In colloquial usage the term persecution can refer to any identity-related maltreatment, either of a group or an individual. However, its historical and legal meanings, although still subject to a degree of ambiguity, are more precisely delineated.

Historical Meaning

Throughout history myriad groups have been maltreated because of their identity, with distinctions drawn on such grounds as religion, race, gender, culture, national origin, ethnicity, politics, or socioeconomic status. Persecuted groups have been identified through both positive and negative criteria. At certain junctures people were persecuted because they belonged to a particular group. At others people were persecuted because they did not belong to a particular group, usually that of the persecutor.

A range of different measures, in terms of both type and degree, have been...