How should the various nations of the world respond to the atrocities committed by other nations such as genocide and human rights violations?

Transcription

1 Global History II Common Core Unit of Study II Historical Context: Despite the horrors of the Holocaust, abuses of human rights have continued in the post World War II era. The human rights of many groups have been violated at different times in various nations and regions. Efforts by governments, groups, and individuals to resolve these human rights violations have met with mixed results. Task: Using your knowledge of global history, come up with an argument that answers the following question: How should the various nations of the world respond to the atrocities committed by other nations such as genocide and human rights violations?

2 Outline: I. Introduction: Students should give general background information on the topic of Genocide and then gradually focus the paragraph to the thesis. a. You can also mention how the Holocaust changed the view of the world on atrocities. II. III. IV. Argument: Topic sentence connected to your claim/ thesis statement. You must have evidences from your primary sources and notes to support your claim. a. Make sure to have a paragraph break with new ideas introduced Counter Claim: Explain how other scholars disagree with your thesis and why? Please provide evidences about their beliefs Rebuttal: Make sure that you reference the counter claim when writing your argument. Examine the counter claim and explain how your thesis is stronger than the other scholars who disagree with you. V. Conclusion: a brief and concise summary about your argument. Possible Evidences that you can discuss in your essay: - The Human Rights violations committed in the Holocaust (Outside information) - The Human Rights violations committed in the Rape of Nanking (Outside information) - The Human Rights violations committed in Cambodia - The Human Rights Violations committed in Bosnia - The Human Rights Violations committed in Rwanda - United Nations and Universal Declaration of Human Rights

3 Short-Answer Questions Analyze the documents and answer the short-answer questions that follow each document in the space provided. Document 1 Raphael Lemkin created the term genocide. He sent a letter to the New York Times editor explaining the importance of the concept of genocide. Genocide Before the United Nations TO THE EDITOR OF THE NEW YORK TIMES: The representatives of Cuba, India and Panama to the United Nations Assembly have brought forth a resolution which calls upon the United Nations to study the problem of genocide and to prepare a report on the possibilities of declaring genocide an international crime and assuring international cooperation for its prevention and punishment and also recommending, among others, that genocide should be dealt with by national legislation in the same way as other international crimes.... International Concept The concept of genocide thus is based upon existing and deeply felt moral concepts. Moreover, it uses as its elements well defined and already existing legal notions and institutions. What we have to do is to protect great values of our civilization through such accepted institutions adjusted to a formula of international law which is ever progressing. Because of lack of adequate provisions and previous formulation of international law, the Nuremberg Tribunal had to dismiss the Nazi crimes committed in the period between the advent of Nazism to power and the beginning of the war, as revolting and horrible as many of these crimes were, to use the expression of the Nuremberg judgment. It is now the task of the United Nations to see to it that the generous action of the three member states should be transferred into international law in order to prevent further onslaughts [attacks] on civilization, which are able to frustrate the purposes of the Charter of the United Nations.... Source: Raphael Lemkin, New York Times, Nov. 8, 1946 (adapted) 1. According to Raphael Lemkin, what is one way the world community can address the problem of genocide? Document 2 Document 2a... In 1948, the fledgling UN General Assembly adopted an international Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, which came into force in That convention defines genocide as acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national ethnic, racial or religious group, including inflicting conditions calculated to lead to a group s destruction.... After the horrors of the Holocaust were revealed, the mantra [slogan] of the time became never again. But it would take four decades, with the creation of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in 1994, before the international community would finally come together to prosecute the crime of genocide again. Why did it take so long, despite atrocities and mass killings in Cambodia, East Timor, and elsewhere?... Source: Irina Lagunina, World: What Constitutes Genocide Under International Law, and How Are Prosecutions Evolving?, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 9/10/ According to Irina Lagunina, what was one criticism of the international community s response to genocide?

