- definitions
- brief description of the key concept
- examples and/or illustrations
- other useful sources
- bibliography
Genocide is defined in Article 2 of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (1948) as “any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such: killing members of the group; causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; [and] forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.” The Office of the UN Special Adviser on the Prevention of genocide adds further to this stating that the point of, “To destroy, in whole or in part” constitutes, “The destruction of or attacks on cultural and religious property and symbols of the targeted group that may be designed to annihilate the historic presence of the group or groups”
The Office of the UN Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide (OSAPG), Analysis Framework, p. 1.
http://www.un.org/ar/preventgenocide/adviser/pdf/osapg_analysis_framework.pdf. (accessed 15 October, 2018),
Brief Description of the Key Concept
As defined by the Truth and Reconciliation Committee in regards of residential schools and forced assimilation of Indigenous peoples in Canada, cultural genocide is “the destruction of those structures and practices that allow the group to continue as a group. States that engage in cultural genocide set out to destroy the political and social institutions of the targeted group. Land is seized, and populations are forcibly transferred and their movement is restricted. Languages are banned. Spiritual leaders are persecuted, spiritual practices are forbidden, and objects of spiritual value are confiscated and destroyed. And, most significantly to the issue at hand, families are disrupted to prevent the transmission of cultural values and identity from one generation to the next”
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada. Honouring the Truth, Reconciling for the Future: Summary of the Final Report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada. Ottawa: The Commission (2015), p. 9.
Following the legal definition provided by the United Nations, scholars Frank Chalk and Kurt Jonassohn defined the term as “a form of one-sided mass killing in which the state or other authority intends to destroy a group, as that group and membership in it are defined by the perpetrator.”
Chalk, Frank, and Kurt Jonassohn. The History and Sociology of Genocide: Analyses and Case Studies. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press (1990), p. 23.
The Norwegianization process of the Sámi People
The Sami people have existed in the Southern Guild of Finland since 500 C.E., moving into Finland and Scandinavia over time. During this spread, Germanic culture also began to thrive in Southern Scandinavia. During the modern period, kings sent priests to forcibly convert the Samis to Germanic culture. By the early 19th century, Samis were converted to Christianity and ethnocide began more prominently, with Samis children being forced to attending boarding schools, and prevented from speaking in their mother tongue
Hough, David A., and Tove Skutnabb-Kangas. “Beyond Good Intentions: Combating Linguistic Genocide in Education” AlterNative: An International Journal of Indigenous Peoples 1, no. 1 (December 2005), p. 113.
Indigenous peoples in Canada
Canada implemented education policies and residential schools beginning in the 19th century, which were imposed with the intent to conform Indigenous communities to Western culture and ideology. During colonization, European states gained control over Indigenous lands through wars of extinction, elimination of traditional European landholding practices, disrupted Indigenous families, and imposed political and spiritual ideals to conform Indigenous peoples to the foreign values and cultural practices of the settlers. Children were forced to attend residential schools, the intent to replace Indigenous cultures with European concepts and values. Children were prevented from seeing their families, and banned from speaking in native tongue, resulting in a loss of identity, culture and linguicide.
Truth and Reconciliation Committee of Canada, Honouring the Truth, Reconciling for the Future: Summary of the Final Report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, Ottawa: The Commission (2005), pp. 1-3.
Rwandan Genocide
The genocide based itself in the social economic classes and ethnic differences of the two groups – Hutu and Tutsi – with conflict occurring well before the European colonization era.
Melvern, Linda. Conspiracy to Murder: The Rwandan Genocide. London: Verso (2006), p. 2-3.
Beginning in the 1990s as a civil war in Rwanda, the Hutu majority government commenced a mass slaughter of the Tutsi population during a 100 day period in 1994. Approximately 800,000 were murdered, decimating 70% of the Tutsi population. Further, sexual violence against Tutsi women was used as a weapon of destruction. Two million Hutu fled to nearby countries, such as Zaire, fearing reprisals.
Melvern, Linda. Conspiracy to Murder: The Rwandan Genocide. London: Verso (2006), pp. 44, 252.
Rauna Kuokkanen (2015) Gendered Violence and Politics in Indigenous Communities, International Feminist Journal of Politics, 17:2, 271-288, DOI: 10.1080/14616742.2014.901816
Barry Sautman, “Cultural Genocide and Tibet,” Texas International Law Journal 38, no. 2 (Spring 2003): 173-248.
Knox, K., Kushner, T. Refugees in an Age of Genocide. London: Routledge, 1999.
Richmond, Anthony H. Reactive Migration: Sociological Perspectives On Refugee Movements, Journal of Refugee Studies, Volume 6, Issue 1, 1 January 1993, Pages 7–24, https://doi.org/10.1093/jrs/6.1.7.
Cohen, Robin. Global Diasporas. Routledge, Taylor and Francis Group, 2008.
MacDonald, D., & Hudson, G. (2012). The Genocide Question and Indian Residential Schools in Canada. Canadian Journal of Political Science, 45(2), 427-449. doi:10.1017/S000842391200039X
Chalk, Frank, and Kurt Jonassohn. The History and Sociology of Genocide: Analyses and Case Studies. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press (1990).
Hough, David A., and Tove Skutnabb-Kangas. “Beyond Good Intentions: Combating Linguistic Genocide in Education.” AlterNative: An International Journal of Indigenous Peoples 1, no. 1 (December 2005): 106–27. doi:10.1177/117718010500100107.
Jahiji v Canada (Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness), 2015 CanLII 97788 (CA IRB) https://www.canlii.org/en/ca/irb/doc/2015/2015canlii97788/2015canlii97788.html?search UrlHash=AAAAAQARY3VsdHVyYWwgZ2Vub2NpZGUAAAAAAQ&resultIndex=1
Melvern, Linda. Conspiracy to Murder: The Rwandan Genocide. London: Verso (2006).
The Office of the UN Special Adviser on the Prevention, “OSAPG Analysis Framework,” accessed 15 October (2018).
http://www.un.org/ar/preventgenocide/adviser/pdf/osapg_analysis_framework.pdf.
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada. Honouring the Truth, Reconciling for the Future: Summary of the Final Report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada. Ottawa: The Commission (2015).