1. The Ten Stages of Genocide
Dr. Gregory Stanton
Genocide Watch
© Gregory Stanton

2. What is Genocide?
The crime of genocide is defined in international law in the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide, adopted by the UN in 1948.
"Article II: In the present Convention, genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:

3. (a) Killing members of the group; (b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; (c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; (d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; (e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.

4. Article III: The following acts shall be punishable:
(a) Genocide;
(b) Conspiracy to commit genocide;
(c) Direct and public incitement to commit genocide;
(d) Attempt to commit genocide;
(e) Complicity in genocide.

5. Raphael Lemkin, father of the Genocide Convention, would also have protected economic, political, social, and cultural groups.
The Soviet Union, its satellites, and some Latin American countries eliminated these groups from protection by the Convention.
Persecuting or killing these other groups remain crimes against humanity.

6. Genocide succeeds when state sovereignty blocks the international responsibility to protect citizens of genocidal states.
The UN represents states, not peoples, and it is usually paralyzed by the Perm-5 veto.
Since founding of UN:
Over 55 genocides and politicides
Over 70 million dead

7. Prevention requires: Early warning 2. Rapid response 3. Courts for
accountability

8. Genocide continues due to:
Lack of authoritative international
institutions to predict it
•Lack of ready rapid response forces to stop it
UNAMIR peacekeeper in Rwanda, April 1994

9. Genocide continues due to:
Lack of political will to peacefully prevent it
and to forcefully intervene to stop it
UN Security Council votes to withdraw
UNAMIR troops from Rwanda, April 1994

10. The result has been genocide again and again
The result has been genocide again and again. Memorial to 800,000 Rwandans murdered, April – July, 1994

11. The 10 Stages of Genocide
Understanding the genocidal process is one of the most important steps in preventing future genocides.
The Eight Stages of Genocide were first outlined by Dr. Greg Stanton, Department of State: In 2012, Stanton added two stages to refine the model.
The first seven stages are Early Warnings:
Classification
Symbolization
Discrimination
Dehumanization
Organization
Polarization
Preparation

12. Stage 1: Classification
“Us versus them”
Distinguish by nationality, ethnicity, race, or religion (Genocide Convention) or by class (Marx) or politics.
Bipolar societies (Rwanda) most likely to have genocide because no way for classifications to fade away through inter-marriage.
Classification is a primary method of dividing society and creating a power struggle between groups.

13. Stage 1: Classification (Rwanda)
Belgian colonialists believed Tutsis were a naturally superior nobility, descended from the Israelite tribe of Ham.
Belgians distinguished between Hutus and Tutsis by nose size, height & eye type. Another indicator to distinguish Hutu farmers from Tutsi pastoralists was the number of cattle owned.

14. Prevention: Transcend Classification
Promote common identities (national, religious, human.)
Use common languages (Swahili in Tanzania, science, music, sports.)
Actively oppose racist and divisive politicians and parties.

15. Stage 2: Symbolization Names: German v. Jew; Hutu v. Tutsi v. Twa.
Languages: Turkish v. Armenian; Urdu v. Bengali
Clothing: Arab v. Kurdish, German v. Herero.
Group uniforms: Self- adopted: Swastika armbands
Colors and religious symbols:
Yellow star for Jews
Blue checked scarf Eastern Zone in Cambodia

16. Symbolization (Cambodia)
People in the Eastern Zone, near Vietnam, were accused of having “Khmer bodies, but Vietnamese heads.”
They were deported to other areas to be worked to death.
They were marked with a blue and white checked scarf (Kroma)

17. Stage 2: Symbolization (Rwanda)
“Ethnicity” was noted on ID cards by Belgian Authorities in 1933.
Tutsis were given preference to education programs and priesthood. .
1959 independence:,preferences reversed. Hutus favored.
ID cards used to distinguish Tutsis from Hutus in genocide.

18. Symbolization (Nazi Germany)
Nazis required the yellow Star of David emblem to be worn by nearly all Jews in Nazi-occupied Europe by Bulgaria and Denmark resisted.

19. Prevention: Symbolization
Get ethnic, religious, racial, and national identities removed from ID cards, passports.
Protest imposition of marking symbols on targeted groups (yellow cloth on Hindus in Taliban Afghanistan).
Protest negative or racist words for groups (“niggers, kaffirs,” etc.) Work to make them culturally unacceptable.

