The U.N. Assembly Chamber on December 9, 1948.


There are scholars today who believe that the definition of genocide should be expanded to include the killing ofmembers of political parties. Genocide scholar Leo Cuper claims that in our modern world political difference is as significant a ground for discrimination as race, religion or ethnicity. The debate has been so heated that scholars have coined a new term for the massacre of political party members, “politicide.” Politicide is extremely common, and examples include the slaughter of communists in Indonesia and Kurdish nationalists in Iraq in the 1960s and old regime supporters in Afghanistan, which continues today.


Genocide has been common in recent history, and is an ongoing problemin today’s world. In the 1960s, Mao Zedong, the chairman of the Chinese Communist Party and ruler and founder of the People’sRepublic of China, founded initiatives that caused millions to starve to death. From 1975 to 1979, the ruler of Cambodia, Pol Pot, led the Khmer Rouge political party in a campaign to turn Cambodia into a communist state that led to the deaths of over 25 percent of the population. In the 1990s, the conflict between religious groups in Bosnia-Herzegovina led to themurder of over 200,000 BosnianMuslims and the displacement ofmillionsmore. In Rwanda, 800,000 ethnic Tutsis died at the hands of the Hutus in 1994 in an attempt to eliminate the tribe. Finally, the genocide in Darfur continues today, with an estimated 400,000 dead fromthe actions of government-sponsoredmilitia.


For the full text of the “Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide,” visit http://genocide-museum.am/eng/word/Convention.doc.


Genocide in the generic sense is themass killing of substantial numbers of human beings, when not in the course of military action against the military forces of an avowed enemy, under conditions of the essential defenselessness and helplessness of the victims.


Israel Charny, ed., The Encyclopedia of Genocide.


For further reading on genocide throughout history, visit: The Genocide Education Project: www.teachgenocide.com/genocides/index.htm The History Place: www.historyplace.com/worldhistory/genocide/index.html The United States HolocaustMemorialMuseum: www.ushmm.org


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http://www.genocide-museum.am/eng/un.php


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