Gregory Gordon (lawyer)

Last updated

Gregory S. Gordon is an American scholar of international law and former investigator for the Office of the Prosecutor of the ICTR. Gordon is known for his advocacy of the criminalization under international law of a broader category of speech likely to cause mass atrocities (more broad than incitement to genocide), and his book Atrocity Speech Law in which he advances this argument.

Contents

Career

Gordon was an investigator for the Office of The Prosecutor in the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda on the Media Case. [1] During his academic career, he was the director of University of North Dakota's Center for Human Rights and Genocide Studies and worked for the Sentinel Project for Genocide Prevention. [2] He currently works for the Chinese University of Hong Kong Faculty of Law. [3]

Views

Atrocity Speech Law cover has a picture of Joseph Goebbels. Atrocity Speech Law cover.jpg
Atrocity Speech Law cover has a picture of Joseph Goebbels.

Gordon supports establishing a new category of international law, which he terms "atrocity speech law", which would expand prosecutable offenses. The category would be more broad than incitement to genocide (currently criminalized), and would include ordering war crimes or crimes against humanity as an inchoate offense, which would be prosecutable even if the crimes ordered never took place. Gordon also supports the criminalization of incitement of war crimes and crimes against humanity. [4] [5] He supports the prosecution of people who are guilty of atrocity speech, and argues that international criminal law has a deterrent effect on those who are contemplating committing mass murder. [4] Gordon has said that "if you don't prosecute the purveyors of these horrible messages, then you will definitely be looking at another genocide down the road". [6] He supported the prosecution of Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for incitement to genocide. [7]

Atrocity Speech Law

Gordon's book Atrocity Speech Law: Foundation, Fragmentation, Fruition which is about extreme hate speech in international law, was published by Oxford University Press in 2017 and has received multiple positive reviews. [4] [8] In the book, he delineates the boundary between protected free speech and speech which is likely to cause mass violence, which he believes should be outlawed under international law. Gordon criticizes the current state of law on atrocity speech, which he considers fragmented and incoherent. For example, the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda and International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia came to different conclusions about the prosecution of incitement, with the ICTR holding that speech that does not directly call for violence may be prosecutable, while the ICTY disagreed. Gordon proposes an expansion and systematization of the criminalization of atrocity speech. [4] Benjamin B. Ferencz, chief prosecutor of the Einsatzgruppen Trial, wrote the foreword to the book. [9]

Works

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Genocide</span> Intentional destruction of a people

Genocide is the intentional destruction of a people in whole or in part.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda</span> 1994 court of the United Nations Security Council

The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda was an international court established in November 1994 by the United Nations Security Council in Resolution 955 in order to adjudicate people charged for the Rwandan genocide and other serious violations of international law in Rwanda, or by Rwandan citizens in nearby states, between 1 January and 31 December 1994. The court eventually convicted 61 individuals and acquitted 14.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Radio Télévision Libre des Mille Collines</span> Radio station in the 1994 Rwandan genocide

Radio Télévision Libre des Mille Collines (RTLM) was a Rwandan radio station which broadcast from July 8, 1993, to July 31, 1994. It played a significant role in inciting the Rwandan genocide that took place from April to July 1994, and has been described by some scholars as having been a de facto arm of the Hutu government.

Jean-Paul Akayesu is a former teacher, school inspector, and Republican Democratic Movement (MDR) politician from Rwanda, convicted of genocide for his role in inciting the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi.

Léon Mugesera is a convicted genocidaire from Rwanda who took residence in Quebec, Canada. He was deported from Canada for an inflammatory anti-Tutsi speech which his critics allege was a precursor to the 1994 Rwandan genocide. In 2016, he was convicted of incitement to genocide and sentenced to life in prison.

Simon Bikindi was a Rwandan singer-songwriter who was formerly very popular in Rwanda. His patriotic songs were playlist staples on the national radio station Radio Rwanda during the war from October 1990 to July 1994 before the Rwandan Patriotic Front took power. For actions during the April 1994 genocide against Tutsi, he was tried and convicted for incitement to genocide by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) in 2008. He died of diabetes at a Beninese hospital in late 2018.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">International criminal law</span> Public international law

International criminal law (ICL) is a body of public international law designed to prohibit certain categories of conduct commonly viewed as serious atrocities and to make perpetrators of such conduct criminally accountable for their perpetration. The core crimes under international law are genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity, and the crime of aggression.

Augustin Ngirabatware is a Rwandan politician who participated in the Rwandan genocide and has been convicted by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda.

Ferdinand Nahimana is a Rwandan historian, who was convicted of incitement to genocide for his role in the Rwandan genocide.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stephen Rapp</span> American politician

Stephen J. Rapp is an American lawyer and the former United States Ambassador-at-Large for War Crimes Issues in the Office of Global Criminal Justice.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charles A. Adeogun-Phillips</span> English lawyer

Charles Ayodeji Adeogun-Phillips is a former United Nations genocide and war crimes prosecutor, international lawyer and founder of Charles Anthony (Lawyers) LLP.

