Colonial-era Genocide in Namibia

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Germany for the first time has recognised that it committed genocide against the Herero and Nama people in present-day Namibia during its colonial rule over a century ago.

Background

• Between 1884 and 1890, Germany formally colonised parts of present-day Namibia. Tensions quickly rose as local tribes saw the German settlers as a threat to their land and resources. 
• The conflict reached a boiling point in 1904, when the Herero nation, a primarily pastoral community, rebelled against the Germans, and were closely followed by the Nama tribe.
• Between 1904 and 1908, German colonial settlers killed tens of thousands of men, women and children from the Herero and Nama tribes after they rebelled against colonial rule in what was then called German South West Africa. 
• While Germany has previously acknowledged the atrocities, they refused to pay direct reparations for many years.
• After five years of negotiations between the two countries as they attempted to “heal the wounds”, Germany has promised financial support with a fund of €1.1 billion ($1.2 billion) to help aid community projects in Namibia

Negotiations

• The atrocities committed in what was then known as German South West Africa have been described by some historians as the first genocide of the 20th century.
• Since 2015, the two countries have been negotiating an agreement. This was meant to combine an official apology by Germany as well as some sort of financial package.
• Namibia rejected the reparations offered by Germany, claiming that their offer was “unacceptable”. 
• Germany was also reluctant to use the term “reparations” to describe the financial aid they were planning to provide.
• In 2018, as a gesture of goodwill, Germany returned the human remains of some Herero and Nama tribe members, which were used during the colonial-era in experiments to assert the superiority of the European race.
• Finally, Germany acknowledged the killings as genocide and in light of Germany’s historical and moral responsibility, asked Namibia and the descendants of the victims for forgiveness.

Future Course of Action

• Germany’s financial package worth 1.1 billion euros will be paid separately to existing aid programmes in the country over the next three decades. 
• The majority of the total sum will go towards projects relating to land reform, rural infrastructure, water supply and professional training. 

What is Genocide? 

• In the Genocide Convention, genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:
  • Killing members of the group;
  • Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;
  • Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;
  • Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;
  • Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.

Legal Status

• Genocide was first recognised as a crime under international law in 1946 by the United Nations General Assembly. 
• It was codified as an independent crime in the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (the Genocide Convention). 
• The Convention has been ratified by 149 States (as of January 2018). 
• The International Court of Justice (ICJ) has repeatedly stated that the Convention embodies principles that are part of general customary international law. This means that whether or not States have ratified the Genocide Convention, they are all bound as a matter of law by the principle that genocide is a crime prohibited under international law. 
• The ICJ has also stated that the prohibition of genocide is a peremptory norm of international law (or ius cogens) and consequently, no derogation from it is allowed.

Challenges

• Difficult to define Intent: The intent is the most difficult element to determine. To constitute genocide, there must be a proven intent on the part of perpetrators to physically destroy a national, ethnical, racial or religious group. Cultural destruction does not suffice, nor does an intention to simply disperse a group. It is this special intent, or dolus specialis, that makes the crime of genocide so unique.
• Deliberate Target: The victims of genocide are deliberately targeted – not randomly – because of their real or perceived membership of one of the four groups protected under the Convention (which excludes political groups, for example). This means that the target of destruction must be the group, as such, and not its members as individuals. 

Prevention of Genocide 

• UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan outlined a five-point action plan for preventing genocide: 
  • Prevent armed conflict, which usually provides the context for genocide; 
  • Protect civilians in armed conflict, including through UN peacekeepers; 
  • End impunity through judicial action in national and international courts; 
  • Gather information and set up an early-warning system; and 

Take swift and decisive action, including military action. 

Source: IE