Article 1 of the Genocide
Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide makes all
signatories liable for not taking actions to prevent genocide.
Parties confirm that “genocide whether committed in peacetime or
war is a crime under the international law which they undertake to
prevent and punish.”
Despite the clear confirmation and
intention contained withing the convention there is no direct mention
about whether suppressing information about genocide is illegal.
Although in Article VIII it
is mentioned that a contracting party can call upon the UN for
prevention and suppression of acts of genocide it is highly
ineffective.
The ineffective nature of this clause
is made clear through today's present circumstances because in the
tumultuous political arena in which we all live what single nation is
willing to lose their current stake hold for a potentially worse
diplomatic position than before?
Obviously none. Hence all countries
will maintain silence in order to retain their diplomatic relations
with each other.
While some may believe that the mere
omission of a genocide such as that witnessed in Turkey during and
after the Armenian Genocide (reference point Geoffrey Robertson, An
Inconvenient Genocide) is not a criminal endeavor, it is criminal to
the extent that it is similar top proclaiming that the genocide never
occurred. Should the genocide never have occurred according to global
history then individuals would still feel at liberty to segregate and
persecute portions of the community in order to create a Utopian
society.
Education on such events are vital for
the development of the general populace's understanding of human
treatment around the world and how this treatment does not differ in
peace time or war time. While some inhumane treatment may appear to
be unlawful through commonsense in many instances inhumane treatment
has been disguised under war or political actions.
For example, recently Donald Trump an
American presidential candidate declared that all Muslims were to
barred from entering the country. In previous eras patriotism and
national security would preside over any discrimination regardless of
how it may segregate or be unfairly based. The change in behavior
towards the statement by Donald Trump can be linked to increased
publications and education on genocides such as Rwanda and the
Holocaust. Both situations have made clear the need to minimize the
discriminative power politicians have over countries.
Therefore why do we allow the failure
to education about genocide to be an undetected crime against
humanity?
As a major loophole in the already
loose foundations of international law the act of omitting or denying
genocide rears its ugly head. In some countries such as Turkey the
denial of genocide (in this circumstance the Armenian Genocide) is so
severe that even historians can't quantify an approximate number of
victims.
In fact the perversion of history has
extended so far that it has poisoned the Turkish legal system. Under
Article 301 the Turkish Penal Code any citizen found to insult
Turkey by acknowledging the Armenian Genocide can be imprisoned or
otherwise punished. This blatant condemnation of human sympathisers
only further proves the long lasting and damaging influence of
denying the existence of genocide. Case law from around Turkey, and
other similarly governed countries, suggests that the penal code
application is more subjective than legally objective leaving a lot
of room to question Turkey's ability to fend off attacks on its human
rights. Clearly genocide denial has long running influence that can
lead to a devastated nation and global community all fighting to
retain the right to an education that prevents the loss of respect
for human life regardless of race, religion, gender or sexual
preference
Those who
cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it -George
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