Violations of Freedom of Opinion and Expression in Genocide

This paper will discuss the violation of the human rights of freedom of expression and opinion in the genocide process, through the case studies of the Armenian Genocide, the Holocaust and the Cambodian genocide. There is a great deal of literature covering hate speech and incitement to genocide, but this paper will take a different angle. It will look at propaganda and re-education as key means that genocidal regimes violate the rights to freedom of expression and opinion.

Leadership of regimes that commit genocide subscribe to a particular ideology, part of which is to demonise and dehumanise the targeted group. A goal of the regime is to convince everyone under their power of the danger of the targeted group, so that it becomes acceptable later on to kill the members of that group. Genocidal regimes thus make heavy use of propaganda, as the content by which the state incites hatred against the targeted minority group. Re-education is a more extreme version of propaganda, and involves the intense, targeted brainwashing of people within the control of the regime. This presentation will show how propaganda and re-education are a violation of freedom of opinion, not of the targeted minority group, but of the entire population.