Cultural genocide

The notion of 'cultural genocide' was acknowledged as early as 1944, when lawyer Raphael Lemkin distinguished a cultural component of genocide. In 1989, Robert Badinter, a French criminal lawyer known for his stance against the death penalty, used the term "cultural genocide" on a television show to describe what he said was the disappearance of Tibetan culture in the presence of the 14th Dalai Lama. The Dalai Lama would later use the term in 1993 and again in 2008.

{{see also | United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples }}

The concept of cultural genocide was originally included in drafts of the 1948 Genocide Convention. Genocide was defined as the destruction of a group's language, religion, or culture through one of several methods. This definition of genocide was rejected by the drafting committee by a vote of 25 to 16, with 4 abstentions.{{cite book |last=Flores |first=Marcello |chapter=Introduction |date=2023-12-05 |title=Monuments and Identities in the Caucasus |pages=1–11 |url=https://brill.com/display/book/9789004677388/BP000001.xml |access-date=19 March 2024 |publisher=Brill |language=en |doi=10.1163/9789004677388_002 |isbn=978-90-04-67738-8}}

Article 7 of a 1994 draft of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (DRIP) uses the phrase "cultural genocide" but does not define what it means. The complete article in the draft read as follows:

:Indigenous peoples have the collective and individual right not to be subjected to ethnocide and cultural genocide, including prevention of and redress for:

::(a) Any action which has the aim or effect of depriving them of their integrity as distinct peoples, or of their cultural values or ethnic identities;

::(b) Any action which has the aim or effect of dispossessing them of their lands, territories or resources;

::(c) Any form of population transfer which has the aim or effect of violating or undermining any of their rights;

::(d) Any form of assimilation or integration by other cultures or ways of life imposed on them by legislative, administrative or other measures;

::(e) Any form of propaganda directed against them.

This wording only ever appeared in a draft. The DRIP—which was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly during its 62nd session at UN Headquarters in New York City on 13 September 2007—only makes reference to genocide once, when it mentions "genocide, or any other act of violence" in Article 7. Though the concept of "ethnocide" and "cultural genocide" was removed in the version adopted by the General Assembly, the sub-points from the draft noted above were retained (with slightly expanded wording) in Article 8 that speaks to "the right not to be subject to forced assimilation."{{cite web |url=https://www.un.org/development/desa/indigenouspeoples/wp-content/uploads/sites/19/2018/11/UNDRIP_E_web.pdf |title=United Nations Declaration on Rights of Indigenous Peoples |publisher=United Nations |page=10 |date=13 September 2007 |access-date=9 June 2015 |archive-url= |archive-date=}}

The United Nations does not include cultural genocide in the definition of genocide used in the 1948 Genocide Convention:

{{blockquote| The definition contained in Article II of the Convention describes genocide as a crime committed with the intent to destroy a national, ethnic, racial or religious group, in whole or in part. It does not include political groups or so called "cultural genocide". This definition was the result of a negotiating process and reflects the compromise reached among United Nations Member States while drafting the Convention in 1948...To constitute genocide, there must be a proven intent on the part of perpetrators to physically destroy [the] group. Cultural destruction does not suffice, nor does an intention to simply disperse a group, though this may constitute a crime against humanity as set out in the Rome Statute. It is this special intent, or dolus specialis, that makes the crime of genocide so unique.}}

While not qualifying as genocide under the Convention, the issue is addressed in multiple international treaties, including the Geneva Conventions and the Rome Statute, which define war crimes associated with the destruction of culture.

The term has been used to describe the destruction of cultural heritage in connection with various events which mostly occurred during the 20th century:

