Genocide definitions

Genocide definitions include many scholarly and international legal definitions of genocide, a word coined with genos (Greek: "birth", "kind", or "race") and an English suffix -cide by Raphael Lemkin in 1944; however, the precise etymology of the word is a compound of the ancient Greek word γένος ("birth", "genus", or "kind") or Latin word gēns ("tribe", or "clan") and the Latin word caedō ("cut", or "kill"). While there are various definitions of the term, almost all international bodies of law officially adjudicate the crime of genocide pursuant to the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (CPPCG).

This and other definitions are generally regarded by the majority of genocide scholars to have an "intent to destroy" as a requirement for any act to be labelled genocide; there is also growing agreement on the inclusion of the physical destruction criterion. Writing in 1998, Kurt Jonassohn and Karin Björnson stated that the CPPCG was a legal instrument resulting from a diplomatic compromise; the wording of the treaty is not intended to be a definition suitable as a research tool, and although it is used for this purpose, as it has an international legal credibility that others lack, other definitions have also been postulated. Jonassohn and Björnson go on to say that for various reasons, none of these alternative definitions have gained widespread support.

List of definitions

See also

• Outline of Genocide studies

References

Bibliography

• Barta, Tony (1987). "Relations of Genocide: Land and Lives in the Colonization of Australia". In Wallimann, I.; Dobkowski, M. N. (eds.). Genocide and the Modern Age: Etiology and case studies of mass death. New York: Greenwood.
• Bilinsky, Yaroslav (1999). "Was the Ukrainian Famine of 1932–1933 Genocide?". Journal of Genocide Research. 1 (2): 147–156. doi:10.1080/14623529908413948. Archived from the original on 7 November 2012. Retrieved 2 February 2014.
• Chalk, Frank Robert; Jonassohn, Kurt (1990). The History and Sociology of Genocide: Analyses and Case Studies. Yale University Press. p. 23. ISBN 978-0-300-04446-1. Retrieved 13 October 2017 – via Google Books.
• Cox, John (2017) [2017]. To Kill a People: Genocide in the Twentieth Century. New York: Oxford University Press.
• Chalk, Frank (1997) [1994]. "Redefining Genocide". In Andreopoulos, George J. (ed.). Genocide: Conceptual and Historical Dimensions. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. pp. 47–63. ISBN 978-0-8122-1616-5 – via Google Books.
• Charny, Israel W. (1997) [1994]. "Toward a Generic Definition of Genocide". In Andreopoulos, George J. (ed.). Genocide: Conceptual and Historical Dimensions. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. pp. 64–94. ISBN 978-0-8122-1616-5 – via Google Books.
• Dunoff, Jeffrey L.; Ratner, Steven R.; Wippman, David (2006). International Law: Norms, Actors, Process (2nd ed.). Aspen. pp. 615–621. ISBN 978-0-7355-5735-2.
• ISG staff (2001). "Social Scientists' Definitions of Genocide". Institute for the Study of Genocide, International Association of Genocide Scholars. Archived from the original on 5 September 2008. Retrieved 8 March 2013.
• Jones, Adam (2006). "Chapter 1: The Origins of Genocide" (PDF). Genocide: A Comprehensive Introduction. Routledge/Taylor & Francis Publishers. pp. 15–18. ISBN 978-0-415-35385-4. Retrieved 13 October 2017.
• Jones, Adam (2016). Genocide: A Comprehensive Introduction. Taylor & Francis. p. 96. ISBN 978-1-317-53385-6.
• Jonassohn, Kurt; Björnson, Karin Solveig (1998). Genocide and Gross Human Rights Violations: In Comparative Perspective. Transaction Publishers. pp. 133–135. ISBN 978-1-4128-2445-3.
• Kieser, Hans-Lukas; Schaller, Dominik (24 October 2001), Kolloquium: Der Völkermord an den Armeniern und die Shoah, hist.net, archived from the original on 10 February 2012
• Lemkin, Raphael (April 1946), "Genocide", American Scholar, 15 (2): 227–230
• Lemkin, R. (1945). Genocide—a modern crime. Free World, 4, 39-43. Link
• Levene, Mark (2005), Genocide in the Age of the Nation State: Volume 1: The Meaning of Genocide, I.B.Tauris, p. 35, ISBN 978-1-85043-752-9
• McGill staff (2007), 2007 Global Conference on the Prevention of Genocide – What is Genocide?, McGill University Faculty of Law, archived from the original on 5 May 2007 A collection of genocide definitions by the Aegis Trust
• Orentlicher, Diane F. (2001), Crimes of War: A–Z Guide: Genocide, The Crimes of War Education Project, archived from the original on 26 September 2008
• Porter, Thomas Earl and John Cox (2025). Genocide: A Thematic Approach. London: Anthem Press.
• Gallagher, Adrian (2013), Genocide and its Threat to Contemporary International Order, New York: Palgrave Macmillan, ISBN 978-1-349-44759-6
• Shaw, Martin; Schott, Gareth (2007), What is Genocide?, Blackwell Publishing Limited, p. 154, ISBN 978-0-7456-3183-7
• Thompson, John L.; Quets, Gail A. (1990), Kriesberg, L. (ed.), "Genocide and Social Conflict: A Partial Theory and Comparison", Research in Social Movements, Conflicts and Change, 12, Greenwood, CN: JAI Press: 245–266