• Home
• Contact
• Previous editions
• Movies database

• es
• eu
• en

• You are in:
• Home
• Temas
• Genocides

• Xenophobia and prejudices
• The struggle for the rights of black citizens in the USA
• Feminicide: the ciudad juárez crimes
• Israeli settlements in palestinian occupied territories
• The kurds: a stateless people
• Oil fields: effects on the environment and on the population
• Genocides
• Causing and/or using a disaster for the benefit of capitalism
• Peaceful solution of conflicts
• Prisoners’ rights
• Third age in the third world
• Families torn apart by emigration
• Loneliness and isolation in developed societies
• The emotional process of women victims of terrorism
• Multiculturalism
• Student victims of school massacres
• “The problem” of the Saharawi people
• The feminist struggle
• Immigration and the ‘crime’ of solidarity
• The “damas de blanco” (Women in White) and their struggle to free cuban political prisoners

Genocides

The genocide suffered by Rwanda in 1994, largely perpetrated by the Hutus in their ethnic killing of the Tutsis, is one of the bloodiest episodes in Africa’s recent history. It brought dire consequences for the region of the Great Lakes and left an estimated death toll of 1,000,000.

In addition to the loss of human lives and the repercussions of war or genocide on the population, all too often these crimes and massive violations of human rights go unpunished, meaning that no justice is meted out and no amends are made to the victims.

From the point of view of the international demand for criminal responsibility, in order that a massive violation of human rights can be qualified as genocide or as crimes of war and against humanity and taken to an ad-hoc International Criminal Tribunal or to the International Criminal Court, it must fulfil a series of characteristics.

Thus, in the 1948 UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, which took effect in 1951, the concept of genocide is defined as “acts committed with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group”. Having recourse to this definition, the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda was created (1994) along the same lines as the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (1993).

On the other hand, creation of the International Criminal Court in 1998, despite its limitations, meant an important step towards the constitution of a criminal authority with international legitimacy capable of demanding criminal responsibility in cases of the massive violation of human rights.

However, restrictions in the definition of genocide have been a subject of controversy. Some authorities criticize the fact that consideration as such is only conceded to acts committed against national, ethnic, racial or religious groups, and that it fails to include those committed for political or social reasons. Although the first draft of the Convention for the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide embraced and extended the definition of genocide to include these causes, this reference was later removed due to the need for backing from the Communist bloc (chiefly represented by the USSR), which objected to this part of the text.

This limitation in the definition of genocide would explain the expiation of totalitarian governments having caused millions of deaths throughout the 20th century, the actions of which were not considered to constitute genocide. This is the case of Armenia (1915-1923), crimes committed under Stalin in Russia (1929-1953), those committed by Pol Pot in Cambodia (1975-1979), or the ongoing conflict in Darfur (Sudan).

In any event, even if not considered as genocides, the massive violations of human rights for political reasons, for example, could be perfectly qualified as crimes against humanity, and therefore

• © 2010 8th Human Rights Film Festival