In the context of human rights, there is often talk about so-called "group rights." One such group right is the right to protection against genocide - i.e., against mass murder. Why is a "group right" necessary in such cases? If one accepts the validity of human rights at all, then one almost certainly accepts that all individuals, including all members of a minority group, have the right to life. Why provide an additional group right against genocide? Anyone committing genocide is necessarily and directly infringing upon the right to life. What is gained by formulating extra group rights, besides an additional offence to add to the records of human rights offenders?
Other "group rights" are also, or could easily be, covered by individual rights (right to speak the language of one's choice, right to teach one's children the language and culture of one's choice, etc.). Groups, unlike the individuals that make up the group, cannot be said to suffer at all unless their constituent individuals suffer,...
I can see at least two responses to your challenge. International interventions and sanctions are confined to the most serious violations of human rights. And the seriousness of crimes is not merely a matter of the harm done to the victims, but also a matter of the motivations of the perpetrators. Just as we regard premeditation as an aggravating condition, we so regard also aggression directed against people on account of their skin color, ethnicity, religion, gender, or sexual orientation. Genocide -- defined as the deliberate and systematic destruction, in whole or in part, of an ethnic, racial, religious, or national group -- is then arguably more serious than random violence of comparable magnitude. And the special expression is then useful to indicate the heightened responsibility of people, within the affected society and abroad, to preempt genocide and to stop it with all deliberate speed if it nonetheless occurs. Or so one might argue. The other response can be introduced through your...
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