• Genocide: Acts committed with intent to destroy a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group in whole or in part
• Crimes against humanity: Widespread or systematic attacks against civilian populations
• War crimes: Violations of the laws of armed conflict
• Ethnic cleansing: Forced removal of an ethnic group from a territory
• Human rights: Universal rights and freedoms to which all people are entitled
• Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948): UN statement of fundamental rights
• Genocide Convention (1948): UN treaty defining and prohibiting genocide
• Nuremberg Trials (1945-46): Postwar trials of Nazi leaders; established "obedience to orders is not a defense"
• Crimes against peace: Planning or waging aggressive war
• ICC (International Criminal Court): Permanent court for prosecuting international crimes, founded 2002
• ICTY: International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, 1993-2017
• ICTR: International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, 1995-2015
• Responsibility to Protect (R2P): UN doctrine that the international community has a responsibility to protect populations from genocide and other atrocities
• Armenian Genocide (1915-1923): Ottoman killing of approximately 1.5 million Armenians
• Young Turks: Nationalist movement that took power in the Ottoman Empire in 1908
• Holocaust / Shoah: Nazi extermination of European Jews; 6 million killed
• Khmer Rouge: Cambodian communist movement responsible for the Cambodian Genocide
• Killing Fields: Sites of Khmer Rouge mass executions
• Year Zero: Khmer Rouge declaration of a new revolutionary era
• S-21 / Tuol Sleng: Khmer Rouge prison and execution center
• Hutu: Majority ethnic group in Rwanda (approximately 85%)
• Tutsi: Minority ethnic group in Rwanda (approximately 14%)
• Interahamwe: Hutu militia responsible for much of the Rwandan Genocide killing
• RTLM: Radio station that broadcast genocide incitement in Rwanda
• Gacaca courts: Traditional Rwandan community justice forums adapted for post-genocide accountability

Srebrenica Massacre (1995)

Killing of approximately 8,000 Bosniak men and boys; recognized as genocide

Siege of Sarajevo (1992-96)

Longest siege in modern European history

Dayton Accords (1995)

Peace agreement ending the Bosnian War

Ethnic cleansing in Bosnia

Systematic forced removal and killing of Bosniaks and Croats

Darfur

Region of Sudan; genocide from 2003

Janjaweed

Arab militias used in Darfur

Rohingya

Muslim minority in Myanmar subjected to genocidal persecution

Uyghurs

Muslim Turkic ethnic group in western China subject to systematic repression

Apartheid

South African system of racial segregation, declared a crime against humanity

People

• Raphael Lemkin: Polish-Jewish lawyer who coined the word genocide and campaigned for the Genocide Convention
• Eleanor Roosevelt: Chaired the UN Commission on Human Rights that drafted the UDHR
• Talaat Pasha: Ottoman official, principal organizer of the Armenian Genocide; assassinated in Berlin in 1921
• Adolf Hitler: Architect of the Holocaust (covered in Unit 10.5)
• Pol Pot: Leader of the Khmer Rouge, architect of the Cambodian Genocide
• Roméo Dallaire: Canadian general who commanded UN peacekeepers in Rwanda and warned of genocide preparation
• Paul Kagame: RPF leader, Rwandan president since 2000
• Slobodan Milošević: Serbian leader, principal architect of Greater Serbia
• Radovan Karadžić: Bosnian Serb political leader, convicted of genocide for Srebrenica
• Ratko Mladić: Bosnian Serb military commander, convicted of genocide for Srebrenica
• Omar al-Bashir: Sudanese president, indicted by ICC for genocide in Darfur
• Aung San Suu Kyi: Burmese democracy leader who failed to protect the Rohingya during her time as State Counsellor
• Xi Jinping: Chinese leader during Uyghur persecution