Genocide, Human Groups and Poverty

Human history is plagued with acts of genocide. Whilst the brutality of the act remains the same throughout time the contexts and circumstances of its occurrence are ever changing. From the Genocide Convention onwards (as well as the current legal praxis and its incumbent jurisprudence) attacks on national, religious or ethnic groups have framed the surrounding debate. In the judicial processes for Rwanda and the Balkans, the zealous protection of these groups has constantly rejected economic groups as part of the “protected groups” sanctioned in 1948. The present essay will argue that economic conditions in a country may lead to a bureaucratic and administrative genocide in which situations of extreme poverty are systematic attacks against the poor and vulnerable. Consequently a broader definition of “group” is needed in order to encompass the socio-economic realities and inequalities of today in order to prevent the genocides of tomorrow