Genocide targets a group as an entity, not individuals

Evidence

Lemkin emphasizes that the term does not necessarily mean the immediate destruction of an entire nation. Rather, it entails “a coordinated plan of different actions aiming at the destruction of essential foundations of the life of national groups.” Among the targets for destruction in such a plan, Lemkin lists institutions of culture, language, and national feelings, and the security of property, liberty, health, dignity, and human life. The key criterion for genocide, according to Lemkin, is that it be “directed against the national group as an entity”; violence against individuals is directed against them “not in their individual capacity, but as members of the national group.” — Michael A. Sells, The Bridge Betrayed, 107

Categorization

• DEFINE: Lemkin’s group-as-entity criterion explains why cultural annihilation counts as genocide even without mass death.

Related

• Lemkin coined ‘genocide’ from Greek and Latin roots in 1944 (similarity 0.81)
• Genocide’s legal definition includes preventing procreation of a targeted group (similarity 0.81)
• Genocide extends ethnic cleansing by exterminating rather than just removing a group (similarity 0.80)
• The genocide convention aimed to avoid equating all mass destruction with the Holocaust (similarity 0.79)
• Ordinary genocide aims at community destruction, not total annihilation. (similarity 0.79)
• Genocide was coined by Lemkin to name an old practice given modern form (similarity 0.79)
• Genocide scholars resist widening the term to include killings lacking clear group-destruction intent. (similarity 0.78)