History Day 2011: Debate and Diplomacy
Debate and Diplomacy
Our topic, The Genocide Policy in the UN, is considered both Debate and Diplomacy.The topic is considered debate because people still debate on if the policy really lasted and if genocide was really non-existent after World War Two. The UN gathered after World War Two and decided to prevent any genocidal events from happening, and it could be debated on whether that policy was held or not. The topic could also be associated with Diplomacy as the policy was meant to keep peace. Diplomacy is about negotiation and peace, and that is what the UN is about. The Genocide policy is important because it is what, so far, has kept the world from any genocides as large as the holocaust.
The United Nations
The United Nations was established after World War II on the 24th of October in 1945 to maintain security and international peace. The United Nations is all over the world. They are best known for their peace keeping/building and their conflict prevention. They have personnel all over working on several different operations across the world that are all helping civilians.
Genocide
The definition of Genocide by the Merriam-Webster dictionary is the deliberate and systematic destruction of a racial, political, or cultural group. Or, in simpler terms, a person, or group of people set on killing a certain type of people. The most common example of Genocide is the Holocaust. In the Holocaust, about 6 million Jews were killed, often brutally, by the Nazi. In this case, the Nazi were the group of people and the Jews were the people they were set on killing.
UN Policy on Genocide
Right after the Holocaust in 1949, the topic of the United Nations Convention was Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. It was meant to tell everyone of genocide and tell of ways to stop/prevent it. They also defined genocide as the intent to destroy in whole or in part a racial, ethnic, religious, or national group. Unfortunately, their efforts showed to be of little use.
Successes and Failures
Ever since the United Nations policy on Genocide, a Genocidal event as terrible as the Holocaust has not happened, and that may be considered a success. However, the policy did not rid of Genocide altogether. One of the most recent incidents of Genocide have been the Rwanda genocide, in which approximately 800,000 people died, and this could accounted as a failure. Though 800,000 people is terrible, the Holocaust was 6 Million deaths, which is still much worse. So, the United Nations policy did not fail entirely. Although to oppose the failure, the person in charge of the Rwanda genocide was prosecuted.
Conclusion
In the end, the United Nations created a Policy that was meant to prevent and stop Genocide. The policy did not work as planned, but it did prevent genocidal events as massive as the Holocaust.
