Ten stages of genocide

The ten stages of genocide, formerly the eight stages of genocide, is an academic tool and a policy model which was created by Gregory Stanton, former research professor and founding president of Genocide Watch, in order to explain how genocides occur. The stages of genocide are not linear and several of them may occur simultaneously. Stanton's stages are a conceptual model based on analyses of scores of genocides including the Armenian Genocide, the Holocaust, the Cambodian Genocide, the Genocide of the Tutsi in Rwanda, the Darfur, Myanmar, Bosnian, Bangladesh, and other genocides that reveal the common processes that lead to genocides. The model's stages are transformational processes that change cultures and result in genocides. The model is also a model for determining preventive measures that can be used at each stage of the overall genocidal process.

Stanton developed the model after directing a relief program in Phnom Penh, Cambodia in 1980. He conceived of it after studying the Holocaust, the Cambodian genocide, the Armenian Genocide, and other genocides.^[1] He published the model in the 1987 Faulds Lecture at Warren Wilson College, and he also presented it to the American Anthropological Association in 1987. In 2012, he added two additional stages, discrimination and persecution.

The model is based on the structuralist theories of Jean Piaget and Noam Chomsky that describe the transformations in human cognition and language. It is thus not based on statistical probabilities, but rather on the underlying processes observable in social and cultural events. For that reason, some political scientists reject it because the model cannot be reduced to statistics. But it has proven to be more predictive of genocides than any statistical model. The model has been successful in predicting every genocide before it happened since 1987 . Perhaps the most famous example is its use in Stanton's prediction of the genocide against the Tutsis in Rwanda five years before it took place. Stanton met with President Juvénal Habyarimana of Rwanda and warned him of the coming genocide in 1989.

In 1996, Stanton presented a briefing paper called "The 8 Stages of Genocide" to the United States Department of State.^[2] In the paper, he suggested that genocides occur in eight stages that are "predictable but not inexorable".^[a]^[2] Each 'stage' or process can be countered with preventive measures. The suggested intervention measures are ones that the United States government and NATO could implement or influence other European and African nations to implement including diplomacy or as a last resort, military intervention.

Stanton's model is widely used in the teaching of comparative genocide studies in a variety of settings, ranging from university courses to museum education, settings which include the Dallas Holocaust and Human Rights Museum.

Ten stages of genocide

The first stage, classification, involves the division of people into "us" and "them" based on perceived differences such as ethnicity, religion, or nationality. The stage of symbolization involves the assignment of names or symbols onto the classifications, identifying members of the "other" group. Nazi yellow stars imposed on Jews were a classic example. When combined with the stage of "discrimination" or the stage of "dehumanization," a dominant group may develop an ideology of superiority over an oppressed group, creating justifications for genocide and crimes against humanity. Whole groups may be excluded from classification as "citizens" in order to justify discrimination against them and exclusion from their human rights. Discrimination and dehumanization impose stereotypes on the targeted group that reinforce their inferior status in the eyes of the perpetrators. Dehumanization makes murder without guilt possible for perpetrators, because they are convinced they are purifying society by ridding it of "rats" or "cockroaches." This can manifest in the form of hate symbols, propaganda, or incendiary speech that seeks to justify violence against the targeted group. These stages may be followed by organization of hate groups and polarization, in which extremists target moderates as class or group enemies. In the preparation stage, perpetrators plan the genocide and mobilize support for their genocidal campaign. Crimes against the targeted group intensify into persecution, in order to isolate and marginalize the targeted group. The stage of killing, destruction of conditions of life, prevention of births, and kidnapping children is extermination of members of the targeted group. At this stage, lawyers may finally be willing to recognize the crime of "Genocide." From the beginning of the genocidal process to long afterwards, perpetrators deny that they committed any crimes. This is the stage of denial, which begins and follows every genocide, sometimes lasting for centuries.^[3]

