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Articles on Genocide Convention

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Pro-Palestinian activists wave flags during a session of the International Court of Justice in The Hague, Netherlands on Jan. 26. (AP Photo/Patrick Post)

Ruling by UN’s top court means Canada and the U.S. could be complicit in Gaza genocide

The recent ruling by the International Court of Justice means Canada could be guilty of supporting genocide in Gaza by cutting aid funding and continuing military exports to Israel.
Judges take their seats prior to the hearing of Israel’s defense at the International Court of Justice on Jan. 12, 2024. Dursun Aydemir/Anadolu via Getty Images

What enforcement power does the International Court of Justice have in South Africa’s genocide case against Israel?

While the International Court of Justice lacks enforcement powers, it can issue orders that could heighten international pressure on Israel to curtail some of its offensive in Gaza.
Ronald Lamola, South Africa’s minister of justice and correctional services (centre), and Palestinian assistant Minister of Multilateral Affairs Ammar Hijazi (right, with his head bowed), address the media outside the International Court of Justice in The Hague, Netherlands on Jan. 11, 2024. (AP Photo/Patrick Post)

Canada is being hypocritical by failing to support South Africa’s genocide case against Israel

Canada doesn’t support the case before the International Court of Justice that Israel is guilty of genocide in its war against Gaza. That’s contrary to its stance on other cases of genocide.
German president Frank-Walter Steinmeier with Tanzanian president Samia Suluhu Hassan in October 2023. Bernd von Jutrczenka/picture alliance via Getty Images

300,000 Tanzanians were killed by Germany during the Maji-Maji uprising – it was genocide and should be called that

The evidence suggests that atrocities committed against civilians and communities were indeed intended to destroy an identifiable group.
People holding signs calling for an end to genocide in the Gaza Strip have been a common occurrence at pro-Palestinian protests. Christoph Reichwein/picture alliance via Getty Images

Both Israel and Palestinian supporters accuse the other side of genocide – here’s what the term actually means

People talk about genocide in a few different ways, ranging from technical to colloquial – but a war of words does not replace a path to peace, a genocide scholar writes.
A rare photo from an Indian Residential School in Fort Resolution, N.W.T. These systems have been labeled a form of genocide by the Canadian House of Commons. (Department of Mines and Technical Surveys/Library and Archives Canada)

Residential school system recognized as genocide in Canada’s House of Commons: A harbinger of change

Canada’s recent resolution to label the Indian Residential School system as genocide (and not cultural genocide) is not a mere alteration of words, it is a significant and consequential change.
Ione Quigley of the Rosebud Sioux Tribe during a ceremony in Carlisle, Pa., on July 14, 2021, marking the return to tribal lands in South Dakota of disinterred remains of nine Native American children who died more than a century ago while attending a government-run school in Pennsylvania. AP Photo/Matt Rourke

Russia’s reported abduction of Ukrainian children echoes other genocidal policies, including US history of kidnapping Native American children

Ukraine says thousands of Ukrainian children have been kidnapped by Russian soldiers, which is a war crime. The US government kidnapped and forced the assimilation of Indigenous children for decades.
A gym is in ruins following a shelling in Kyiv, Ukraine, on March 2, 2022. Russian forces have escalated their attacks on crowded cities in what Ukraine’s leader called a blatant campaign of terror. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)

Putin’s Ukraine invasion: Do declarations of war still exist?

Putin never formally declared war on Ukraine, calling the invasion a “special military operation.” Official declarations of war are increasingly a thing of the past. Here’s why that’s detrimental.
A woman and child walk away from a damaged residential building in Kyiv, Ukraine, where a military shell allegedly hit on Feb. 25, 2022. Photo by DANIEL LEAL/AFP via Getty Images

Putin’s claims that Ukraine is committing genocide are baseless, but not unprecedented

Vladimir Putin has justified his invasion of Ukraine with baseless claims that Ukraine is committing genocide. It isn’t the first time a political leader has cried genocide for political means.
Senator Yvonne Boyer, a Metis lawyer and former nurse called tubal ligations carried out on unwilling Indigenous women one of the “most heinous” practices in health care happening across Canada. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld

Forced sterilizations of Indigenous women: One more act of genocide

It may not be legally called genocide, but the impact of the Canadian government’s actions, including the sterilization of Indigenous women, still add up to genocidal practices.

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