CCNR-Lemkin Reunion3.Indd

The Lemkin Reunion October 15–16, 2014 l Budapest, Hungary OSA ARCHIVUM “genocide” Raphael Lemkin Lemkin was born in 1900 on a farm on the In 1945, Lemkin learned that his parents and Lemkin’s entire life was dedicated to the outskirts of Wolkowysk in eastern Poland 49 other family members had been among cause of defi ning and criminalizing genocide. (now Belarus). His father was a farmer. the six million Jews murdered during the While he never offi cially worked for the UN, Lemkin’s mother was an educated woman who Holocaust. This knowledge only strengthened he was a frequent visitor. Guards allowed him taught him philosophy, languages, and art. By his resolve to pursue his campaign to make to enter the building where he would seek the age of 14, he spoke nine languages. the crime of genocide punishable under law. out opportunities to lobby everyone from He travelled to Nuremburg and convinced the journalists to ambassadors. With few paid Lemkin became a lawyer and professor in Allied prosecutors to add genocide to the list jobs, he still continued to show up at events, Warsaw, eventually becoming the Public of indictments against the Nazi command. with only one thought on his mind. By the late Raphael Lemkin is best known Prosecutor for the district court. By 1933, Following the Nuremburg Trials, Lemkin 1950s Lemkin was broke and exhausted. Even realizing the threat that the Nazi regime travelled tirelessly, intent on visiting any city then, he continued to push for punishment as the man who coined posed, he published papers on mass atrocity in which the UN Genocide Convention was of past cases of genocide and to raise the term ”genocide.” crimes, which at the time he called “Crimes being discussed. He made his life goal the awareness of the future danger. Lemkin was of Barbarity.” After the invasion of Poland prevention and protection of people from nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize on in 1939, Lemkin joined the Army. A short such atrocities. Thanks in large part to his several occasions, but his work was largely time later, seeing that the country would be eff orts, the Convention on the Prevention and unrecognized during his lifetime. He died in After his family was murdered overrun, he fl ed to neutral Sweden. Later Punishment of the Crime of Genocide came 1959 in New York City. He is now remembered Lemkin was off ered a teaching position at into force in 1951. as one of the key fi gures in the fi ght to during the Holocaust, Duke University in North Carolina. prevent genocide and atrocity crimes. His task, however, was not fi nished. With only he worked tirelessly to make Lemkin held several teaching positions before 20 countries as signatories, Lemkin pushed entering public service in Washington, DC for further acceptance. Major powers dragged genocide an internationally serving as a member of the Board of Economic their feet, many in fear of retribution for past recognized crime. Warfare, and later as a legal advisor to the events in their own history. The Soviet Union War Department. In 1944, he wrote Axis Rule signed in 1954 but Britain (in 1970) and the in Occupied Europe, which is the fi rst time United States (in 1988) did not sign until after that the word “genocide” appeared in print. his death. The book described the horrors occurring in Central and Eastern Europe long before they became widely known. “crime without a name” Genocide does not necessarily mean the immediate Raphael Lemkin gave us the word for what In 1946, Lemkin urged the United Nations to Winston Churchill called a “crime without adopt a treaty on genocide making it a crime destruction of a nation, except when accomplished by mass killings a name.” Not only did he coin the term in international law. Unsupported by most “ “genocide” by combining the Greek genos governments and with the assistance of only a of all members of a nation. It is intended rather to signify (“race, people”) and Latin cīdere (“to kill”), few individuals, Lemkin nonetheless continued he also tirelessly worked to ensure that to work to persuade the newly established a coordinated plan of diff erent actions aiming at the destruction international legal instruments were put in world body to adopt a resolution on genocide, of essential foundations of the life of national groups, with the place to prevent and punish genocide. Lemkin which the General Assembly did on December responded to the barbarism of his time by 11, 1946. The resolution affi rmed that aim of annihilating the groups themselves. drafting the United Nations Convention on genocide was a crime under international law the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime and directed member states and the Social of Genocide and lobbied persistently for its and Economic Council to draft a treaty to be ” ratifi cation. presented to member states for ratifi cation. —Raphael Lemkin From 1947 to 1948, the Convention on the