• Historian Stephen Wheatcroft states that the Soviet peasantry was subject to cultural destruction during the creation of the "New Soviet man",The Complexity of the Kazakh Famine: Food Problems and Faulty Perceptions Stephen G. Wheatcroft Lynne Viola makes a similar characterization of Collectivization in the Soviet Union adding a noted colonial character to the project in their observation of the event.{{cite book |last1=Viola |first1=Lynne |title=The Collectivization of Agriculture in Communist Eastern Europe:Comparison and Entanglements |date=2014 |publisher=Central European University Press |isbn=978-963-386-048-9 |chapter=Collectivization in the Soviet Union: Specificities and Modalities |pages=49–69}}
• During the genocide of the Chechens and Ingush in 1944, Soviet forces destroyed almost every piece of Chechen and Ingush language literature in existence, and damaged or destroyed many Chechen and Ingush cultural sites and artifacts, including towers in the highlands that had been built to resist Mongol invasions in the 13th century. Chechens and Ingush gravestones were destroyed, and when the Chechens and Ingush were allowed to return to their homes a decade later, they were forbidden from settling in their ancestral mountain lands.{{Cite web |date=29 April 2019 |title=The Massive Deportation of the Chechen People: How and why Chechens were Deported {{!}} Sciences Po Violence de masse et Résistance - Réseau de recherche |url=https://www.sciencespo.fr/mass-violence-war-massacre-resistance/fr/document/massive-deportation-chechen-people-how-and-why-chechens-were-deported.html |access-date=22 August 2024 |website=SciencesPo |language=fr |archive-url= |archive-date=}}{{Cite web |last=WAOP |date=14 April 2023 |title=Deportation of Chechens and Ingush in 1944. |url=https://deportation.org.ua/deportation-of-chechens-and-ingush-in-1944/ |access-date=22 August 2024 |website=WAOP? |language=en-US |archive-url= |archive-date=}}{{Cite news |last1=Sultanov |first1=Akhmed |last2=Yelkhoyev |first2=Lecha |last3=Bigg |first3=Claire |date=22 February 2014 |title='There Was No Water, No Food' -- Chechens Remember Horror Of 1944 Deportations |url=https://www.rferl.org/a/chechen-deportation-1944-survivors/25273614.html |access-date=22 August 2024 |work=Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty |language=en |archive-url= |archive-date=}}
• In reference to the Axis powers (primarily, Nazi Germany)'s policies towards some nations during World War II (ex. the German occupation of Poland & the destruction of Polish culture).
• Nazi forces committed cultural genocide against Serbian cultural treasures during the Invasion of Yugoslavia in 1941. On Hitler's direct order, the National Library in Belgrade was bombed and thousands of valuable documents were burned. Many other cultural institutions and monuments were looted.{{Cite web |title=Kakvo neobično blago, osim knjiga, čuva Narodna biblioteka Srbije |url=https://www.rts.rs/lat/magazin/kultura/nesto-drugo/4417514/kakvo-neobicno-blago-osim-knjiga-cuva-narodna-biblioteka-srbije.html |access-date=2025-02-26 |website=РТС |language=sr}}{{Cite web |title=Mesta zločina - mesta pomirenja: Narodna biblioteka Srbije – DW – 9. 5. 2020. |url=https://www.dw.com/sr/mesta-zlo%C4%8Dina-mesta-pomirenja-narodna-biblioteka-srbije/a-53377573 |access-date=2025-02-26 |website=dw.com |language=sr}}{{Cite web |last=Tanjug |date=2022-04-06 |title=Obnavlja se mesto gde se desila najveća tragedija srpske kulture |url=https://nova.rs/kultura/obnavlja-se-mesto-gde-se-desila-najveca-tragedija-srpske-kulture/ |access-date=2025-02-26 |website=NOVA portal |language=sr-RS}}
• In the Bosnian War during the Siege of Sarajevo, cultural genocide was committed by Bosnian Serb forces. The National and University Library of Bosnia and Herzegovina was specifically targeted and besieged by cannons positioned all around the city. The National Library was completely destroyed in the fire, along with 80 per cent of its contents. Some 3 million books were destroyed, along with hundreds of original documents from the Ottoman Empire and the Austro-Hungarian monarchy.{{cite news |work=Deutsche Welle |title=Burned library symbolizes multiethnic Sarajevo |date=25 August 2012 |url=https://www.dw.com/en/burned-library-symbolizes-multiethnic-sarajevo/a-16192965 |archive-url= |archive-date=}}
• 2004 unrest in Kosovo.{{Cite book |last=J̌овић |first=Саво Б. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=q6YRAQAAIAAJ|title=Етничко чишћење и културни геноцид на Косову и Метохији: Сведочанства о страдању Српске православне цркве и српског народа од 1945. до 2005. год |date=2007 |publisher=Информативно-издавачка установа Српске православне цркве |isbn=978-86-7758-016-2 |language=sr}} In an urgent appeal,{{Cite web |url=http://spc.rs/eng/appeal_extraordinary_session_expanded_convocation_holy_synod_bishops |title=Appeal from the extraordinary session of the Expanded Convocation of the Holy Synod of Serbian Orthodox Church |access-date=20 May 2020 |archive-date=19 February 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220219163501/http://spc.rs/eng/appeal_extraordinary_session_expanded_convocation_holy_synod_bishops}} issued on 18 March by the extraordinary session of the Expanded Convocation of the Holy Synod of Serbian Orthodox Church ({{abbr|SPC|Serbian Orthodox Church}}), it was reported that a number of Serbian churches and shrines in Kosovo had been damaged or destroyed by Albanian rioters. At least 30 sites were completely destroyed, more or less destroyed, or further destroyed (sites that had been previously damaged).{{cite web |author=ERP KiM Info |title=Dopunjeni i ispravljeni spisak uništenih i oštećenih pravoslavnih crkava i manastira na Kosovu u toku martovskog nasilja |language=bs |trans-title=Completed and corrected list of destroyed and damaged Orthodox churches and monasteries in Kosovo during the March violence |work=B92 Specijal |date=26 April 2004 |publisher=B92 |url=http://www.b92.net/specijal/kosovo2004/unistenecrkve.php |archive-url= |archive-date=}}
• After the Greek Civil War, Greek authorities had conducted a cultural genocide upon Slavic Macedonians in Northern Greece through prohibition of communication in Slavic languages, renaming of cities, towns and villages (Lerin/Лерин to Florina etc.), deportation of Slavic Macedonians, particularly women and children, as well as many other actions intended to marginalize and oppress the Slavic Macedonians residing in Northern Greece. While some of these actions had been motivated by political ideology, as many of the Slavic Macedonians had sided with the defeated communists, the majority of actions were committed to wipe out any traces of Slavic Macedonians or their culture in Northern Greece.{{Cite journal |date=1 May 1994 |title=Denying Ethnic Identity |url=https://www.hrw.org/report/1994/05/01/macedonians-greece |access-date=10 May 2021 |website=Human Rights Watch |language=en |archive-url= |archive-date=}}{{Cite news |date=24 February 2019 |title=Greece's invisible minority – the Macedonian Slavs |language=en-GB |work=BBC News |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/stories-47258809 |access-date=10 May 2021 |archive-url= |archive-date=}}
