Exploring Critical Issues in Religious Genocide: Case Studies of Violence in Tibet, Iraq and Gujarat

Abstract

Religious genocide appears to be a small part of existing genocide jurisprudence. Most of the well-known genocide trials have focused on racial, national, or ethnic genocide, even when a claim of religious genocide seemed possible. For example, the International Military Tribunal (IMT) at Nuremberg treated the persecution of the Jews as racial in nature, although it could also have been viewed as religious. In its most famous genocide decision, the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) found that Bosnian Muslims represented a distinct national group, even as it tacitly acknowledged that the Bosnian Muslims could be a religious group. The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) has consistently concluded that the genocide committed in Rwanda was ethnic in nature. In short, criminal cases of religious genocide are quite rare. This article explores the contours of religious genocide through case studies of religious violence in Tibet, Iraq and Gujarat.

Keywords: genocide, Tibet, Iraq, Gujarat, violence, religous, international criminal law

JEL Classification: K14, K33