Following the 1948 drafting of the UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, it was undoubtedly the hope of all those involved that the atrocities enacted by the Nazi regime would never again be witnessed. While, arguably, there has been no incident of genocide comparable in either scale or horror of method, this book argues that the global response to occurring incidents of genocide since WWII has been utterly inadequate.
As the book explores, the past decade alone has seen five cases of mass brutality across the world that all meet the legal definition of genocide: “In 2014, Daesh unleashed genocide against religious minorities in Syria and Iraq. Before the world managed to shake off from the atrocities, in 2016, the Burmese military launched a genocidal campaign against the Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar. This was followed by reports of ever-growing atrocities against Christian minorities in Nigeria. Without waiting too long, in 2018, China proceeded with its genocidal campaign against the Uyghur Muslims. In 2020, the Tigrayans became the victims of ethnic targeting.”
Even now we are all exposed to the horrific war crimes being committed against in Ukraine.
During the launch on Tuesday, Lord Alton and Notre Dame Law School Dean G. Marcus Cole discussed the inadequacy of response by nations in reaction to these incidents and explored how governments and institutions across the world can be more effective in punishing the perpetrators of these crimes.
“The 1948 Convention on the Crime of Genocide laid duties on the signatories, that includes the United States and ourselves, to first of all prevent it from happening,” Lord Alton said. “Secondly, to provide protection to those who are likely to be affected, and thirdly to punish those who were responsible for those atrocities. We don’t prevent, we don’t protect and we don’t punish.”
Whilst the rhetoric condemning genocide among leaders of western nations is apparent, the lack of hard action is desperately lacking and this, Lord Alton argued, is shameful. In reference to the treatment of the Uyghurs in China, he remarked, “You get President Trump, President Biden, and the Secretary of State Anthony Blinken all saying that what is happening is a genocide. You have our Foreign Secretary and an independent tribunal all saying this is a genocide and still nothing happens.”
The only course of action, Lord Alton contended, is to produce a judicial process that holds people to account for the crimes they commit. In the UK no such court exists, and therein lies the problem. Politicians can outwardly denounce such atrocities but this fails to inwardly restrict them from maintaining diplomatic ties and continuing in trade.
“This isn’t about bringing someone to trial. This is about looking at the evidence to make a declaration based on the details of the Genocide Convention. Thus turning rhetoric into action. The diplomats and foreign office don’t like the idea of that because it would take away their power to block things,” Lord Alton explained. Despite this, he believes that through such a declaration a country is shamed, and concomitantly so are all who refuse to break with them.
Perhaps a condemnation of this sort, one more concrete and pejorative than has yet been seen, may help to raise the faltering moral fibre currently on display in the Vatican.
On 22 October the Vatican confirmed it had, once again, renewed the Sino-Vatican pact, an agreement which many believe puts the authority and moral credibility of the Church at risk. Pope Francis has propagated himself as a staunch defender of human rights and persecuted minorities, yet has been mostly silent on China. His only allusion to the genocide remains the brief reference in his book Let us Dream, where he writes, “I think often of persecuted peoples: the Rohingya, the poor Uyghurs, the Yazidi.”
The late bishop Desmond Tutu argued that “if you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor”. The Vatican has not only adopted a policy of neutrality but also appeasement. In its continuation of relations, it has brought a shame upon itself that is unlikely to be forgotten or forgiven.
The original title for this book was ‘”Getting Away Genocide”, and the evidence would suggest that the vast majority of perpetrators do get away with genocide. Lord Alton remarked that “genocides do not happen overnight. They emerge from casual indifference to discrimination and persecution”. So why, he asks, in the case of severe religious persecution and ethnic cleansing being witnessed in Xinjiang, does Rome remain silent?
State Responses to Crimes of Genocide: What Went Wrong and How to Change It – Ewelina U. Ochab, David Alton
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