• Turkey: Especially in the island of Imbros. The island was primarily inhabited by ethnic Greeks from antiquity until approximately the 1960s, when many were forced to flee due to a campaign of cultural genocide and discrimination enacted by the Turkish government.Alexis Alexandris, "The Identity Issue of The Minorities in Greece And Turkey", in Hirschon, Renée (ed.), Crossing the Aegean: An Appraisal of the 1923 Compulsory Population Exchange Between Greece and Turkey, Berghahn Books, 2003, [https://books.google.com/books?id=8jJTge-_444C&pg=PA120 p. 120] Massive scale persecution against the local Greeks started in 1961, as part of the Eritme Programmi operation that aimed at the elimination of Greek education and the enforcement of economic, psychological pressure and violence. Under these conditions, the Turkish government approved the appropriation of >90% of the cultivated areas of the island and the settlement of additional 6,000 ethnic Turks from mainland Turkey.{{cite book |last=Limpitsioúni |first=Anthí G. |script-title=el:Το πλέγμα των ελληνοτουρκικών σχέσεων και η ελληνική μειονότητα στην Τουρκία, οι Έλληνες της Κωνσταντινούπολης της Ίμβρου και της Τενέδου |language=el |title=To plégma ton ellinotourkikón schéseon kai i ellinikí meionótita stin Tourkía, oi Éllines tis Konstantinoúpolis tis Ímvrou kai tis Tenédou |trans-title=The nexus of Greek-Turkish relations and the Greek minority in Turkey, the Greeks of Constantinople, Imbros and Tenedos |publisher=Αριστοτέλειο Πανεπιστήμιο Θεσσαλονίκης |pages=98–99}}{{cite book |last1=Eade |first1=John |last2=Katic |first2=Mario |title=Ashgate Studies in Pilgrimage |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gBqrBAAAQBAJ&q=imvros%2Bdiscrimination&pg=PA37 |publisher=Ashgate Publishing |date=28 June 2014 |page=38 |isbn=978-1-4724-1592-9}} Finally, the island was also officially renamed by Turkey in 1970 to Gökçeada to finalize the removal of any remaining Greek influence.
• Francoist Spain: the prohibition of the use of minority languages such as Catalan or Galician in the public space, from schools to shops, public transport, or even in the streets, the banning of the use of Catalan or Galician birth names for children, the renaming of cities, streets and all toponyms from Catalan, Basque or Galician to Castilian-Spanish, and the abolition of government and all cultural institutions in Catalonia, Valencia and the Balearic Islands as well as in Basque Country and Galicia with the goal of total cultural suppression and assimilation.{{Cite book |title=Catalunya sota el règim franquista |language=ca |trans-title=Catalonia under the Franco regime |last=Benet |first=Josep |date=1978 |publisher=Blume |isbn=84-7031-064-X |edition=1. reedició |location=Barcelona |oclc=4777662}}
• John D. Hargreaves writes that "A policy of cultural genocide was implemented: the Catalan language and key symbols of Catalan independent identity and nationhood, such as the flag (the senyera), the national hymn ('Els Segadors') and the national dance (the sardana), were proscribed. Any sign of independence or opposition, in fact, was brutally suppressed. Catalan identity and consequently the Catalan nation were threatened with extinction."{{Cite book |title=Freedom for Catalonia?: Catalan nationalism, Spanish identity, and the Barcelona Olympic Games |last=Hargreaves |first=John E. |author-link=John D. Hargreaves |date=2000 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-58615-3|location=Cambridge |oclc=51028883}}
• Although Josep Pla and other Catalan authors published books in Catalan in the 1950s, and even there were prizes of Catalan Literature during Francoism like the Premi Sant Jordi de novel·la, editorial production in Catalan never recovered the peak levels it had reached before Spanish Civil War.{{Cite book |last=Benet |first=Josep |title=Cataluña bajo el régimen franquista |language=ca |trans-title=Catalonia under the Franco regime |date=1979 |publisher=Blume |isbn=84-7031-144-1 |edition=1. |location=Barcelona |oclc=7188603}}{{cite web |url=https://www.gremieditors.cat/historia-de-ledicio-a-catalunya/ |title=Història de l'edició a Catalunya |date=27 September 2017 |language=ca |trans-title=History of publishing in Catalonia |archive-url= |archive-date=}} A prominent case of popularization of Catalan was Joan Manuel Serrat: although he could compose Catalan songs and gained certain notoriety, he was not allowed to sing in Catalan in the Eurovision contest its La, la, la theme, and was replaced by Spanish singer Massiel, who won the Eurovision contest.{{cite web |last1=Vatmanidis |first1=Theo |title=Catalonia crisis in Eurovision – how Spain blocked Catalan from victory |url=https://eurovisionary.com/catalonia-crisis-eurovision-spain-blocked-catalan-victory/ |website=EuroVisionary |access-date=8 December 2023 |date=8 October 2017}} Overall, despite some tolerance as Franco's regime relaxed in the late 60s and early 70s, Catalan and the rest of minority languages of Spain were strictly banned from higher education, administration and all official endeavors, thus being in practice confined to the private sphere and domestic uses (see Language policies of Francoist Spain).
• During the 19th and early 20th centuries, some schools in Wales adopted the Welsh Not policy to discourage students from speaking Welsh instead of English. Under this total immersion policy, students caught speaking Welsh were punished, most typically by having a lump of wood with the letters "WN" placed around their neck. Though the policy enjoyed widespread support among parents and the general public in Wales, some Welsh nationalists have described it as an example of cultural genocide. Academic Martin Johnes noted that despite the Welsh Not not being an official state policy, instead coming down to actions taken by individual teachers, it nonetheless remains "a powerful symbol of the oppression of Welsh culture."{{cite journal|first1=Martin|last1=Johnes|title=History and the Making and Remaking of Wales|url=https://cronfa.swansea.ac.uk/Record/cronfa21049/Download/0021049-11052017134425.pdf|journal=History|date=2015|issn=1468-229X|pages=667–684|volume=100|issue=343|doi=10.1111/1468-229X.12141|access-date=5 November 2024|archive-date=26 March 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220326202256/https://cronfa.swansea.ac.uk/Record/cronfa21049/Download/0021049-11052017134425.pdf|url-status=dead}}
• File:Irishin1871.jpg]] Numerous academics have argued Ireland was subject to cultural genocide under British rule, specifically focusing on attempts to suppress the Irish language, the culture of Ireland and the Catholic Church in Ireland.{{cite news |url=https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/cultural-genocide-the-broken-harp-identity-and-language-in-modern-ireland-by-tom%C3%A1s-mac-s%C3%ADom%C3%B3in-1.2299891 |title=Cultural genocide: The Broken Harp, Identity and Language in Modern Ireland, by Tomás Mac Síomóin |newspaper=The Irish Times |archive-url= |archive-date=}}{{cite web |url=https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/opendemocracyuk/guardian-view-on-cultural-genocide/ |title=The Guardian view on{{nbsp}}... cultural genocide |website=openDemocracy |archive-url= |archive-date=}} Academics Paul Bartrop, Tomás Mac Síomóin and Christopher Murray claimed that attempts to suppress the Irish language by the Dublin Castle administration amounted to a cultural genocide, and scholar Hilary Carey argued that the penal transportation of Irish convicts to Australia was also a cultural genocide.{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JGUUpRAP4CoC&pg=PA42 |title=Twentieth-Century Irish Drama: Mirror Up to Nation |first=Christopher |last=Murray |date=6 June 2019 |publisher=Syracuse University Press |via=Google Books|isbn=978-0-8156-0643-7}}{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WUJaBAAAQBAJ&q=%22Cultural+genocide%22+ireland&pg=PT29 |title=Believing in Australia: A cultural history of religions |first=Hilary M. |last=Carey |date=1 July 1996 |publisher=Allen & Unwin |via=Google Books |isbn=978-1-74269-657-7}}{{cite book |last1=Totten |first1=Samuel |author1-link=Samuel Totten |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rgGA91skoP4C&pg=PA91 |title=Dictionary of Genocide |last2=Bartrop |first2=Paul Robert |author2-link=Paul Bartrop |last3=Jacobs |first3=Steven L. |date=6 June 2019 |publisher=ABC-CLIO |isbn=978-0-313-34642-2 |via=Google Books}}
• France's policies (also known as Vergonha, "shame," in Occitan) towards its various regional and minority languages, referring to non-standard French as patois, have been described as genocide by professor of Catalan philology at the University of the Balearic Islands Jaume Corbera i Pou who argues,{{cite news |last1=Corbera |first1=Jaume |title=Le patois des vieux |url=https://www.dbalears.cat/opinio/opinio/2001/09/23/63269/le-patois-des-vieux.html |access-date=14 December 2021 |agency=Diari de Balears |date=23 September 2001 |archive-url= |archive-date=}}

