Cultural genocide

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In a cultural genocide (or culturicide), one group of people attempts to destroy the culture and identity of another group.

A Polish-Jewish lawyer named Raphael Lemkin created the terms "genocide" and "cultural genocide" in 1944.^[1] He argued that destroying culture is a major part of genocide.^[1]

The precise definition of cultural genocide is still debated. The drafters of the 1948 Genocide Convention initially considered using the term, but later dropped it from inclusion.

Cultural genocide, by itself, does not meet the United Nations' definition of genocide. This definition requires proof that perpetrators "intended to physically destroy a national, ethnical, racial or religious group. Cultural destruction does not suffice[.]"^[2]

The Armenian Genocide Museum defines culturicide as "acts and measures undertaken to destroy nations' or ethnic groups' culture through spiritual, national, and cultural destruction". In this definition, culturicide is essentially the same as ethnocide.

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1} Lemkin, Raphael (1944). Axis Rule in Occupied Europe: Laws of Occupation, Analysis of Government, and Proposals for Redress. Washington, D.C.: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. ISBN 978-1584779018.
2. ↑ United Nations. "Definitions of Genocide and Related Crimes". www.un.org. Retrieved 2024-09-22.