#	Stage	Characteristics	Preventative measures
1	Classification	People are divided into "them and us".	"The main preventive measure at this early stage is to develop universalistic institutions that transcend... divisions."
2	Symbolization	"When combined with hatred, symbols may be forced upon unwilling members of pariah groups..."	"To combat symbolization, hate symbols can be legally forbidden as can hate speech."
3	Discrimination	"Law or cultural power excludes groups from full civil rights: segregation or apartheid laws, denial of voting rights".	"Pass and enforce laws prohibiting discrimination. Full citizenship and voting rights for all groups."
4	Dehumanization	"One group denies the humanity of the other group. Members of it are equated with animals, vermin, insects, excrement or diseases."	"Local and international leaders should condemn the use of hate speech and make it culturally unacceptable. Leaders who incite genocide should be banned from international travel and have their foreign finances frozen."
5	Organization	"Genocide is always organized... Special army units or militias are often trained and armed..."	"The U.N. should impose arms embargoes on governments and citizens of countries involved in genocidal massacres, and create commissions to investigate violations."
6	Polarization	"Extremists drive the groups apart... Leaders are arrested and murdered... laws erode fundamental civil rights and liberties."	"Prevention may mean security protection for moderate leaders or assistance to human rights groups... Coups d'état by extremists should be opposed by international sanctions."
7	Preparation	"Mass killing is planned. Victims are identified and separated because of their ethnic or religious identity..."	"At this stage, a Genocide Emergency must be declared. Full diplomatic pressure by regional organizations must be invoked, including preparation to intervene to prevent genocide."
8	Persecution	"Expropriation, forced displacement, ghettos, concentration camps".	"Direct assistance to victim groups, targeted sanctions against persecutors, mobilization of humanitarian assistance or intervention, protection of refugees."
9	Extermination	"It is 'extermination' to the killers because they do not believe their victims to be fully human".	"At this stage, only rapid and overwhelming armed intervention can stop genocide. Real safe areas or refugee escape corridors should be established with heavily armed international protection."
10	Denial	"The perpetrators... deny that they committed any crimes..."	"The response to denial is punishment by an international tribunal or national courts."

Analysis

Other genocide scholars have focused on the cultural and political conditions that lead to genocides. Sociologist Helen Fein showed that pre-existing antisemitism was correlated with the percentage of Jews who were killed in European countries during the Holocaust.^[4] Political scientists such as Dr. Barbara Harff identified political characteristics of states that statistically correlate with risk of genocide: prior genocides with impunity, political upheaval, exclusionary ideology, autocracy, closed borders, and massive violations of human rights.^[5]

Stanton's model places the risk factors in Harff's analysis into a processual structure. For instance:

Political instability is a characteristic of what Leo Kuper^[6] called "divided societies" with deep rifts, as in classification.
Naming and identifying members of the group occurs through symbolization.
Groups targeted by the state are victims of discrimination.
An exclusionary ideology is central to dehumanization.
Autocratic regimes foster the organization of hate groups.
An ethnically polarized elite is characteristic of polarization.
Lack of openness to trade and other influences from outside a state's borders is characteristic of preparation.
Massive violations of human rights are examples of persecution.
Extermination of the group in whole or in part legally constitutes genocide.
Impunity after previous genocides is evidence of denial.

Stanton has suggested that "ultimately, the best antidote to genocide is popular education and the development of social and cultural tolerance for diversity."^[7]

Notes

^ The FBI has found that somewhat similar stages occur when hate groups are formed

References

^ "Genocide Watch- Ten Stages of Genocide". genocidewatch. Retrieved 2024-01-22.
^ ^a ^b "The 8 Stages of Genocide" (PDF). Genocide Watch. 1996.
^ "The ten stages of genocide". Holocaust Memorial Day Trust. December 12, 2024. Retrieved December 12, 2024.
^ Fein, Helen (1979). Accounting for genocide: Victims and survivors of the Holocaust. New York: Free Press.
^ Harff, Barbara (2003). "No Lessons Learned from the Holocaust? Assessing Risks of Genocide and Political Mass Murder since 1955". The American Political Science Review. 97 (1): 57–73. doi:10.1017/S0003055403000522. JSTOR 3118221. S2CID 54804182.
^ Kuper, Leo (1981). Genocide (1982 ed.). New Haven: Yale. p. 58. ISBN 0-300-03120-3.
^ Stanton, Gregory (2020). "The Ten Stages of Genocide". Genocide Watch. Archived from the original on 14 May 2020.

Ten stages of genocide

Ten stages of genocide

Analysis

See also

Notes

References

Further reading