When at the mid-19th century, primary school is made compulsory all across the State, it is also made clear that only French will be taught, and the teachers will severely punish any pupil speaking in patois. The aim of the French educational system will consequently not be to dignify the pupils' natural humanity, developing their culture and teaching them to write their language, but rather to humiliate them and morally degrade them for the simple fact of being what tradition and their nature made them. The self-proclaimed country of the "human rights" will then ignore one of man's most fundamental rights, the right to be himself and speak the language of his nation. And with that attitude France, the "grande France" that calls itself the champion of liberty, will pass the 20th century, indifferent to the timid protest movements of the various linguistic communities it submitted and the literary prestige they may have given birth to.

[...]

France, that under Franco's reign was seen here [in Catalonia] as the safe haven of freedom, has the miserable honour of being the [only] State of Europe—and probably the world – that succeeded best in the diabolical task of destroying its own ethnic and linguistic patrimony and moreover, of destroying human family bonds: many parents and children, or grandparents and grandchildren, have different languages, and the latter feel ashamed of the first because they speak a despicable patois, and no element of the grandparents' culture has been transmitted to the younger generation, as if they were born out of a completely new world. This is the French State that has just entered the 21st century, a country where stone monuments and natural landscapes are preserved and respected, but where many centuries of popular creation expressed in different tongues are on the brink of extinction. The "gloire" and the "grandeur" built on a genocide. No liberty, no equality, no fraternity: just cultural extermination, this is the real motto of the French Republic.

