Genocide Watch

Last updated
Genocide Watch
Founded1999
Founder Gregory Stanton
Website genocidewatch.com

Genocide Watch is a non-governmental organization based in Washington, D.C. which campaigns against genocide, and the various stages running up towards genocide. It was founded by Gregory Stanton in 1999. [1] [2] [3] [4]

Contents

Context

Gregory Stanton in 2012 Gregory H. Stanton giving lecture at ICD Annual Conference on Cultural Diplomacy 2012.jpg
Gregory Stanton in 2012

Genocide Watch is a US registered non-profit and coordinator of the Alliance Against Genocide, which includes 125 organizations in 31 countries, including the Minority Rights Group, the International Crisis Group, the Aegis Trust, and Survival International. [5] [6]

Under the leadership of Stanton, Genocide Watch has formed alliances with dozens of human rights leaders, such as Baroness Kennedy and Ewelina Ochab from the Coalition for Genocide Response. [7]

Stanton has criticized the term "ethnic cleansing", calling it a term invented by Slobodan Milošević as a term used for the denial and cover-up of genocide, stating it whitewashes the crimes and impedes forceful action to stop genocide. [8] He also rejects the "only intent" doctrine that the International Court of Justice used in Bosnia v Serbia and Croatia v Serbia to find that because Serbia's intent was "ethnic cleansing," Serbia's "sole" and "only" intent was not genocide, Serbia had not violated the Genocide Convention. [9]

Board members

Its board of advisers includes former commander of United Nations peacekeeping forces in Rwanda Roméo Dallaire, former Nuremberg Prosecutor Benjamin Ferencz, former US Ambassador to the United Nations and former Administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) Samantha Power, [10] [11] and former UN Special Advisers for the Prevention of Genocide Adama Dieng and Alice Nderitu. [12]

Analysis tool

Genocide Watch is known for its publicising of Stanton's analysis tool and policy model known as the ten stages of genocide. This enumerates steps whereby a society may evolve towards committing genocide, running from initially increasingly classifying people as "them" or "us", via a number of intermediate stages, including 'polarisation', to the genocidal 'extermination' (a term often used by the killers rather than 'murder', because they do not believe their victims to be fully human) and afterwards to a post-genocide phase when the perpetrators deny that they committed any crimes. [13] At an earlier stage in its development, the tool referred to eight stages of the process, [14] before adding the 'Discrimination' and 'Persecution' stages.

History

Genocide Watch was founded in 1999. [15] [2]

In 2010, Genocide Watch was the first organization to assert that the 1980s Gukurahundi massacres in Zimbabwe met the definition of genocide, [16] calling for the prosecution of Zimbabwean leaders including president Robert Mugabe. [17] [18]

In 2020, Genocide Watch joined other human rights groups urging the U.N. Human Rights Council (UNHRC) to investigate the actions of the Chinese government regarding Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslim minorities in the Xinjiang region, and demand that China end persecution of Uyghurs that amount to acts of genocide. [19]

In the case of Bosco Ntaganda within the International Criminal Court investigation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Genocide Watch submitted amicus curiae observations [20] along with the Antiquities Coalition and Blue Shield International, on the interpretation of attacks on cultural property in the Rome Statute. [21]

Genocide Watch has also indicated numerous times that the Armenians are at risk of genocide due to Azerbaijan's "unprovoked attack" on Armenia in 2022 and its blockade and offensive of Artsakh (2022–2023). [22] [23] [ non-primary source needed ]

In recent years, Genocide Watch have also published a number of reports and statements: the 'United States of America Report' highlighting genocidal aspects of racial tension in the US, [24] a number of statements regarding the Russia-Ukraine Genocide which conclude that Russia's Ukraine War is genocidal, [25] and statements regarding the Israel-Gaza conflict, which describe both Hamas' initial attack and some of Israel's military response as genocidal. [26] [ non-primary source needed ]

