Genocidal rape

How does mass war rape destroy a group?

The UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide names “imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group” as genocide, when committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a nation, ethnical, racial or religious group.

How then is enforced impregnation, such as took place in Bosnia, genocidal? How does a practice that produces births instead of preventing them contribute to the destruction of the group? And who is best suited to answer these questions, legal scholars who study the application of the Convention in the international courts, or social scientists and scholars from the humanities?

These are some of the questions that Robin May Schott, Senior Researcher in Holocaust and genocide studies, discussed last week at the International Network of Genocide Scholars held at the University of Sussex. The conference drew an international body of scholars to discuss key issues in genocide studies, with keynote speaker Mark Levene addressing the role of climate change and genocidal processes, and Dirk Moses speaking on points of contestation and convergence between the fields of Holocaust studies and of genocide studies.

Top