• Ukraine. As of February 29, 2024, according to the published data of the Prime Minister of Ukraine, Denys Shmyhal, about 900 objects of national heritage were damaged or destroyed in the occupied zones of Ukraine, and more than 20 thousand cultural monuments are under occupation.{{Cite web |date=2024-02-29 |title=Шмигаль: Понад 20 тисяч пам'яток культури перебуває під російською окупацією |url=https://www.ukrinform.ua/rubric-culture/3833912-smigal-ponad-20-tisac-pamatok-kulturi-perebuvae-pid-rosijskou-okupacieu.html |access-date=2024-03-28 |website=www.ukrinform.ua |language=uk}}{{Cite web |title=Cultural Genocide Against Ukraine: How is Russia Looting Ukrainian Museums? |url=https://ukraineworld.org/en/videos/cultural-genocide |access-date=2024-03-28 |website=ukraineworld.org |language=en}}{{Cite web |date=5 March 2024 |title="United for Justice. United for Heritage": Preserving Ukrainian Cultural Identity — EUAM Ukraine |url=https://www.euam-ukraine.eu/news/united-for-justice-united-for-heritage-preserving-ukrainian-cultural-identity/ |access-date=28 March 2024 |language=en-GB |archive-url= |archive-date=}}

• The persecution of Baháʼís in Iran as a case of religious persecution has been called a cultural genocide.{{cite journal |last=Frelick |first=Bill |title=Iranian Baha'is and Genocide Early Warning |journal=Social Science Record |volume=24 |issue=2 |pages=35–37 |date=Fall 1987 |url=http://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ362917 |access-date=3 March 2013 |archive-url= |archive-date=}}
• Azerbaijan's destruction, appropriation, and denial of Armenian heritage sites in Nakhchivan and Nagorno-Karabakh have been characterized as ethnocidePetrosyan 2010 – Petrosyan H., Cultural ethnocide in Artsakh (mechanism of extortion of cultural heritage), state terrorism of Azerbaijan and the policy of ethnic cleansing against Nagorno Karabakh, Shushi, pp. 137-148 (in Arm.). Petrosyan 2020 – Ethnocide in Artsakh: The Mechanisms of Azerbaijan’s Usurpation of Indigenous Armenian Cultural Heritage, Cultural Heritage. Experiences & Perspectives in International Context, Proceedings of the ROCHEMP center international conference, 23rd- 24th of January 2020, Yerevan, pp. 79-90.{{Cite journal |last=Roberts |first=Kasey |date=6 June 2022 |title=Present-Day Ethnocide: The Destruction of Armenian Cultural Heritage in Azerbaijan |url=https://tuljournals.temple.edu/index.php/mundi/article/view/586 |journal=MUNDI |language=en |volume=2 |issue=1 |archive-url= |archive-date=}} or potential cultural genocideKellogg, Ethan. [https://scholar.google.com/scholar_url?url=https://journals.library.cornell.edu/index.php/tcd/article/download/724/681&hl=en&sa=T&oi=gsb-gga&ct=res&cd=0&d=2144530705259449779&ei=88qyZYHqDOSo6rQPktWn0Ao&scisig=AFWwaeYLWt8sD_H-nTQ1Yhwu_3uu "Cultural Erasure in the Modern Day: The Destruction of Armenian Heritage Sites in Azerbaijan."] The Cornell Diplomat 9 (2023). This wide-spread destruction has taken place since at least the late 1990s, primarily in Nagorno-Karabakh and the Azerbaijani exclave of Nakhchivan, eliminating millennia of artifacts and altering the ethnic and cultural makeup of the region in a manner that may constitute cultural genocide.{{Cite journal |last=Der Matossian |first=Bedross |date=2023-08-01 |title=Impunity, Lack of Humanitarian Intervention, and International Apathy: The Blockade of the Lachin Corridor in Historical Perspective |url=https://utpjournals.press/doi/10.3138/GSI-2023-0008 |journal=Genocide Studies International |language=en |volume=15 |issue=1 |pages=7–20 |doi=10.3138/GSI-2023-0008 |issn=2291-1847 |quote=There is no doubt that a cultural genocide is taking place in Artsakh where the vandalism or destruction of Armenian monuments has become the norm. |archive-url= |archive-date=}}{{Cite web |last=Falcone |first=Daniel |date=6 January 2024 |title=Armenians Suffering in Nagorno-Karabakh Are Going Largely Ignored in US Media |url=https://truthout.org/articles/armenians-suffering-in-nagorno-karabakh-are-going-largely-ignored-in-us-media/ |access-date=20 February 2024 |website=Truthout |language=en-US |quote=In this under-reported case of cultural genocide involving political persecution, strains on due process rights, torture, lack of healthcare and food supplies, tens of thousands of ethnic Armenians have fled from Nagorno-Karabakh region after surrendering to Azerbaijan on September 20. |archive-url= |archive-date=}} and condemned by the International Court of Justice and European Parliament.{{Cite web |title=Texts adopted - Destruction of cultural heritage in Nagorno-Karabakh - Thursday, 10 March 2022 |url=https://www.europarl.europa.eu/doceo/document/TA-9-2022-0080_EN.html |access-date=29 January 2024 |website=www.europarl.europa.eu |language=en |quote=The European Parliament{{nbsp}}... calls on Azerbaijan to fully implement the provisional decision of the ICJ, in particular by 'refraining from suppressing the Armenian language, destroying Armenian cultural heritage or otherwise eliminating the existence of the historical Armenian cultural presence or inhibiting Armenians’ access and enjoyment thereof' and by 'restoring or returning any Armenian cultural and religious buildings and sites, artefacts or objects'; |archive-url= |archive-date=}} The destruction of thousands of medieval Armenian Churches, khachkars and gravestones at the Armenian cemetery in Julfa is a prominent example.{{cite news |last=Womack |first=Catherine |date=7 November 2019 |title=Historic Armenian monuments were obliterated. Some call it 'cultural genocide' |url=https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/story/2019-11-07/armenian-monuments-azerbaijan |newspaper=LA Times |archive-url= |archive-date=}}
