
Published November 16, 2009 @ 04:48AM PT
Darfur's various rebel factions seem to be operating in more of a "chaos and havoc" mode than anything strategically oriented towards achieving their insurgent objectives. That is, of course, if you can even rightly call some of the faction "rebels," as they often appear more like common bandits with a steady arms flow, using a hollow ideology to somehow justify their existence.
Either way, their latest tactics reveal more self-interest than concern for the people in Darfur they claim to represent.
Serially-delayed multi-party peace talks due to resume in Doha, Qatar today were once again postponed, after the two largest rebel factions refused to participate. The branch of the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) led by leader-in-self-imposed-exile Abdel Wahid has been busy threatening elections officials in South Darfur and attacking UNAMID peacekeepers, while the leader of the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) Khalil Ibrahim protested that the peace talks should first begin with him.
Ibrahim's arrogance conveniently ignores the fact that direct negotiations with JEM failed earlier this year.
Three New (to Me) Internet Resources on Genocide
Published November 15, 2009 @ 03:15PM PT
For all of the students of genocide and conflict out there, here are a few internet resources that I recently stumbled upon:
The Peace Media Clearinghouse is a collaboration between the US Institute of Peace and Georgetown University's Conflict Resolution Program. The easily-searchable Clearinghouse offers "multimedia materials that support conflict analysis and prevention, conflict resolution, and post-conflict reconstruction and reconciliation," including items such as a documentary on child soldiers in the DRC and a computer game on nonviolent conflict management. You can search by country, region, language, subject, or type (photo, podcast, etc). The site even has an open-source element, allowing you to add or suggest new materials. (Hat tip: Forced Migration Current Awareness Blog.)
