Genocide Prevention Day

Dear reader,

Tomorrow, Dec. 9, is Genocide Prevention Day.

Amid Israel’s bloody offensive on Gaza, and ongoing Hamas-fired rockets, Palestinians and Israelis have both been using the word to denounce acts committed against them.

The legal definition of genocide, as defined by the UN Genocide Convention, is one or more acts « committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group. »

The hard part here is proving intent. And it will be up to international justice to investigate the intent, hopefully one day.

NGOs or UN experts who today use the term genocide are doing their job: They are alerting and warning. Now the rest of the world has to act.

Because, as UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres said:

« Ultimately, preventing genocide involves all of society. It is crucial that we all join hands to defend the principles of equality and human dignity and to repair the fissures and polarization that are so prevalent in our societies today. »

L’Orient Today

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