Editor’s note: “Look Back” is a series designed to highlight articles from the Good Faith Media archives that remain relevant or historically interesting. This article is being reposted to call attention to April as Genocide Awareness and Prevention Month. If you have an article from our archives that you’d like us to consider including in this series, please email your suggestion to submissions@goodfaithmedia.org. A version of this article previously appeared at EthicsDaily.com on March 30, 2017.
Lists of 20th-century genocides differ widely.
Yet, six instances always appear: Armenia (1915), the Holocaust in Germany (1933), Cambodia (1975), Rwanda (1990), Bosnia (1995) and Darfur (2003).
Other manifestations of genocide are found in some catalogs but not others: Herero and Namaqua (1904), Greek (1914), Assyrian (1915), the Holodomor in Soviet Ukraine (1932), Croatia (1941), Guatemala (1962), Bangladesh (1971), Burundi (1972) and Kurdish (1986).
Rarely appearing in lists is the 1966 genocide that took place in Nigeria, a focal point of EthicsDaily.com’s latest documentary, “The Disturbances,” which shares how missionaries and local pastors intervened to save lives.
Current conflict zones where genocide is either taking place or has the possibility of happening include Democratic Republic of the Congo, ISIS-controlled regions, Kenya, Nigeria, Sudan, South Sudan and Yemen.
In April 2015, for Genocide Awareness and Prevention Month, EthicsDaily.com posted a series focused on genocide, including articles about how genocide is defined, where the term originated and how some organizations are working to end genocide.
“It is extremely important that we ensure that the ‘never again,’ which was claimed after the Holocaust, becomes a reality – not merely a struggle, but a living reality,” said Adama Dieng, United Nations special advisor on the prevention of genocide. “It is now universally recognized that everyone has a role and responsibility to prevent genocide and atrocity crimes.”
To that end, a new series will appear on EthicsDaily.com in April 2017 aimed at further informing readers about genocide by focusing on a few manifestations since 1900: Bosnia, Darfur, Nigeria, Rwanda and the Holocaust.
Additional resources are available via the United Nations Office on Genocide Prevention and the Responsibility to Protect and the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum.