• Turkey's destruction of Armenian cultural heritage in Turkey both during as well as in the decades after the Armenian genocide.{{Cite magazine |date=12 October 2023 |title=The Cultural Genocide Against Armenians |url=https://time.com/6322574/cultural-genocide-armenia-nagorno-karabakh-essay/ |access-date=6 February 2024 |magazine=TIME |language=en |quote=This is how cultural genocide plays out. A little more than 100 years ago was the Armenian Genocide waged by the Ottoman Empire, followed by largescale looting, vandalization, and destruction of Armenian sites across what is now modern-day Turkey. The prospect of a second cultural genocide is now on the table. Except now, Armenians will watch the spectacle unfold online, enduring the trauma site by site and monument by monument. |archive-url= |archive-date=}}
• Historian Sarah Cameron believes that while the Kazakh famine of 1931–1933 combined with a campaign against nomads was not genocide in the sense of the Genocide Convention's definition, it complies with Raphael Lemkin's original concept of genocide, which considered destruction of culture to be as genocidal as physical annihilation.
• Japanese occupation of Korea. Japan's extensive policy of cultural genocide included forcibly changing Korean names to Japanese names, the exclusive use of the Japanese language, school instruction in the Japanese "ethical system", and Shinto worship.
• The Sinicization of Tibet from the 1950s onwards. Following the 1959 Tibetan uprising, 97% of Tibet's monasteries were destroyed, while 2 million Tibetans, including 500,000 nomadic farmers, were relocated to newly created urban centers.{{cite journal |last=Sandhar |first=Jaspreet |title=Cultural Genocide in Tibet: The Failure of Article 8 of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples in Protecting the Cultural Rights of Tibetans |journal=Santander Art and Cultural Law Review |volume=2 |issue=1 |pages=175–198 |date=2005 |url=https://www.ejournals.eu/SAACLR/2015/2(2015)/art/6788/ |access-date=3 March 2013 |archive-url= |archive-date=}}
• The Japanese ban and discrimination which the Ainu and Ryukyuan cultures have been subjected to as well as other regional cultures.
• The "Destruction of the Four Olds" in the People's Republic of China during the Cultural Revolution, in which Red Guards destroyed various religious, cultural, and historical sites throughout the country, especially in Beijing as well as in the Temple of Confucius in Shandong.{{cite book |last1=MacFarquhar |first1=Roderick |last2=Schoenhals |first2=Michael |title=Mao's Last Revolution |publisher=Harvard University Press |year=2006 |isbn=978-0-674-02332-1}}
• Democratic Kampuchea (1975–1979), particularly its policies towards both the Kingdom of Cambodia (1953–1970) and the Khmer Republic (1970–1975).
• The newly-reunified Vietnam after the end of the Vietnam War, particularly its policies towards South Vietnam.
• The persecution of Sri Lankan Tamils during the Sri Lankan Civil War was a campaign of ethnic cleansing which was sponsored by the government and it has continued until the present day as a part of the Sinhalaisation of the northern and eastern parts of the island.
• The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant's forcible conversions in its territory as well as its destruction of ancient Assyrian, Roman, Yazidi and Christian heritage sites and museums.{{cite web |title=Cultural Genocide Funds ISIS Art-for-Weapons Trade |url=https://chargedaffairs.org/cultural-genocide-funds-isis-art-for-weapons-trade/ |website=Charged Affairs |date=7 March 2017 |archive-url= |archive-date=}}{{Dead link|date=December 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}
• The persecution of Uyghurs in China. Some one million members of China's Muslim Uyghur minority have been detained in massive detention camps, termed "reeducation camps", which exist for the purpose of changing the political thinking, identities and religious beliefs of the detainees, under the guise of "anti-terrorism".{{Cite news |last=Cronin-Furman |first=Kate |title=China Has Chosen Cultural Genocide in Xinjiang—For Now |url=https://foreignpolicy.com/2018/09/19/china-has-chosen-cultural-genocide-in-xinjiang-for-now/ |access-date=20 September 2018 |work=Foreign Policy |date=19 September 2018 |language=en |archive-url= |archive-date=}} Satellite evidence suggests that China has also razed more than two dozen Uyghur Muslim religious sites to the ground.{{cite news |last=Kuo |first=Lily |date=7 May 2019 |title=Revealed: new evidence of China's mission to raze the mosques of Xinjiang |url=https://theguardian.com/world/2019/may/07/revealed-new-evidence-of-chinas-mission-to-raze-the-mosques-of-xinjiang |access-date=7 May 2019 |newspaper=The Guardian |archive-url= |archive-date=}}
• The persecution of Bengali Hindus during the Partition of India and 1971 Civil War in Pakistan was a campaign of ethnic cleansing which was sponsored by the government of Pakistan and later by the government of Bangladesh{{Cite web|url=https://hmh.org/education/bangladesh-1971/|title=Bangladesh, 1971 - Holocaust Museum Houston|date=13 July 2023|website=hmh.org}} and it has continued until the present day as a part of the Islamisation of Bangladesh.

