Genocide.
Definition
The deliberate and systematic destruction of a racial, ethnic, religious, or national group. Genocide involves acts intended to destroy the group in whole or in part, including mass killing, causing serious harm, and imposing conditions designed to eliminate the group.
Examples
Real-world.
- 1 The Holocaust, in which Nazi Germany murdered approximately 6 million Jews during WWII
- 2 The Rwandan genocide of 1994, in which approximately 800,000 Tutsis were killed in 100 days
- 3 The Armenian genocide during World War I carried out by the Ottoman Empire
Key Fact
The term 'genocide' was coined by Raphael Lemkin in 1944; the UN Genocide Convention was adopted in 1948.