An atrocity crime is a violation of international criminal law that falls under the historically three legally defined international crimes of genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity. Ethnic cleansing is widely regarded as a fourth mass atrocity crime by legal scholars and international non-governmental organizations (NGOs) working in the field, despite not yet being recognized as an independent crime under international law.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">United Nations Security Council Resolution 955</span> United Nations resolution adopted in 1994

United Nations Security Council resolution 955, adopted on 8 November 1994, after recalling all resolutions on Rwanda, the Council noted that serious violations of international humanitarian law had taken place in the country and, acting under Chapter VII of the United Nations Charter, established the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">United Nations Security Council Resolution 1503</span> United Nations resolution adopted in 2003

United Nations Security Council resolution 1503, adopted unanimously on 28 August 2003, after recalling resolutions 827 (1993), 955 (1994), 978 (1995), 1165 (1998), 1166 (1998), 1329 (2000), 1411 (2002), 1431 (2002) and 1481 (2003), the Council decided to split the prosecutorial duties of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) which had previously been under the responsibility of one official, Carla Del Ponte, since 1999.

Hate media is media that contributes to the demonization and stigmatization of people who belong to different groups. It has played an influential role in the incitement to genocide, with notable examples of it being Radio Televizija Srbije during the wars in Yugoslavia, Radio Télévision Libre des Mille Collines (RTLM) during the Rwandan genocide, and Nazi Germany's Der Stürmer newspaper.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Incitement to genocide</span> Crime under international law

Incitement to genocide is a crime under international law which prohibits inciting (encouraging) the commission of genocide. An extreme form of hate speech, incitement to genocide is an inchoate offense and is theoretically subject to prosecution even if genocide does not occur, although charges have never been brought in an international court without mass violence having occurred. "Direct and public incitement to commit genocide" was forbidden by the Genocide Convention in 1948. Incitement to genocide is often cloaked in metaphor and euphemism and may take many forms beyond direct advocacy, including dehumanization and accusation in a mirror.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Susan Benesch</span> American journalist and scholar of speech

Susan Benesch is an American journalist and scholar of speech who is known for founding the Dangerous Speech Project. Benesch is a free speech advocate, recommending the use of counterspeech rather than censorship to delegitimize harmful speech.

International speech crimes are acts of speech which are criminalized under international law. Incitement to genocide is one example, but the Nuremberg trials and the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia convicted some defendants of crimes against humanity based on speech acts. For example, Serb politician Vojislav Šešelj was indicted for crimes against humanity, including "war propaganda and incitement of hatred towards non-Serb people". Serbian politician Radovan Karadžić was convicted of "participating in a joint criminal enterprise to commit crimes against humanity on the basis of his public speeches and broadcasts". Dario Kordić and Radoslav Brđanin were also convicted of crimes based on instigating violence in public speeches.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Asoka De Zoysa Gunawardana</span> Sri Lankan judge

Asoka De Zoysa Gunawardana was a Sri Lankan judge of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) from 1999 to 2004. He was also a judge of the Appeals Chamber of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) from 2001 to 2004.

Accusation in a mirror (AiM) is a technique often used in the context of hate speech incitement, where one falsely attributes one's own motives and/or intentions to one's adversaries. It has been cited, along with dehumanization, as one of the indirect or cloaked forms of incitement to genocide, which has contributed to the commission of genocide, for example in the Holocaust or the Rwandan genocide. By invoking collective self-defense, accusation in a mirror is used to justify genocide, similar to self-defense as a defense for individual homicide.

References

  1. ↑ "[MEDIA] - Nahimana et al - Stipulation of the parties regarding what would be the testimony of Crystal Nix-Hinds, Denise Minor and Gregory Gordon with regard to ducument obtained in Rwanda" (PDF). IRMCT. Retrieved May 8, 2024.
  2. ↑ "Professor Gregory Gordon joins the Sentinel Project as advisor on hate speech". Sentinel Project for Genocide Prevention. 2013. Retrieved May 9, 2020.
  3. ↑ "Gregory S. Gordon: Centre for International Law Research and Policy". www.cilrap.org. Retrieved May 9, 2020.
  4. 1 2 3 4 Van Landingham, Rachel (March 29, 2018). "Punishing Tomorrow's Tweeting Goebbels". Lawfare . Retrieved May 9, 2020.
  5. ↑ Gordon, Gregory S. (2011–2012). "Formulating a New Atrocity Speech Offense: Incitement to Commit War Crimes". Loyola University Chicago Law Journal. 43: 281.
  6. ↑ "Gregory S. Gordon". United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. May 21, 2009. Retrieved May 10, 2020.
  7. ↑ Gordon, Gregory (2008). "From Incitement to Indictment - Prosecuting Iran's President for Advocating Israel's Destruction and Piecing Together Incitement Law's Emerging Analytical Framework". Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology . 98 (3): 853–920. ISSN   0091-4169. JSTOR   40042789.
  8. ↑ Pauli, Carol (July 20, 2018). "Atrocity Speech Law: Addressing Hate that Does Grave Harm". Human Rights Quarterly. 40 (3): 718–729. doi:10.1353/hrq.2018.0041. ISSN   1085-794X.
  9. ↑ Gordon 2017.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.