When we mention the word genocide, we usually envision horrific massacres, ethnic cleansing, or organized annihilation by means of physical violence. But today, more annihilating patterns of devastation occur not with gun and gas chamber but by policies and procedures that disenfranchise entire communities of the capacity to survive and thrive. This is also more and more referred to as Economic Genocide – systematic or intentional destruction of the economic pillars of a people to the extent that their own existence, identity, and future are drastically threatened.
While not yet a codified international law definition as the definition of genocide in the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (1948), Economic Genocide covers willful conduct or chronic negligence that directly lead to economic destruction for an intended group. Economic destruction can lead to forced displacement, hunger, illness, destruction of culture, and ultimately, the disintegration of communities.
Some of the key elements include targeted Economic Marginalization by law or policy that empowers specific groups economically; structural deprivation represented by withholding access to food, water, land, or market; intentional Destruction of Livelihoods which means destruction of homes, farms, or businesses and economic blockades and sanctions which entails use of economic instruments to subdue or exterminate a population’s ability to live.
There are several past and recent instances of economic genocide. Colonialism is generally regarded by most historians as one of the first forms of economic genocide. European empires would demolish indigenous economic institutions, appropriating natural resources under coercion, and imposed taxation that drove subsistence societies into debt bondage and starvation. The British colonial economic strategies in Bengal resulting in the 1943 Bengal Famine that resulted in approximately 3 million deaths are commonly used as an example.
South Africa during apartheid forcibly relocated Black communities from fertile land to places with poorer quality soil and lower economic prospects. It produced engineered poverty for generations and has produced social and economic inequalities which persist to this day.
Sanctions and blockades have been used as a means of war in the recent decades. The criticisms include that broad sanctions placed upon countries like Iraq in the 1990s or Gaza strip blockades of today can be considered collective punishment that destroys civilian economies, causing mass malnutrition and anguish – labeling them with the definition of economic genocide.
There are a number of mechanisms of Economic Genocide. Legal and Policy Instruments by which Governments can pass discriminatory laws that exclude a group from possessing property, accessing credit, or practicing certain professions. Historical examples include the Nuremberg Laws under Nazi Germany and Jim Crow laws in the Southern United States.
Environmental Annihilation whereby extractive industries and mass developmental schemes displacing indigenous peoples and destroying their customary ways of living can constitute economic genocide, especially when done knowingly and without fair compensation.
Blockades and siege warfare whereby cutting off an area from trade, aid, or essential supplies, common in modern warfare – can annihilate civilian populations and break the will to resist by targeting their very survival.
In contrast with mass killings, economic genocide is covert. Its tools – policies, markets, commerce – are bureaucratic and neutral-appearing. Perpetrators can conceal economic ruin with the mask of “development,” “security,” or “democracy sanctions.” Victims often have trouble proving intent, making legal responsibility the exception.
The effects of economic genocide are catastrophic. Economic genocide devastates the social and cultural life of a people. If individuals lose their means of subsistence, they typically migrate or scatter, leading to loss of language, culture, and identity. It traps generations in poverty and dependency and perpetuates inequality and exclusion cycles.
Legal acknowledgment is required to combat economic genocide. Expanding international law to recognize and criminalize sweeping economic destruction. It requires accountability. Strengthening institutions to hold states and corporations accountable for policies that deliberately destroy communities.
It requires restorative Justice. Restoring reparations and economic reconstruction to dispossessed communities that have been victimized by economic warfare. It requires sustainable development: Empowering local economic sovereignty and self-determination, especially for indigenous and marginalized people.
To put it simply, economic genocide isn’t just history anymore but harsh reality in a large part of the world today. It is a reminder that instruments of oppression have evolved, and that the battle for justice has to be equally evolved. To name and recognize economic genocide as such, is the first step towards making sure that no community’s right to live with dignity is erased in the backroom of economic policy.
