Genocide and Motherhood

The United Nations (UN) 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide defines genocide as “acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, [Page 443]racial, or religious group, such as: a) Killing members of the group; b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction, in whole or in part; d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; e) forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.” By definition, genocide is integrally tied to the suppression of pregnancy and births; the forcible separation of parents from their children; and mass violence against civilians, ...