Genocides persist, nearly 70 years after the Holocaust – but there are recognized ways to help prevent them

Muslim Uyghur people show photos of their relatives who are detained in China in May 2022. Ozan Kose/AFP via Getty Images^[12]

Genocide is a process, not an event

Polish Jewish lawyer Raphael Lemkin^[13] first coined the term genocide in 1944. Specifically, the Genocide Convention protects racial, ethnic, religious and national identities.

Although this destruction often happens through mass murder, it can take other forms. It can mean taking children of one group away from their parents and transferring them to another group^[14], for example.

Genocides are not events that happen overnight^[15]. They are long-term social and political processes^[16] that begin long before mass killing.

For instance, the Nazis did not build death camps immediately when Adolf Hitler was appointed chancellor of Germany in 1933. The Holocaust began with smaller steps^[17], like preventing Jewish people from holding certain jobs, then preventing Jews and non-Jews from marrying each other.

It was not until the late-1930s that the Nazis transitioned to their Final Solution,^[18] which called for the destruction of all Jewish people. And the Nazis did not construct the first death camps until 1941. But all these steps over the years constituted what we now call the Holocaust.

Prevention is also a process

When people understand genocide as a process and learn to recognize the early stages that can lead to genocide^[19], there is more opportunity to intervene before people are killed.

Prevention scholars and activists stress a long-term view of prevention that entails three stages^[20].

First, there are actions^[21] people can take before genocide occurs to make sure it never happens. This involves identifying which groups of people are at risk of violence, then passing laws, for example, to protect those groups.

A second stage of prevention^[22] involves responses to a genocide once it breaks out. This can include using military troops to quash violence. But it could also extend to things like diplomacy^[23], threats of prosecution^[24] and economic sanctions^[25].

Finally, a third stage of prevention^[26] only occurs when a genocide has already happened. This stage aims to prevent its recurrence. This can include things like truth commissions^[27], which aim to expose and document mass violence or other periods of turmoil, trials against the perpetrators^[28] or reparations to victims^[29].

Obviously, stopping a genocide before it actually happens is the most effective and least costly^[30] form of prevention.

The sudden influx of Venezuelan migrants into Colombia prompted the Colombian government to put in place a plan in 2021 to lower the risk of genocide. George Castellanos/AFP via Getty Images^[31]

Prevention starts with reducing risk

Scholars have identified^[32] certain risk factors^[33] that make a society more likely^[34] to experience genocide. Countries with poor human rights records, for example, are typically at higher risk of genocide.

Poor economic conditions^[35] and a country’s history of conflict^[36] are also factors that could contribute to large-scale violence against a group of people.

Migrants and refugees^[37] are people who are especially at risk of experiencing identity-based violence.

When more than 1 million Venezuelan refugees entered Colombia^[38] starting in 2015, for example, many risk factors were present^[39]. One risk factor is when a group has unequal access to basic resources and services^[40].

The Colombian government saw this as a risk factor and responded. It introduced a new policy in February 2021 that gave temporary legal status to all refugees^[41]. This gave them access to public services, education and health care, immediately lowering the risk for large-scale violence in Colombia.

True prevention starts at home

Every country in the world features some risk factors associated with genocide, including the United States^[42].

But not every country in the world has the same level of risk.

In recent years, many countries have recognized the need to assess their own genocide risk factors. Some have fashioned specific government initiatives focused on genocide prevention. This work spans government departments and ministries to make sure governments keep genocide prevention in focus. Argentina, Mexico, Tanzania and Uganda are among the countries to undertake this kind of work.^[43][44]

The United States also has a national strategy focused on genocide prevention^[45], though it does not look inward at this point – it is only concerned with atrocity prevention in other countries.

There are also several^[46] nongovernmental^[47] organizations that assist governments^[48] in prevention work, including the institute where I work.

A row of human skulls and remains cover the interior of a church in Kigali following the 1994 genocide in Rwanda. Lane Montgomery/Getty Images^[49]

Prevention isn’t over when the genocide stops

There could be temptation to think that when mass killing stops, the work of prevention is finished. But one of the biggest genocide risk factors^[50] is if a society has already been involved with one. For example, the Holocaust happened only a couple decades after Germany perpetrated the genocide of Herero and Nama^[51] people in present-day Namibia.

For this reason, the work of prevention continues, even after a genocide is over.^[52]

This requires societies to deal with the risk factors that allowed genocide to take place, even as they rebuild.

For instance, after the 2007 elections in Kenya, massive inter-ethnic electoral violence broke out,^[53] killing over 1,000 people and displacing at least 350,000^[54]. The United Nations and the Kenyan government collaborated with nonprofits and local leaders to develop an early-warning network^[55] called the Uwiano Platform for Peace^[56]. This provides a hotline system where ordinary citizens can call or text if they hear hate speech or see violent acts. The information is then verified and, if it is credible, the central platform contacts local authorities to respond.

Following the implementation of Uwiano, no large-scale violence was reported after the 2010 and 2013 elections. Of course, Uwiano was not the only reason that Kenya avoided this violence. It took many international, national and local experts and others working together^[57].

There is no single way to prevent genocide. What is clear, however, is that there are many different measures available that, together, can reduce the risk of genocide.

Authors: Kerry Whigham, Assistant Professor of Genocide and Mass Atrocity Prevention, Binghamton University, State University of New York

Read more https://theconversation.com/genocides-persist-nearly-70-years-after-the-holocaust-but-there-are-recognized-ways-to-help-prevent-them-195260

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