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An Appeal to the United States Congress from Genocide Scholars
An Appeal to the United States Congress from Genocide Scholars
Image: ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. Copyright CNN 2015
We, the undersigned, each a member of the International Association of Genocide Scholars, the world’s largest organization of experts on genocide, call upon the United States Congress to declare that the crimes committed by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) also known as Da’esh, constitute genocide in violation of the International Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.
Genocide is the intentional destruction, in whole or in part, of a national, ethnical, racial, or religious group, as such. ISIS is committing genocide against religious groups that do not conform to ISIS’s totalitarian definition of ‘true Islam’. ISIS’s mass murders of Chaldean, Assyrian, Melkite Greek, and Coptic Christians, Yazidis, Shia Muslims, Sunni Kurds and other religious groups meet even the strictest definition of genocide.
ISIS’s policy of mass rape is also genocidal. The gendered pattern of persecution pursued by ISIS against groups it considers to be infidels conforms to historical patterns of genocide, particularly the mass killing of men and teenage boys accompanied by the rape and enslavement of women and teenage girls and the kidnapping of children.
ISIS government in areas it has occupied includes beheadings of captives and people considered apostates, destruction of religious centers such as churches and monasteries, and pillage of ancient cultural sites that do not conform to the regime’s religious orthodoxy—acts typical of genocidal regimes.
Genocide is a crime against humanity. ISIS has perpetrated many other crimes against humanity as well, including
murder;
extermination;
enslavement;
deportation and forcible transfers of populations;
imprisonment;
torture;
rape, sexual slavery, enforced prostitution, forced pregnancy, and other forms of sexual violence of comparable gravity;
persecution against identifiable groups on political, racial, national, ethnic, cultural, religious or gender grounds;
enforced disappearance of persons; and
other inhumane acts of a similar character intentionally causing great suffering or serious bodily or mental injury.
ISIS commits war crimes as part of a plan or policy on a large scale. These prohibited acts include:
murder;
mutilation, cruel treatment and torture;
taking of hostages;
intentionally directing attacks against the civilian population;
intentionally directing attacks against buildings dedicated to religion, education, art, science or charitable purposes, historical monuments or hospitals;
pillaging;
rape, sexual slavery, forced pregnancy and other forms of sexual violence;
conscripting or enlisting children under the age of 15 years into armed forces or groups or using them to participate actively in hostilities.
ISIS leaders should be prosecuted in the International Criminal Court (ICC) for their crimes. The U.N. Security Council should refer ISIS crimes to the ICC for investigation and prosecution. The UN and Regional Organizations should act swiftly and firmly, and follow-up with police force to arrest ISIS leaders.
This statement has been endorsed by:
Gregory H. Stanton, J.D., Ph.D.
President, Genocide Watch
Professor, George Mason University, Arlington, VA
Former President, IAGS
Andrew Woolford, Ph.D.
Professor, Department of Sociology
University of Manitoba
Winnipeg, Manitoba
President, IAGS
Elisa von Joeden-Forgey, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor and Director of the Master of Arts in Holocaust and Genocide Studies Program
Stockton University, Stockton, NJ
First Vice President, IAGS
Kjell Anderson
Coordinator, Masters Program in Holocaust and Genocide Studies
The University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Second Vice President, IAGS
Dr. Stephanie Wolfe
Weber State University
Ogden, UT
New Media Communications, IAGS
Prof. Israel W. Charny, Ph.D.
Executive Director, Institute on the Holocaust & Genocide
Jerusalem, Israel
Former President, IAGS
Dr. Robert Melson
Emeritus Professor
Purdue and Clark Universities
Purdue, Indiana and Worcester, MA
Former President, IAGS
Amy Fagin
Founder and Director, Beyond Genocide Centre for Prevention
New Salem, MA
IAGS Advisory Board
Dr. Adam Muller
Associate Professor
Department of English, Film, & Theatre
University of Manitoba
Winnipeg, Manitoba
IAGS Advisory Board
Dr. Melanie O’Brien
TC Beirne School of Law
University of Queensland, Australia
Editor, Genocide Studies and Prevention
IAGS Advisory Board
Prof. Hannibal Travis
Florida International University College of Law
Miami, FL
IAGS Advisory Board
Douglas Irvin-Erickson, Ph.D.
Director, Genocide Prevention Program
School for Conflict Analysis and Resolution
George Mason University
Arlington, VA
Editor, Journal of Genocide Studies and Prevention
Dr. Mohammed Hussein Ahmed, PhD
Professor of Linguistics
University of Garmian
Kurdistan, Iraq
Ruth Amir, Ph.D.