4 Document 3 International Response GENOCIDE (FOR A CHANGE) Armenians Kurds Jews Cambodians 3. Based on this 1999 cartoon, identify two specific groups that have been victims of genocide. Hutus Tutsis Gypsies Bosnian Muslims Source: Steve Greenberg, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, March 29, 1999 (adapted) Document 4... Undeniably, there have been terrible human rights failures in Cambodia, Bosnia, Rwanda. There, and elsewhere, national constitutions and international norms failed to deter; international institutions and powerful governments failed to respond promptly and adequately. (The expectation that they would fail to respond no doubt contributed to their failure to deter.) But international human rights may be credited with whatever responses there have been, however inadequate, however delayed; and international human rights inspired all subsequent and continuing efforts to address the terrible violations. The major powers have sometimes declared gross violations of human rights to be threats to international peace and security and made them the responsibility of the UN Security Council, leading to international sanctions (and even to military intervention, as in Kosovo in 1999). International tribunals are sitting to bring gross violators to trial; a permanent international criminal tribunal to adjudicate [judge] crimes of genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity is being created. Various governments have moved to support international human rights and made their bilateral and multilateral influence an established force in international relations.... Source: Louis Henkin, Human Rights: Ideology and Aspiration, Reality and Prospect, Realizing Human Rights, St. Martin s Press, Based on this document, state one attempt made to address the problem of genocide.

5 Document Document 5 1 Universal Declaration of Human Rights Article 1 All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. Article 3 Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person. Article 4 No one shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all their forms. Article 5 No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. Article 9 No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention or exile. Article Everyone has the right to freedom of movement and residence within the borders of each State. 2. Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country. Article 14 Everyone has the right to seek and to enjoy in other countries asylum from persecution. Article 15 Everyone has the right to a nationality. Article 18 Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion. Article 19 Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression. Article 20 Everyone has the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association. Article 21 Everyone has the right to take part in the government of his country, directly or through freely chosen representatives. 5. State two human rights listed in this document. (2) Document 6 The June 4, 1989 massacre of students in Tiananmen Square shocked the world. In the following excerpt, an anonymous Chinese student explains how he felt about what happened: At 4 a.m. Sunday, lights on the square were suddenly [put out]. Through the loudspeakers, we again heard orders to clear out. A voice in my head said over and over, The moment has come. [Moments later,] machine guns erupted.... [They] were shooting right at the chests and heads of the students.... How many people died altogether? I don t know. Am I pessimistic? No, I m not at all pessimistic. Because I have seen the will of the people. I have seen the hope of China. Another anonymous student explained his feelings to the San Francisco Examiner as follows: It would be a lie to say that we were not afraid, but we were mentally prepared and very determined. Some students could not believe that the army really would use deadly force. But most of all, we were motivated by a powerful sense of purpose. We believed that it would be worth sacrificing our lives for the sake of progress and democracy in China. 6a. What action did the Chinese army take against the students? 6b. What reason did the Chinese students give for their demonstration?

6 Document 7 Source: Wasserman, Boston Globe, a. What human rights violation is the cartoonist describing? 7b. What is the cartoonist suggesting about Europe s reaction to this human rights violation? Document 8 In 1970, Lon Nol overthrew Prince Norodom Sihanouk and became the leader of Cambodia. The Vietnam War had destabilized Cambodia s government and Lon Nol used this situation to gain power. 8. According to Ben Kiernan, what were two problems Cambodia faced during Lon Nol s rule that enabled Pol Pot to rise to power? Richard Nixon s May 1970 invasion of Cambodia (undertaken without informing Lon Nol s new government) followed simultaneous invasions by Saigon and Vietnamese Communist forces. It created 130,000 new Khmer [Cambodian mountain people] refugees, according to the Pentagon. By 1971, 60 percent of refugees surveyed in Cambodia s towns gave U.S. bombing as the main cause of their displacement. The U.S. bombardment of the Cambodian countryside continued until 1973, when Congress imposed a halt. Nearly half of the 540,000 tons of bombs were dropped in the last six months. From the ashes of rural Cambodia arose Pol Pot s Communist Party of Kampuchea (CPK). It used the bombing s devastation and massacre of civilians as recruitment propaganda and as an excuse for its brutal, radical policies and its purge of moderate Communists and Sihanoukists. This is clear from contemporary U.S. government documents and from interviews in Cambodia with peasant survivors of the bombing. Source: Ben Kiernan, The Pol Pot Regime: Race, Power, and Genocide in Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge, , Yale University Press (adapted)

