An Introduction to Atrocity Law: The Armenian Tragedy 101

Published: March 20, 2012, 11 p.m.

In this show, we introduce the listener to 'Atrocity Law' - the legal framework which saw a growth spurt with the historic Nuremberg trials of Nazi Germany.   But atrocities also occurred in World War 1 - including atrocities against the Armenian people - a Christian minority  living within the then Ottoman Empire - which is currently Turkey.  While Turkey does not want to label what happened to the Armenians as "genocide" - many scholars and politicians nevertheless do.  In this show, we focus on the tragedy of the Armenians in order to talk about what it means -legally- to classify an atrocity as "genocide".  We will also discuss different "labels" -some legal, some moral- ("Crimes Against Humanity", "violation of Article 5 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights"), which may be used to classify such tragedies