Genocide recognition politics

Genocide recognition politics are efforts to have a certain event (re)interpreted as a "genocide" or officially designated as such. Such efforts may occur regardless of whether the event meets the definition of genocide laid out in the 1948 Genocide Convention. Acts of genocide recognition include acknowledgement of genocide in the adoption of laws, parliamentary resolutions, and official speeches, although according to lawyer Dean Kalimniou, institutional recognition by a public act of state is considered to have a profound distinction above any individual remark. Recognition politics may involve so-called "memory laws", including legislation that mandates recognition or criminalizes denial, which scholars debate in terms of free speech, historical authority, and international relations.

In countries with settler colonial pasts, recognition of colonial genocides is difficult as the national past could be called into question. Most recorded genocides have been perpetrated by states.

By country

Canada

As of June 2021, the government of Canada officially recognises eight 20th and 21st Century historical events of ethnic extermination, agrarian reform or forced cultural assimilation that took place beyond its borders as genocide: the Armenian genocide (1915–1917), the Holodomor (1932–1933), the Holocaust (1941-1945), the Rwandan genocide (1994), the Srebrenica massacre (1995), the Genocide of Yazidis by ISIL (2014), the Uyghur genocide (2014–present; recognised by Canada in February 2021), and the Rohingya genocide (2016–present). Some activists and scholars such as Phil Fontaine and David Bruce MacDonald have argued that the Canadian government should also officially recognise various atrocities which were committed against the Indigenous peoples in Canada from the late 19th century until the mid-20th century as 'genocide', especially after the 2021 Canadian Indian residential schools gravesite discoveries. In October 2022, the House of Commons unanimously passed a motion to have the Canadian government officially recognize the residential school system as genocide against Indigenous populations.

Germany

Canadian political scientist David Bruce MacDonald stated in June 2021 that it is rare for governments to recognise genocides committed by previous administrations of the same country, citing Germany as an example: it has officially recognised the Holocaust (committed by Nazi Germany during the Second World War), and in May 2021 Germany officially recognised the Herero and Namaqua genocide (committed by the German Empire in 1904–1908).