7 (2) Document 9 From the middle of 1975 to the end of 1978, between one million and three million Cambodians, out of a population of about seven million, died at the hands of Pol Pot s Khmer Rouge. Former government employees, army personnel, and intellectuals were executed in the hundreds of thousands. Others were killed by disease, exhaustion, and malnutrition during forced urban evacuations, migrations, and compulsory labor. Families were broken apart and communal living established; men and women were compelled to marry partners selected by the state. Education and religious practices were proscribed [forbidden]. David Hawk, The Killing of Cambodia, The New Republic, Identify two human rights violations carried out by the Khmer Rouge. (2) Document 10 In 1998, President Bill Clinton traveled to Rwanda to pay America s respects to those who suffered and died in the Rwandan genocide. During the visit, a panel discussion was held and later aired by Frontline. This is an excerpt from the transcript of that broadcast. 10. According to this Frontline transcript excerpt, what were two causes of conflict between the Hutus and the Tutsi in Rwanda? NARRATOR: In 1993, Rwanda, one of Africa s smallest countries with just seven million citizens, was a deeply troubled country with a deeply troubled past. Decades earlier, under colonial rule, the Belgians had used the Tutsis, Rwanda s aristocracy, to enforce their rule over the Hutu majority, who were mostly poor farmers. PHILIP GOUREVITCH, The New Yorker : The Belgians created an idea whereby the Tutsi were a master race, the Hutu an inferior race. And ethnic identity cards were issued. Much like in South Africa, an apartheid-like system was imposed. All privileges went to the Tutsi minority, and the Hutu majority was almost in bondage. At independence in the late 50s and early 60s, this system was reversed. The majority Hutu rebelled, seized power, in the name of majority rule imposed an apartheid-like system in reverse and oppressed the Tutsi bitterly. NARRATOR: Faced with discrimination and increasing Hutu violence, most Tutsis fled to neighboring countries, where they formed a guerrilla army, the Rwandan Patriotic Front. In 1990, the rebel Tutsis invaded Rwanda and forced peace talks with Juvenal Habyarimana, the Hutu president. Anxious to stay in power himself, Habyarimana signed a peace treaty agreeing to share power with the Tutsis. Source: The Triumph of Evil, Frontline, January 26, 1999 (2)

8 Document 11 After the assassination of President Juvenal Habyarimana on April 6, 1994, radical Hutus attempted to exert control over Rwanda. The Hutu officials who took over the government organized the murders [of Tutsis] nationwide. They used the government-run radio and press to do this. They also used the private newspapers and a private radio station, known as Radio Television des Mille Collines (RTLM). RTLM told the population to look for the enemies and to kill them. Those Tutsi and Hutu [opposing the government] who could, fled to safety in neighboring countries, to Europe, or to Canada and the United States. Meanwhile, when the murders started, the RPF [Tutsi-led Rwandan Patriotic Front] in Uganda invaded Rwanda again. Source: Aimable Twagilimana, Teenage Refugees from Rwanda Speak Out, Globe Fearon Educational Publisher 11. According to Aimable Twagilimana, what was one action taken by Hutu officials against their enemies? Document 12 Statute of Amnesty International Object and Mandate 1. The object of Amnesty International is to contribute to the observance throughout the world of human rights as set out in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.... Recognizing the obligation on each person to extend to others rights and freedoms equal to his or her own, Amnesty International adopts as its mandate: To promote awareness of... the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other internationally recognized human rights instruments,... and the indivisibility and interdependence of all human rights and freedoms; To oppose grave violations of the rights of every person freely to hold and to express his or her convictions and to be free from discrimination and of the right of every person to physical and mental integrity.... Methods/Actions 2. In order to achieve the... object and mandate, Amnesty International shall:... Promote as appears appropriate the adoption of constitutions, conventions, treaties and other measures which guarantee the rights contained in the provisions referred to in Article 1;... Publicize the cases of prisoners of conscience or persons who have otherwise been subjected to disabilities in violation of the... provisions; Investigate and publicize the disappearance of persons where there is reason to believe that they may be victims of violations of the rights set out in Article 1; Oppose the sending of persons from one country to another where they can reasonably be expected to become prisoners of conscience or to face torture or the death penalty; Send investigators, where appropriate, to investigate allegations that the rights of individuals under the... provisions have been violated or threatened. 12. Identify two actions taken by Amnesty International to protect human rights. (2)