20. Stage 3: Discrimination
Segregation; apartheid: Separate groups in housing, schools, transport, and eating places.
Prohibit voting by members of victim group.
Fire group from professions. [Nazis fired Jew professors & civil servants 1933.]
Require “passes” to travel. Hunt and arrest “undocumented aliens.”

21. Stage 3: Discrimination Boycott businesses of victims Nazis bar entrance to Jewish business

22. Prevention of Discrimination
Take discriminatory categories off ID cards.
Outlaw discrimination based on race, religion, ethnicity, nationality, gender; class; party. [Civil rights act of 1964]
Pass laws protecting universal voting rights. [19th Amendment (women); 1924 Indian Citizenship Act; 1966 Voting Rights Act]
Make anti-discrimination laws enforceable in independent courts by private parties.

23. Stage 4: Dehumanization
One group denies the humanity of another group, and makes the victim group seem subhuman.
Dehumanization overcomes the normal human revulsion against murder.
Der Stürmer Nazi Newspaper:
“The Blood Flows; The Jew Grins”
Kangura Newspaper, Rwanda: “The Solution for Tutsi Cockroaches” .

24. Stage 4: Dehumanization
Blame staged attacks on targeted “traitors.”
The Reichstag fire was blamed on Jewish Communists in 1933.
Attack cultural centers of targeted groups.
Kristalnacht 1938: synagogues were burned.

25. Tactics of Dehumanization
Hate propaganda in speeches, print and on hate radio.
Victim group is described as animals, vermin, and diseases. Hate radio, Rwandan genocide, 1994: “Kill the cockroaches.” “If this disease is not treated immediately, it will destroy all the Hutu.”
Superiority of “us”; inferiority of the “other.”
Euphemisms hide horror: “ethnic cleansing,” or “purification.”

26. Prevention of Dehumanization
Vigorously protest use of dehumanizing words that refer to people as “filth,” “vermin,” animals or diseases. Deny people using such words visas and freeze their foreign assets and contributions.
Prosecute hate crimes and incitements to commit genocide.
Jam or shut down hate radio and television stations where there is danger of genocide.

27. Prevention: Humanization
Promote positive prevention by humanizing the “others”:
Provide programs for tolerance to radio, TV, and newspapers.
Enlist religious and political leaders to speak out and educate for tolerance.
Organize inter-ethnic, interfaith, and inter-racial groups to work against hatred.
Build local anti-genocide alliances.

28. Stage 5: Organization Genocide is a group crime, so must be organized.
The state usually organizes, arms and financially supports the groups that conduct the genocidal massacres. (State organization is not a legal requirement --Indian partition.)
Plans are made by elites for a “final solution.”

29. Stage 5: Organization (Rwanda)
“Hutu Power” elites armed youth militias called Interahamwe ("Those Who Stand Together”).
Government and Hutu Power businessmen provided militias with 500,000 machetes and training camps to “protect their villages” by exterminating every Tutsi.

30. Prevention: Organization
Treat genocidal groups as the organized crime groups they are. Make membership in them illegal and demand that their leaders be arrested.
Deny visas to leaders of hate groups and freeze their foreign assets.
Impose arms embargoes on hate groups and governments supporting ethnic or religious hatred. Create commissions to enforce such arms embargoes and arrest arms merchants.

31. Stage 6: Polarization Extremists drive groups apart.
Hate groups broadcast and print polarizing propaganda.
Laws are passed that forbid intermarriage or social interaction.
Moderates are silenced, intimidated, and assassinated.
Public demonstrations were organized against Jewish merchants.
Moderate German dissenters were the first to be arrested and sent to concentration camps.

32. Prevention: De-polarization
Vigorously protest laws or policies that segregate or marginalize groups, or that deprive whole groups of citizenship rights. [Nazi Nuremberg Laws; Apartheid “bantustans”; “Ivoirization.]
Physically protect moderate leaders, by use of armed guards and armored vehicles. [Burundi]
Demand the release of moderate leaders if they are arrested. Demand and conduct investigations if they are murdered. [Amnesty International]
Oppose coups d’état by extremists.

33. Stage 7: Preparation: Planning (Conspiracy)
Wannsee House, Berlin where Nazi leaders, Heydrich & Eichmann planned “the Final Solution to the Jewish Question.” 20 January 1942

34. Stage 7: Preparation Identification (Nazi Germany) Force members of victim groups to wear identifying symbols.

35. Stage 7: Preparation
Nazis required the yellow Star of David emblem to be worn by nearly all Jews in Nazi-occupied Europe by 1941.
Bulgaria and Denmark resisted.