Senior Lecturer
Yezreel Valley College
Israel
Maral N. Attallah
Lecturer of Ethnic & Genocide Studies
Humboldt State University
Arcata, CA
Dr. Peter Balakian
Donald M. and Constance H. Rebar Professor of the Humanities
Colgate University
Hamilton, NY 13346
Dr. Janja Bec-Neumann
Distinguished Scholar
Vojvodina, Serbia
Sara E. Brown
Strassler Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies
Clark University
Worcester, MA
Jean-François Bussière-Wallot, LLM
Montreal Holocaust Memorial Centre
Montreal, Quebec
Canada
Ms. Julissa Contin
Counsellor,
Head of the African Division
Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic,
Prof. Stephen L. Egbert, PhD
Department of Geography
University of Kansas
Lawrence, KS
Sarah Federman, Ph.D.
Director of Corporate Accountability and Genocide Prevention
School of Conflict Analysis and Resolution
George Mason University, Arlington, VA
Dr. Marcello Flores
University of Siena
Italy
Prof. Karen Frostig, Ph.D.
Lesley University
Cambridge, MA
Resident Scholar
Brandeis University
Adam Jones, Ph.D.
Professor of Political Science
University of British Columbia
Canada
Dr. Zachary D. Kaufman
Fellow, John F. Kennedy School of Government
Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs
Harvard University
Cambridge, MA
Prof. Naupess K Kibiswa, PhD
Int’l Peace, Justice, Conflict Analysis, & Resolution
Genocide Awareness & Prevention Scholar
Catholic University of DR Congo (UCC)
Higher Institute of Medical Techniques (ISTM)
Former Fulbright Scholar, Gandhi Fellow, & YALI Alumnus
Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC)
Dr. Mark D. Kielsgard,
Assistant Professor of Law
City University of Hong Kong
Peoples Republic of China
Dr. Theodosios Kyriakidis
Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
St. George Peristereota Research Centre
Thessaloniki, Greece
John Liffiton BSc,MA
Director, Genocide Conference
Scottsdale Community College
Scottsdale, AZ
Beth E. Lilach
Senior Director of Education and Community Affairs
Holocaust Memorial and Tolerance Center
Glen Cove, NY
Nikki Marczak
Australian Institute for Holocaust and Genocide Studies
Brisbane
Australia
Armen T. Marsoobian, Ph.D.
Professor of Philosophy
Southern Connecticut State University
New Haven, CT
Dr. Jonathan Leader Maynard
Departmental Lecturer in International Relations, DPIR & New College
Research Associate, Oxford Institute for Ethics, Law and Armed Conflict
University of Oxford, England UK
Abigail Miller
Strassler Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies
Clark University
Worcester, MA
Prof. Christopher W. Mullins
Professor of Criminology and Criminal Justice
Southern Illinois University
Carbondale, IL
Rubina Peroomian, Ph.D.
UCLA
Los Angeles, CA
Heidi M. Ravven, Ph.D.
Professor of Religious Studies
Hamilton College
Clinton, NY
Dr. Elihu D Richter, MD, MPH
Associate Professor
Hebrew University-Hadassah School of Public Health and Community Medicine
Director, Jerusalem Center for Genocide Prevention
Jerusalem, Israel
Ariel Ricker
Hawaii State Senate
Honolulu, Hawaii
John K. Roth
Edward J. Sexton Professor Emeritus of Philosophy
Claremont McKenna College
Claremont, CA
Emily Sample
Associate Director of Education
Holocaust Museum Houston
Houston, TX
Marc I Sherman, MLS
Chief Librarian
Harry S. Truman Research Institute for the Advancement of Peace
Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Jerusalem, Israel
Robert Skloot, Professor Emeritus
University of Wisconsin-Madison
Madison, WI
Prof. Colin Tatz
Australian National University
Canberra, Australia
Mohammed H. Tofiq
Kurdish Author
Kurdistan, Iraq
Dr. Andrekos Varnava
Fellow of the Royal Historical Society
Senior Lecturer in Imperial and Military History
School of History and International Relations
Flinders University
Adelaide, Australia
Dr. Ernesto Verdeja
Associate Professor of Political Science and Peace Studies
University of Notre Dame
South Bend, Indiana
Prof. Margaret Urban Walker
Donald J. Schuenke Chair
Philosophy Department
Marquette University
Milwaukee, WI
Dr. Gregory Weeks
The Human Security Initiative
Vienna, Austria
Eve Zucker, Ph.D.
Sociocultural Anthropologist
Center for the Study of Genocide and Human Rights
Rutgers University
Newark, NJ
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