Glossary

Ad Hoc Tribunal:
a court created to deal with specific disputes, generally by an international body like the United Nations Security Council; such a court has a geographical, subject-matter, and temporal limits on its jurisdiction.
Anschluss:
annexation of Austria by Germany on March 13, 1938.
Anthrax:
virus that produces black postules, vomiting, fever, and finally suffocation in two to four days. It can lie dormant for decades and has been used as a biological weapon for the mass destruction of individuals. Anthrax infection can occur in three forms: cutaneous (skin), inhalation, and gastrointestinal. B. anthracis spores can live in the soil for many years, and humans can become infected with anthrax by handling products from infected animals or by inhaling anthrax spores from contaminated animal products. Anthrax can also be spread by eating undercooked meat from infected animals.
Assimilation:
systematic process of one group taking on the customs, language, or religion of another group. The process often deprives a group of its own language, customs, and tradition based on the presumed inferiority or lack of utility of its culture.
Asylum:
refuge and protection in another state that an individual can receive. Under current international refugee law, asylum is based on a well-founded fear of persecution based on race, religion, nationality, political opinion, or membership in a social group.
Blood Diamonds:
diamonds from areas controlled by forces or groups opposed to legitimate government. The diamonds are often mined by children, who are frequently killed or mutilated by the forces based on suspicion of theft, lack of productivity, or sport. Rebel forces use the diamonds to finance arms purchases and other illegal activities. Once the diamonds are brought to market, their origin is difficult to trace and once polished, they can no longer be identified.
Blood Libel:
widespread belief in parts of Europe that Jews killed Christian children and used their blood for Passover meals.
Capital Punishment:
penalty involving loss of life, by shooting, hanging, lethal injection of other means; still imposed in some countries for serious crimes.
Cold War:
state of political tension and military competition that stopped short of actual war between communist countries and western democracies. It began shortly after World War II in 1948 and continued until the fall of communism about forty years later.
Collectivization:
the act or process of collective control, especially over the production and distribution of property. It was practiced during the Stalin years and in many communist countries. Where it was practiced it was forcibly imposed and the attendant protests were often accompanied by loss of life, torture, imprisonment, and starvation.
Cutaneous:
Most (about 95%) anthrax infections occur when the bacterium enters a cut or abrasion on the skin, such as when handling contaminated wool, hides, leather or hair products (especially goat hair) of infected animals. Skin infection begins as a raised itchy bump that resembles an insect bite but within one to two days develops into a vesicle and then a painless ulcer, usually one to three cm in diameter, with a characteristic black necrotic (dying) area in the center. Lymph glands in the adjacent area may swell. About 20 percent of untreated cases of cutaneous anthrax will result in death. Deaths are rare with appropriate antimicrobial therapy.
Dehumanization:
"killing" the humanity of another. It is the process of depriving others of human qualities, personality, or spirit.
Democide:
the systematic killing of the members of a country's general population, or the murder of any person or people by a government. It includes genocide, politicide, and mass murder.
Denazification:
the efforts of Allied powers after World War II to eliminate the influence of Nazism, and to remove Nazis from public life in Germany.
Desaparecidos:
Spanish word for "the disappeared." They are people who have been taken into custody by state agents and whose whereabouts, custody and fate are either hidden or denied by the state. Most are eventually murdered by the state.
Detention:
the practice of detaining individuals or groups of individuals for the purpose of trial. However individuals are often detained without charge or trial and for long periods of time. Sometimes this results in death, torture, or the disappearance of detained persons.
Displaced Person:
persons or groups of persons who have been forced to flee or leave their places of habitual residence as a result of, or in order to avoid, the effects of armed conflict, situations of generalized violence, violations of human rights or natural or human-made disasters and who have not crossed an internationally recognized State border.
Ecocide:
massive and organized degradation of the environment in armed conflict.
Ex Post Facto:
the retroactive application of a law.
Extermination:
a category of crime against humanity involving killing on a large scale.
Extrajudicial Execution:
a killing on political or other grounds that is not the consequence of a fair trial, held in accordance with recognized international standards.
Grave Breaches:
war crime term established by the 1949 Geneva Conventions. It includes such acts as willful killing, torture or inhuman treatment, willfully causing great suffering, extensive destruction and appropriation of property that is not justified by military necessity, unlawful deportation, and taking of hostages.
Indemnification:
compensation for damage, loss, or injury suffered.
Inhalation:
initial symptoms may resemble a common cold. After several days, the symptoms may progress to severe breathing problems and shock. Inhalation anthrax is usually fatal.
Intestinal:
the intestinal disease form of anthrax may follow the consumption of contaminated meat and is characterized by an acute inflammation of the intestinal tract. Initial signs of nausea, loss of appetite, vomiting, and fever are followed by abdominal pain, vomiting of blood, and severe diarrhea. Intestinal anthrax results in death in 25 to 60 percent of cases.
Junta:
paramilitary group that seeks governmental or state control through threat or use of armed force.
Just War (jus ad bellum):
aside from the rhetorical use of such an expression to characterize any war for the side offering a justification, there is a technical use applicable in addition to war justified on the basis of self-defense (just cause). Just war offers a doctrine in which the use of force is justified to punish wrongs and protect the innocent in order to uphold standards of civilized conduct.
Lustration:
ritual purification. It was the policy in Eastern and Central European countries of banning individuals who served in former regimes from important governmental posts of the current government. While it was used to insure the success of democratic reforms, it also raised questions of international standards of procedural fairness as individuals were often dismissed solely based on party affiliation or political association.
Mercenary:
soldier who fights for a country other than his or her own country, and for remuneration rather than out of loyalty and patriotism.
Miscegenation:
the marriage or cohabitation between a white person and a member of another race or racially distinct group.
Paramilitary:
armed group not formally part of a state's military, but often informally affiliated with it.
Partisans:
irregular troops that are engaged in guerrilla warfare and are often behind enemy lines. During World War II this term was applied to resistance fighters in Nazi-occupied countries.
Politicide:
the murder of any person or people by a government because of their politics or for political purposes.
Punitive Damages:
damages paid by one state to another state to punish the former state for its actions.
Purge:
mass expulsion of political opponents from a political or social movement or political party. Such expulsions sometimes involve the extrajudicial killing of opponents.
Ratification:
an official confirmation and acceptance of a previous act, often referred to in international treaties as the means by which the text negotiated by diplomatics is subsequently approved by the various states and becomes legally binding, making the act valid from the moment it was done.
Resettlement:
applies to the relocation of a population. Used negatively, the term refers to the policy of forcible removal of people from their homes and relocating them in another area for developmental or political reasons. Used in a positive sense, resettlement also refers to the relocation of refugees from their region of origin to countries that accept them as immigrants.
Scapegoating:
process of one group finding another group blameworthy for the troubles the former group is experiencing. The process excuses the former group of self-blame, allowing it to feel better about itself. The Jews were seen as scapegoats by Nazi Germany shortly before and during the Holocaust.
Status Quo ante:
the situation in effect (status quo) before a significant event.

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