Reply #106: genocide begins w/ incitement & threats

[shira]

under the Genocide Convention act, Iran, Hezbollah, and Hamas are guilty. Not only do they use this language of incitement, they actively work at deliberately targetting civilian populations (Hamas had 1 million Israelis within rocket range during OCL). That they don't have the means to target or kill more doesn't minimize their crime.

The Genocide Convention charter specifically prohibits "direct and public incitement to genocide".

There can be no mistake about it: Iran has already committed the crime of incitement prohibited under the Genocide Convention.

Canada should lead the international community in paying heed to the precursors of genocide in Ahmadinejad’s Iran, and in acting now as mandated under the Genocide Convention. Indeed, as one involved as Minister of Justice in the prosecution of Rwandan incitement, I can state that the aggregate of precursors of incitement in the Iranian case are more threatening than were those in the Rwandan one.

The threat of genocide should not be disconnected from the nuclear issue, let alone ignored. It is the terrifying and vilifying context in which the nuclear threat operates, and the Genocide Convention, together with international legal instruments such as the Treaty for an International Criminal Court – which also directly prohibits the public incitement to genocide – and the UN Charter, authorize a panoply of international legal remedies which Canada could invoke.

Specifically, an application to hold Iran – also a state party – to account should be submitted to the UN Security Council pursuant to Article 8 of the Genocide Convention; an inter-state complaint can be launched against Iran before the International Court of Justice; and UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon should be asked to refer the danger of a genocidal and nuclear Iran to the Security Council as a threat to international peace and security.

Given their genocidal incitement, the cases of President Ahmadinejad and other Iranian leaders can be referred to other UN agencies as well. What is so astonishing is that this criminal incitement by a nuclear weapon-seeking Iran has yet to be addressed by any agency of the UN—thereby nurturing a culture of impunity that itself is driving a culture of hatred. And what is no less disturbing – considering that indifference and inaction are also what made prior genocides possible – is that no state party has invoked any of these mandated initiatives.

http://engageonline.wordpress.com/2009/03/25/ahm/