• The Stolen Generations in Australia where half-caste children were removed from their families.
• In the year 1896, the United States enacted a law in Hawaii that made the use of the English language compulsory in schools, which led to the decline of the use of the Hawaiian language in Hawaii.{{cite web |last1=Gershon |first1=Livia |title=How Public Schools "Americanized" Hawai'i |url=https://daily.jstor.org/how-public-schools-americanized-hawaii/ |website=JSTOR Daily |publisher=JSTOR |access-date=25 February 2025}}{{cite web |last1=Geoffroy |first1=Alain|title=The Polynesians of Hawai'i : Surviving a Biological, Political and Cultural Genocide |url=https://hal.univ-reunion.fr/hal-02350342/document |website=hal.univ-reunion.fr |publisher=HAL |access-date=25 February 2025}}

{{See also|Cultural genocide in the United States|Trail of Tears}}

• Indigenous peoples in the United States.
• Scholars have coined the term cultural suicide for cases in which Indigenous peoples were coerced into a nominally voluntary abandonment of cultural and religious traditions in return for necessary military aid from colonial powers, such as the early 1700 alliance between the Spanish and Seminole that included the baptism of natives as a term.Justice, Daniel Heath. "Go Away, Water!: Kinship Criticism mand the Decolonization Imperative", Reasoning Together, University of Oklahoma, 2008. pp 149-150.
• The outright Cultural assimilation of Native Americans began soon after the American Revolutionary War, with proponents including George Washington and Henry Knox
• In the mid-1800s to early 1900s, the United States established American Indian boarding schools to assimilate Native American children and youth into Euro-American culture.
• Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire and Yaqui Wars.
• According to historians and biographers, the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire resulted in the destruction of Aztec culture and the imposition of Spanish culture, it's a complex issue, and whether it constitutes cultural genocide is a matter of ongoing debate and interpretation as the Spanish destroyed Aztec libraries, art, and other cultural artifacts, aiming to erase indigenous knowledge and traditions as well as their language, laws, and customs on the indigenous population, leading to the loss of indigenous languages, cultural practices, and social structures which caused dramatic decline in the indigenous population due to disease, warfare, starvation and forced labor. The Mexican government under the rule of Porfirio Diaz as a dictator who commit Yaqui genocide against the Yaqui tribes who led an uprising against the regime with 5,000 had been sold into slavery and forced to work with physical hard labor until they died of illness, exhaustion and/or starvation.
• Canadian genocide of Indigenous peoples.
• The Indian Residential Schools Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada concluded that the Canadian Indian residential school system "can best be described as 'cultural genocide.{{' "}}{{cite news |date=2 June 2015 |title=Canada's Forced Schooling of Aboriginal Children Was 'Cultural Genocide,' Report Finds |newspaper=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/03/world/americas/canadas-forced-schooling-of-aboriginal-children-was-cultural-genocide-report-finds.html |access-date=2 June 2015 |archive-url= |archive-date=}}
• In 2015, Chief Justice Beverly McLachlin, of the Supreme Court of Canada, stated in a speech to the Global Centre for Pluralism that Canada's historical treatment of Indigenous peoples was an attempt at cultural genocide, and "the worst stain on Canada's human-rights record."{{Cite news |url=https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/chief-justice-says-canada-attempted-cultural-genocide-on-aboriginals/article24688854/ |title=Chief Justice says Canada attempted 'cultural genocide' on aboriginals |last=Fine |first=Sean |date=28 May 2015 |work=The Globe and Mail |access-date=30 December 2018 |archive-url= |archive-date=}}

{{Main|Outline of genocide studies}}

• Cultural assimilation
• Cultural imperialism
• Cultural racism
• Ethnic cleansing
• Ethnic conflict
• Ethnocentrism
• Ethnocide
• Forced assimilation
• Language death
• Linguistic discrimination
• Policide
• Population transfer
• Religious discrimination
• Religious persecution

{{Reflist|refs =

{{cite book |first1=Hirad |last1=Abtahi |first2=Philippa |last2=Webb |title=The Genocide Convention |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sB_807GbDRgC&pg=PA731 |access-date=22 February 2013 |year=2008 |publisher=BRILL |isbn=978-90-04-17399-6 |page=731}}

{{cite book |first=Lawrence |last=Davidson |title=Cultural Genocide |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2w9Ez6wT6icC |access-date=22 February 2013 |date=8 March 2012 |publisher=Rutgers University Press |isbn=978-0-8135-5344-3}}

{{cite book |first1=Gerard |last1=Delanty |first2=Krishan |last2=Kumar |title=The SAGE Handbook of Nations and Nationalism |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3Y3zK_jyagQC&pg=PA326 |access-date=28 February 2013 |date=29 June 2006 |publisher=SAGE Publications |isbn=978-1-4129-0101-7 |page=326 |quote=The term 'ethnocide' has in the past been used as a replacement for cultural genocide (Palmer 1992; Smith 1991:30-3), with the obvious risk of confusing ethnicity and culture.}}

