Genocide and Human Rights Violations Genocide: What is it? • Killing members of a specific group • Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group • Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part • Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group • Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group. Genocide: Holocaust and Response • Holocaust: 6 million Jews were killed • Nuremburg Trials -1945-1946 • Universal Declaration of Human Rightsdrafted by the UN in December 1948, consists of 30 articles protecting human beings. – http://www.un.org/en/documents/udhr/index.sht ml Human Rights Defined • The rights you have simply because you are human. • Violations of Human Rights: Despite the Universal Declaration of Human Rights being drafted in 1948,human rights violations continue to occur. According to Amnesty International as of 2009, individuals are still: • Tortured or abused in at least 81 countries • Face unfair trials in at least 54 countries • Restricted in their freedom of expression in at least 77 countries Armenian Genocide: Human Rights Topic#1 What is it: The atrocities committed against the Armenian people of the Ottoman Empire by the Muslim Young Turks(CUP)during WWI between 1915 and 1918, then again until 1923. Who were the Armenians? They were a Christian minority that lived as second class citizens with many restrictions. Atrocities committed against Armenians: deportation, mass killings usually carried out by swords. Some Armenian women and children were used as slaves in Turkish or Muslim homes. Starvation was also common. How many Armenians died? Estimation of 1.5 million Armenian Genocide: Human Rights Topic#1 • World Reaction: Even though the term genocide was not formed until 1944, many historians believe that the Armenian Genocide is an example of the first genocide in history. • Many Turks still do not acknowledge that the Armenian Genocide took place. • There were never any strong actions taken against the Ottoman Empire for the atrocities they committed, even though there were many witnesses to this genocide. Armenian Genocide Armenian Genocide Armenian Genocide
