Military, War, and Peace Commons^™

The Case For Sanctioning State Sponsors Of Genocide Incitement, Henry K. Kopel

Henry K. Kopel

This Article recommends a policy designed to reduce the incidence of genocide, by legislation that would impose sanctions against state sponsors of genocide incitement. Genocide incitement is a crime under the UN Genocide Convention. The goal of sanctioning state sponsors of such incitement is to prevent genocides proactively, before the mass killing starts. Three prominent twentieth-century genocides–those of the European Jews, the Bosnian Muslims, and the Rwandan Tutsi–all were preceded by pervasive and deliberate campaigns of state-sponsored hate incitement. Most if not all genocides are preceded by similar patterns of incitement. Historical studies also show that most of the actual …