International Law in the Age of Genocide
While Lemkin was able to convince diplomats at the United Nations to pass the Genocide Convention, his work was not complete upon his death. The job of lobbying governments across the world to ratify the convention was left to ordinary people.
![A photograph of several delegates who signed the UN Genocide Convention Credit: US Holocaust Memorial Museum, gift of United Nations](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2022-09/Lemkin_Ratification_Of_Genocide_Convention_FH131485.jpg?h=6db1c67f&itok=hEICVT3F)
France, Great Britain, and Russia Joint Declaration, 1915
In 1915, France, Great Britain, and Russia, issued a declaration condemning the ongoing Armenian genocide carried out in the Ottoman Empire and threatening to hold the perpetrators accountable.
![A photograph of several delegates who signed the UN Genocide Convention Credit: US Holocaust Memorial Museum, gift of United Nations](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2022-09/Lemkin_Ratification_Of_Genocide_Convention_FH131485.jpg?h=6db1c67f&itok=hEICVT3F)
Excerpt from Axis Rule in Occupied Europe by Raphael Lemkin
This reading contains an excerpt from Axis Rule in Occupied Europe by Raphael Lemkin, where he coins the term genocide.
![A photograph of several delegates who signed the UN Genocide Convention Credit: US Holocaust Memorial Museum, gift of United Nations](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2022-09/Lemkin_Ratification_Of_Genocide_Convention_FH131485.jpg?h=6db1c67f&itok=hEICVT3F)
“Sovereignty cannot be conceived as the right to kill millions”
Raphael Lemkin was outraged when he heard that the mass murder of the Armenians went unpunished. He was haunted by the case of Soghomon Tehlirian—an Armenian survivor of the genocide who killed Mehmed Talaat, minister of the interior of the Ottoman Empire (now Turkey).
![A photograph of several delegates who signed the UN Genocide Convention Credit: US Holocaust Memorial Museum, gift of United Nations](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2022-09/Lemkin_Ratification_Of_Genocide_Convention_FH131485.jpg?h=6db1c67f&itok=hEICVT3F)
Les excuses du premier ministre Harper
Les excuses faisaient partie du processus organisé par le gouvernement et les Premières Nations en tant que signataires de l'entente; il s'agissait d'une tentative d'aborder le rôle du gouvernement dans l'histoire des pensionnats autochtones.
![Graphic from cover of "Stolen Lives: The Indigenous Peoples of Canada and the Indian Residential Schools."](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2022-05/SL_graphic5.png?h=bc3345c8&itok=_uc8CaVR)
Le danger d’une histoire unique
L’écrivaine nigériane Chimamanda Adichie nous met au défi de considérer le pouvoir des histoires pour influencer l’identité, façonner les stéréotypes et construire des chemins vers l’empathie.
![Fragmented images of a human face.](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2022-07/Ch01_Image07_Medium_res.jpg?h=d2de68a6&itok=T0WiNJDv)
Territorial Changes of the Ottoman Empire 1817 - 1913
View a series of maps highlighting changes to the Ottoman Empire in green.
![Map of the Ottoman Empire Territory in 1817](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2022-07/Territorial_changes_of_the_Ottoman_Empire_1817_800x600.jpeg?h=ccb565a9&itok=AN0JbOzo)
Métis
The term Métis describes descendants of both Europeans and First Nations people (the Canadian government did not formally recognize the term until the Constitution Act of 1982).
![Graphic from cover of "Stolen Lives: The Indigenous Peoples of Canada and the Indian Residential Schools."](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2022-05/SL_graphic5.png?h=bc3345c8&itok=_uc8CaVR)
The Invention of the “Indian”
One of the first acts of the European colonization of the Americas was an act of naming or, more accurately, misnaming.
![Graphic from cover of "Stolen Lives: The Indigenous Peoples of Canada and the Indian Residential Schools."](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2022-05/SL_graphic5.png?h=bc3345c8&itok=_uc8CaVR)
L'invention de l'« Indien »
L'un des premiers gestes de la colonisation européenne des Amériques n'a pas été de voler les terres autochtones, mais bien l'attribution d'un nom et plus exactement l'attribution erronée d'un nom.
![Graphic from cover of "Stolen Lives: The Indigenous Peoples of Canada and the Indian Residential Schools."](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2022-05/SL_graphic5.png?h=bc3345c8&itok=_uc8CaVR)
Colonization
When the European powers set their sights on North America, some three hundred years after the so-called discovery of the continent (which for them was the “New World”), it became a location for French and British settlements.
![Graphic from cover of "Stolen Lives: The Indigenous Peoples of Canada and the Indian Residential Schools."](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2022-05/SL_graphic5.png?h=bc3345c8&itok=_uc8CaVR)