36. Stage 7: Preparation Military buildup
Build military machine, train militias, stockpile weapons, and distribute them to killers.

37. Prevention: Preparation
With evidence of arms shipments and militia training, and planned killings, a Genocide Alert™ should be declared.
UN Security Council should warn it will act only if it really intends to take forceful action.
World leaders must warn potential perpetrators they will be tried for their crimes.
Humanitarian relief should be prepared.
Regional military intervention forces should be organized, including logistics and financing.

38. Stage 8: Persecution
Separate victims because of their ethnic or religious identity.
Expropriate property of victim group.

39. Stage 8: Persecution Forcibly displace victims from their homes.
Force them into ghettos – Poland 1939 – 1942 or deserts Armenia 1915; Darfur 2003

40. Stage 9: Extermination (Genocide, Politicide, Mass Murder)
Extermination begins, and becomes the mass killing legally called "genocide" or “politicide.”
Most genocide is committed by governments.
Einsatzgrupen: Nazi Killing Squads

41. Extermination (Genocide)
Although most genocide is sponsored and financed by the state, the armed forces often work with local militias.
Rwandan militia killing squads
Nazi killing squad working with local militia

42. Extermination (Genocide)
The killing is “extermination” to the killers because they do not believe the victims are fully human. They are “cleansing” the society of impurities, disease, animals, vermin, “cockroaches,” or enemies.
Roma (Gypsies) in a Nazi death camp

43. Jewish women massacred , Mizocz, Ukraine 1942
Stage 9: Extermination
Jewish women massacred , Mizocz, Ukraine 1942

44. SS finishing massacre, Mizocz, Ukraine, 1942
Stage 9: Extermination
SS finishing massacre, Mizocz, Ukraine, 1942

45. Stage 9: Extermination
SS Einsatzgrupen
Commando shoots
last Jew left alive in Vinica, Ukraine, 1942

46. Stage 9: Extermination: Mechanized Massacre
Build extermination camps – Auschwitz-Birkenau .
Call them “labor camps.”
Transport victims to camps, kill, and cremate them.

47. Buchenwald Death Camp Crematoria
Stage 9: Extermination
Buchenwald Death Camp Crematoria

48. Tuol Sleng (S-21), Cambodia
Choeung Ek Mass Grave
Photos © Gregory Stanton 1980

49. Extermination: How to Stop the Genocide
Intervention by a regional army should be organized to drive the genocidists out of power.
The UN Security Council should authorize armed intervention by regional military forces under Chapter Seven of the UN Charter.
If UN Security Council is paralyzed, the UN General Assembly or regional forces may authorize intervention. UNGA Res. 377 (1950)

50. Intervention to Stop Genocide
The Mandate must include protection of civilians and humanitarian workers and a No Fly Zone.
The Rules of Engagement must include prevention of killing not just in self-defense, but of all civilians.
The major military powers must provide leadership, logistics, airlift, communications, and financing.

51. Stage 10: Denial Denial occurs during and after genocide.
Continuing denial triples probability of further genocide.
Denial extends crime of genocide to future generations of victims. It is a continuation of the intent to destroy the group.
The tactics of denial are predictable.

52. Stage 10: Tactics of Denial
Attack the truth tellers. They committed crimes.
Deny or minimize the evidence or numbers.
Deny genocidal intent. Blame natural forces.
Blame civil or international war.
Blame the victims – a disloyal minority.
Deny facts fit legal definition of genocide.
Claim of genocide would harm “peace process.”
Claim of genocide would harm current interests.

53. Prevention of Denial
Arrest and try perpetrators of genocide in international, domestic, or mixed courts.
Create truth commissions to document the facts about the genocide and publish them.
Hold public truth and reconciliation forums for neighbors to confess and apologize.
Incorporate education about the genocide in the curriculum of every secondary school.
Make films and radio programs for the public.

54. Prevention needs Political Will
We need an international mass movement to end genocide.
Organize civil society and human rights groups.
Mobilize religious leaders of churches, mosques, synagogues, and temples.
Put genocide education in curricula of every secondary school and university in the world.
Hold political leaders accountable. If they fail to act to stop genocide, vote them out of office.

55. Save the Darfur Puppy