{{cite web |last=Wilkie |first=Meredith |title=Bringing them Home: report of the national inquiry into the separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children from their families – Chapter 13 |url=https://humanrights.gov.au/our-work/bringing-them-home-chapter-13 |website=Australian Human Rights Commission |date=April 1997 |quote="The Australian practice of Indigenous child removal involved both systematic racial discrimination and genocide as defined by international law" |access-date=29 April 2021 |archive-url= |archive-date=}}

[http://www.preventgenocide.org/lemkin/madrid1933-english.htm Raphael Lemkin, Acts Constituting a General (Transnational) Danger Considered as Offences Against the Law of Nations (J. Fussell trans., 2000) (1933)]; [http://www.preventgenocide.org/lemkin/AxisRule1944-3.htm Raphael Lemkin, Axis Rule in Occupied Europe, p. 91 (1944)].

See [https://web.archive.org/web/20010828104653/http://www.un.org/icty/krstic/TrialC1/judgement/krs-tj010802e-3.htm Prosecutor v. Krstic, Case No. IT-98-33-T (Int'l Crim. Trib. Yugo. Trial Chamber 2001), at para. 576].

[http://www.unhchr.ch/huridocda/huridoca.nsf/(Symbol)/E.CN.4.SUB.2.RES.1994.45.En?OpenDocument Draft United Nations declaration on the rights of indigenous peoples] drafted by The Sub-Commission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities Recalling resolutions 1985/22 of 29 August 1985, 1991/30 of 29 August 1991, 1992/33 of 27 August 1992, 1993/46 of 26 August 1993, presented to the Commission on Human Rights and the Economic and Social Council at 36th meeting 26 August 1994 and adopted without a vote.

{{cite book |first=William |last=Schabas |author-link=William Schabas |title=Genocide in international law: the crimes of crimes |publisher=Cambridge University Press |date=2000 |isbn=0-521-78790-4 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pYptuRHDQPgC&dq=%22Cultural+genocide%22+Poand&pg=PA179 |page=179}}

{{cite magazine |last1=Maghakyan |first1=Simon |title=Sacred Stones Silenced in Azerbaijan |magazine=History Today |date=November 2007 |volume=57 |issue=11 |url=https://www.historytoday.com/archive/sacred-stones-silenced-azerbaijan |archive-url= |archive-date=}}

Switzerland-Armenia Parliamentary Group, "The Destruction of Jugha", Bern, 2006.

[https://web.archive.org/web/20070307095928/http://www.cgs.c.u-tokyo.ac.jp/workshops_e/w_2004_02_23_e.html CGS 1st Workshop: "Cultural Genocide" and the Japanese Occupation of Korea] ([https://web.archive.org/web/20070307095928/http://www.cgs.c.u-tokyo.ac.jp/workshops_e/w_2004_02_23_e.html archive]) "During Germany's occupation of Poland (1939–1945) and Japan's occupation of Korea (1910–1945), the prohibition of use of the native tongue, the renaming of people and places, the removal of indigenous people from institutions of higher education, the destruction of cultural facilities, the denial of freedom of religious faith, and the changing of cultural education all took place. The instances of German cultural genocide, which Lemkin took as his basis, cannot be ignored when conducting comparative research." "One of the most striking features of Japan's occupation of Korea is the absence of an awareness of Korea as a "colony", and the absence of an awareness of Koreans as a "separate ethnicity". As a result, it is difficult to prove whether or not the leaders of Japan aimed for the eradication of the Korean race."

{{cite AV media |url=http://www.ina.fr/video/CPB89005126/les-droits-de-l-homme-video.html |work=Apostrophes |publisher=Ina.fr |author=Institut National de l'Audiovisuel |date=21 April 1989 |language=fr |title=Les droits de l'homme |trans-title=Human rights |medium=Videotape |access-date=2 May 2015}}

{{cite web |url=http://www.dalailama.com/messages/tibet/10th-march-archive |title=10th March Statements Archive |access-date=4 January 2015 |archive-url= |archive-date=}}

{{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7299212.stm |work=BBC News |title='Eighty killed' in Tibetan unrest |date=16 March 2008 |archive-url= |archive-date=}}

{{cite journal| last=Ghanea-Hercock |first=Nazila |title=Review of secondary literature in English on recent persecutions of Bahá'ís in Iran |journal=Baháʼí Studies Review |volume=7 |publisher=Association for Baha'i Studies English-Speaking Europe |year=1997 |url=http://bahai-library.com/ghanea-hercock_literature_persecutions_bahai |access-date=3 March 2013 |archive-url= |archive-date=}}

{{cite book |first=Nader |last=Saiedi |title=Gate of the Heart: Understanding the Writings of the Báb |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=L22SqPOZWnUC&pg=PA377 |access-date=3 March 2013 |date=1 May 2008 |publisher=Wilfrid Laurier University Press |isbn=978-1-55458-035-4|page=377}}

}}

• Bibliography of genocide studies

• [http://ambassadors.net/archives/issue19/opinions2.htm From Paris to Cairo: Resistance of the Unacculturated] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101209073701/http://ambassadors.net/archives/issue19/opinions2.htm |date=9 December 2010 }} on identity and the nation state.
• Chronology of the repression of the Catalan language in catalan language

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