References

  1. ↑ "Gregory Stanton". Genocide Watch. Retrieved 2019-03-24.
  2. 1 2 Çakmak, Cenap (2007), "Genocide Watch" , Encyclopedia of Activism and Social Justice, Thousand Oaks, California: SAGE Publications, Inc., doi:10.4135/9781412956215.n351, ISBN   978-1-4129-1812-1 , retrieved 2020-10-09
  3. ↑ Totten, Samuel (2017). "4. The role of Nongovernmental Organizations in Addressing the Prevention, Intervention, and Punishment of Genocide in the 1980s, 1990s, and Early 2000s". Genocide at the millennium. Totten, Samuel,, Sherman, Marc I. Abingdon, Oxon: Rutledge. ISBN   978-1-351-51784-3. OCLC   1013927872.
  4. ↑ Henriques, Charmaine. "Library Research Guides: Genocide: Organizations". guides.libraries.indiana.edu. Retrieved 28 November 2025.
  5. ↑ "Genocide Watch | ACLED". acleddata.com. Retrieved 28 November 2025.
  6. ↑ "ALLIANCE MEMBERS". against-genocide.org. Retrieved 2020-10-09.
  7. ↑ "MAJOR NEW COALITION LAUNCHED IN PARLIAMENT TO CONFRONT CONTEMPORARY GENOCIDE". David Alton. 3 November 2019. Retrieved 1 December 2025.
  8. ↑ Blum, R.; Stanton, G. H.; Sagi, S.; Richter, E. D. (2007). "'Ethnic cleansing' bleaches the atrocities of genocide". The European Journal of Public Health. 18 (2): 204–209. doi: 10.1093/eurpub/ckm011 . PMID   17513346.
  9. ↑ Tahir, Nabil (2024-02-03). "Can the Hague stop Israel?". The Express Tribune . Retrieved 2025-12-01.
  10. ↑ "Samantha Power". U.S. Agency for International Development. 2023-01-12. Archived from the original on 14 December 2022. Retrieved 2023-01-21.
  11. ↑ "Professor John Packer named to Genocide Watch Board of Advisors". Faculty of Law - Common Law Section. February 5, 2019. Retrieved 2020-10-10.
  12. ↑ "Directors and Advisors". Genocide Watch. Retrieved April 15, 2008.
  13. ↑ "The ten stages of genocide". Holocaust Memorial Day Trust. Retrieved 28 November 2025.
  14. ↑ "THE EIGHT STAGES OF GENOCIDE By Dr. Gregory H. Stanton, President, Genocide Watch". www.keene.edu. Retrieved 28 November 2025.
  15. ↑ Hill, Geoff (29 December 2023). "What's the truth about South Africa's 'genocide' of white farmers?". The Spectator. Retrieved 1 December 2025.
  16. ↑ "Guku team turns focus on Horn of Africa". The Zimbabwean. 2016-04-07. Retrieved 2020-10-10.
  17. ↑ "Gukurahundi noose tightens on Mugabe". The Zimbabwean. 2010-09-18. Retrieved 2020-10-10.
  18. ↑ "Probe into Gukurahundi era begins" . Daily News . February 28, 2019. Retrieved 2020-10-10.
  19. ↑ Kashgarian, Asim (September 17, 2020). "Activists, Experts Call on UN to Recognize China's Uighur 'Genocide'". Voice of America . Retrieved 2020-10-09.
  20. ↑ "Amicus Curiae Observations Pursuant to Rule 103 of the Rules of Procedure and Evidence on Behalf of the Antiquities Coalition, Blue Shield International and Genocide Watch" (PDF). icc-cpi.int. ICC-01/04-02/06. International Criminal Court. 18 September 2020. Retrieved 2020-10-09.
  21. ↑ Karegeya, Portia (2020-09-21). "21 September 2020 - ICC AC receives amicus curiae briefs in Ntaganda case". ICL Media Review. Archived from the original on October 6, 2020. Retrieved 2020-10-09.
  22. ↑ "Genocide Alert:Artsakh surrenders to Azerbaijan". genocidewatch. 2023-09-21. Retrieved 2024-01-22. The silent genocide has become overt...Genocide Watch considers Azerbaijan to be at Stage 4: Dehumanization, Stage 5: Organization, Stage 7: Preparation, Stage 8: Persecution, and Stage 9: Extermination.
  23. ↑ Hill, Nat (2022-09-23). "Genocide Warning: Azerbaijan and Nagorno-Karabakh". genocidewatch. Retrieved 2024-01-22. Genocide Watch is issuing a Genocide Warning due to Azerbaijan's unprovoked military attacks on Armenia and on the unrecognized Armenian Republic of Artsakh.
  24. ↑ "Genocide Watch Labels USA With 'Genocide Warning' - The Locke Society". The Locke Society. 12 December 2024. Retrieved 1 December 2025.
  25. ↑ "Ukraine war: Is Russia committing genocide?". www.bbc.com/news. 7 April 2022. Retrieved 1 December 2025.
  26. ↑ "The Double Genocide in Gaza by Dr. Gregory Stanton". genocidewatch. 17 September 2025. Retrieved 1 December 2025.
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