University of Toronto Press
The United Nations Genocide Convention: An Introduction
Key Metrics
- Samuel Totten
- University of Toronto Press
- Paperback
- 9781487524081
- 8.4 X 5.5 X 0.5 inches
- 0.57 pounds
- Political Science > Genocide & War Crimes
- English
Secure TransactionBook Description
It is virtually impossible to understand the phenomenon of genocide without a clear understanding of the complexities of the United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (UNCG). This brief but cogent book provides an introduction to the unique wording, legal terminology, and key components of the convention, which was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 1948.
Providing clarity on the distinctions between genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and ethnic cleansing, this book is designed to be an entry into further study of genocide in its legal, historical, political, and philosophical dimensions. Key terms, such as intent and motive, are explained, case studies are included, and a detailed bibliography at the conclusion of the book offers suggested avenues for more advanced study of the UNCG.
Author Bio
Samuel Totten is Professor Emeritus at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville. He is a longtime scholar of genocide studies. In 2004 he served as one of 24 investigators with the U.S. State Department-sponsored Atrocities Documentation Project, interviewing refugees from Darfur in refugee camps along the Chad/Darfur, Sudan border.
The data collected in the interviews were used by then U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell to ascertain whether genocide had or had not been perpetrated in Darfur. On September 9, 2004, acknowledging the work of the ADP team, Powell informed the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee that Sudan had perpetrated genocide in Darfur and was possibly still doing so. On his own over the next five years Totten continued to interview refugees from Darfur.
The results of that research is delineated in his book An Oral and Documentary History of the Darfur Genocide (Praeger Security International Press, 2011). From 2010 through today, Totten has focused on both the genocide by attrition perpetrated by the Government of Sudan against the people of the Nuba Mountains (late 1980s/1990s) and, more recently, the current war in the State of South Kordofan.
Thus far, two books have resulted from the latter research: Genocide by Attrition, Second Edition (Transaction Publishers, 2015), and Conflict in the Nuba Mountains: From Genocide by Attrition to the Contemporary Crisis in Sudan (Routledge, 2015). He holds a Doctor of Education degree from Columbia University in New York City.
Source: TheConversation.com
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