Henryk Sienkiewicz`s novel, Quo Vadis, on Prevention and Punishment of the Crime Nero’s persecution of early Christians in Rome of Genocide was drafted with Lemkin’s had a lasting eff ect on Lemkin’s thinking consultation. and career. Long before the Holocaust, It pushed him to embark on a lifelong study The draft was presented to the General of the intentional killing of other groups of Assembly and unanimously adopted on people and to believe that international legal December 9, 1948. Genocide, referring to instruments could prevent such tragedies. the physical destruction of national, ethnic, racial or religious groups, in times of peace After his career was interrupted by the Second or in times of war, became recognized in World War, Lemkin began to study the laws of international law. Action against an entire the German occupation of his native Poland. or a signifi cant portion of a group of people He was the fi rst scholar to understand the were both classifi ed as genocide. Perpetrators racial aspect of this jurisprudence and to had to be tried in courts of the state where recognize that extermination—the systematic, the crimes took place. At the same time, the well organized destruction of an entire groundwork was laid for a future international people—was at the heart of the program. criminal tribunal. Watchers of the Sky WATCHERS OF THE SKY interweaves four stories of remarkable courage, compassion, and determination, while setting out to uncover the forgotten life of Raphael Lemkin—the man who created the word “genocide,” and believed the law could protect the world from mass atrocities. Inspired by Samantha Power’s Pulitzer Prize-winning book, A Problem From Hell, WATCHERS OF THE SKY takes you on a provoc- ative journey from Nuremberg to The Hague, Lemkin`s struggle, however, Convention has been ratifi ed black population blocked Yugoslavia and Rwanda. It from Bosnia to Darfur, from criminality to justice, was not over. Although by a total of 140 countries. ratifi cation. was not until 1998 that the and from apathy to action. offi cially adopted by Rome Statute was adopted the United Nations, the Lemkin was disappointed Lemkin worried that the leading to the establishment Convention had to be ratifi ed that his adopted country, failure of the United States to of the International Criminal by 20 nation states. the United States, was not ratify the Convention would Court to implement the From the moment of its among the fi rst to ratify the make it a much less eff ective Convention. adoption, Lemkin devoted Convention. The intensifying instrument. His fears proved himself to ensuring its atmosphere of the Cold to be well-founded. Because Lemkin`s legacy lives on. For more information, stills, and ratifi cation. By 1951, War, anti-UN sentiment in the United States did not Although we have not seen additional theater listings: 25 nation states had ratify the Convention, an end to genocides or the United States, and the www.WatchersoftheSky.com. ratifi ed the treaty, and the emergence of a civil rights there was no great power atrocity crimes, it is in large Convention was offi cially movement that accused to enforce it before the part because of his eff orts Facebook: introduced into international the US government of international criminal that international laws exist. https://www.facebook.com/WatchersoftheSky law. Since then, the genocide against its own tribunals for the former The task of today’s activists is to pressure politicians to respect and use these laws Twitter: as a means to prevent and @WatchersofSky “genos/cīdere” punish genocide. #WatchersoftheSky The Rwandan Genocide In just 100 days from April 7 to mid-July, Rwanda’s population was made up of Hutus Juvenal Habyarimana used propaganda and (approximately 85%), Tutsi (14%), and skillful political maneuvers to exacerbate 1994, an estimated 800,000 Rwandans Twa (1%). A Tutsi monarchy that had been divisions between Hutu and Tutsi. The Hutu favored by colonial rulers was overthrown remembered past years of oppressive Tutsi were slaughtered. The genocide, which was in 1959. A group of Tutsi exiles formed the rule. Many Hutus also resented and feared planned by members of the political elite, Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) and eventually them. amassed suffi cient strength to launch an was carried out by individuals from the invasion from Uganda in 1990. The civil war The genocide began the day after the plane continued until a cease-fi re in 1993. Hutu carrying President Habyarimana was shot Rwandan Army, the National Police, the extremists within Rwanda’s political elite down on April 6, 1994. Soldiers, police, government-backed Interahamwe militias, blamed the Tutsi minority population for and militias quickly executed key Tutsi the country’s increasing social, economic, and moderate Hutu leaders, then erected and the Hutu civilian population.

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