Towards a Theory of Displacement Atrocities: The Cherokee Trail of Tears, The Herero Genocide, and The Pontic Greek Genocide

Abstract

Abstract. This article examines how displacement is used as a tool of atrocity perpetration and offers initial observations that will be used to create a future typology of Displacement Atrocities. Perpetrators' uses of forced population displacement coupled with systematic deprivations of vital daily needs (i.e., food, water, clothing, shelter, and medical care) combine to kill targeted victims through primarily indirect methods. A preliminary theoretical framework of Displacement Atrocities is offered and the critical elements that comprise this crime are explored. I argue that the Displacement Atrocity crime is a new way of understanding lethal forced population displacement. This theoretical framework is used to examine three typically understudied atrocities: the Cherokee Trail of Tears, the Herero Genocide, and the Pontic Greek Genocide. These processes of destruction are all classified as examples of Displacement Atrocities. This article is part of a larger research project on Displacement Atrocities to be completed in the coming years.

The Right to Home: Domicide as a Violation of Child and Family Rights in the Context of Political Violence

“…While typically thought of as occurring in development situations, domicide occurs during forced population transfers, internal displacements, forced relocations in armed conflict, mass exoduses and refugee movements and atrocity crimes (Basso, ). Domicide disproportionately negatively affects ‘children, youth, other persons [from minority groups], indigenous people, ethnic and other minorities, and other vulnerable individuals and groups’ (ICESCR, General Comment 7(10)).…”

“…For example, in 1944 the Chechens were violently removed from their homes in Transcaucasia as part of Joseph Stalin's population transfers and ethnic Russians were placed in their homes by Soviet authorities. These actions sowed the seeds of war decades later in the 1990s (Basso, ; Naimark, ). Conversely, indirect forms of violence involve using non‐physical and subtle force to displace populations from their homes through socioeconomic exclusion, political manoeuvring and bureaucratic structures.…”