The memorial of Armenian Genocide in Yerevan (photo by Sjdunphy)

"No less than the act itself, “the politics of genocide can be heartbreaking.” That is what Sophal Ear, who fled Cambodia as a ten-year-old and now works as a politics professor in the United States, remembers feeling as a young man.

Many people, faced with any of the scenes created by systematic slaughter during the 20th century would simply say: “I may not be a lawyer, but I know genocide when I see it.” The reality of genocide may be easy to grasp at a gut level, yet its definition is complex. Prosecutors, judges, historians and politicians have made huge efforts in recent years to describe the boundaries of genocide: when mere mass murder stops and the ultimate human crime starts. Yet the term is far more than a tool of historical or moral analysis. Its use brings momentous political and legal consequences—and is therefore bound to be highly contested".

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