since the US admin insists on dehumanizing groups, & folks have rightly identified that as a primary step on the road to mass atrocity, let's have a little chat about the genocide convention (which the US helped draft, signed, and ratified (albeit in 1988) shall we? 1/X
GC is a fascinating document, grown out of the nullem crimen sine lege (no crime without law) problem after WWII. the nuremberg decisions are fascinating bc they had to work around this issue- the GC was meant to ensure that would not be a problem in the future 2/X
but the GC is SUPER specific, drafted to criminalize exactly what the nazis did- trying to eliminate members of a group BC they are members of that group- this is the dolus specialis (special intent) required by the GC 3/X
the dolus specialis is the reason a lot of attempts to get a conviction under the GC have failed- you need not just evidence of the act (killings, rapes, forced sterilization, etc), but also evidence proving the reason the act was committed was to eliminate the group 4/X
this made sense at the time of the drafting- The Holocaust was that much worse, bc it wasn't just a war crime, wasn't just a crime against humanity, that special intention brought it to another level of evil and criminality 5/X
the thing is, not since the nazis have people kept such clear, written records of the horrible things they were doing, the methods they employed, & the explicit reasons why they were doing them (the lesson from nuremberg for bad guys = don't leave a paper trail) 6/X
the challenge for ICTR and ICTY on genocide charges was to prove the dolus specialis- in both cases, dehumanizing speech was used as evidence, but it was a tough argument bc it was just a bit subtle- 7/X
for example, radio broadcasts in Rwanda said "get the cockroaches" but didn't say exactly who the cockroaches were (bc everyone knew, sure, but not having it in a radio transcript gave defense attorneys room to argue in trial, somewhat successfully) 8/X
in the US today, there is not even that nod to subtlety- POTUS says loud and clear and repeatedly and on the record who the infestation is, and what he wants done with them, & lots of admin officials are doing the same. 9/X
the asylee incarceration/family separation actions so far, heinous as they are, and violative of numerous other international laws and norms, do not rise to the level of genocide . . . yet. 10/X
but since we've seen this language before, we know where it escalates to. if i were involved in the implementation of these policies, i would be nervous- if any democracy survives, there's quite a public paper trail of the intention of these policies 11/X
and i'll just finish here with a little reminder that superior orders (doing what you're told/complying w/ law) has not been deemed exculpatory in genocide, war crimes, or crimes against humanity (although sometimes mitigated sentencing) 12/end.
