Domicide (from Latin domus, meaning home or abode, and caedo, meaning deliberate killing, though used here metaphorically), is the destruction of housing for corporate, political, strategic or bureaucratic reasoning.[1] It can also encompass the widespread destruction of a living environment, forcing the incumbent humans to move elsewhere.[2][3] In a human rights context, domicide is the deliberate and systematic destruction of housing and basic infrastructure, making an area uninhabitable.[4] The concept of domicide originated in the 1970s, but only assumed its present meaning in 2022, after a report by the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Adequate Housing, Balakrishnan Rajagopal[4][5][6]
Rajagopal has argued that international law should be amended to consider domicide to be a war crime.[7]
Examples
editNotable historical examples of domicide include: the Bombing of Tokyo, which was the most destructive and deadly non-nuclear bombing in human history,[8] the bombing of Warsaw and Dresden and the destruction perpetrated by the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia.[9]
The recent Israeli bombing of the Gaza Strip is considered to be the one of the most destructive campaigns in history.[citation needed] Balakrishnan Rajagopal, advisor to the United Nations on dams and Special Rapporteur on adequate housing has argued that Israel did domicide in the Gaza Strip during the Israel-Hamas war.[10][11]
According to the US military historian Robert Pape, Allied bombings of Germany in World War II targeted 51 cities in Germany and destroyed 40% to 50% of their urban areas. This led to a total of 10% of the buildings being destroyed in the whole of Germany, being compared to 33% across Gaza, thus the latter exceeds the scale of destruction during the Allied bombings of Germany in World War II on per country basis.[12] However, those numbers have been disputed by the IDF, whose estimates, based on daily visual surveys, are much lower - about 16% as of May 31, 2024.[13] This is consistent with the estimate published by the United Nations Satellite Centre on May 31, 2024, stating that 36,591 out of about 250,000 structures have been destroyed, and 16,513 - severely damaged.[14]
See also
editReferences
edit- ^ "Domicide | McGill-Queen's University Press". www.mqup.ca. Retrieved 2024-08-29.
- ^ Sullivan, Becky (9 February 2024). "What is 'domicide,' and why has war in Gaza brought new attention to the term?". National Public Radio. Retrieved 21 May 2024.
- ^ Porteous, Douglas; Sandra E. Smith (2001). Domicide: The Global Destruction Of Home. McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP. p. 12. ISBN 9780773569614.
- ^ a b "Amid Israeli Destruction in Gaza, a New Crime Against Humanity Emerges: Domicide". Haaretz. Retrieved 2024-01-05.
- ^ "Report of the Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living, and on the right to non-discrimination in this context, Balakrishnan Rajagopal (A/77/190) [EN/AR/RU/ZH] - World | ReliefWeb". reliefweb.int. 2022-10-28. Retrieved 2024-01-05.
- ^ ""Domicide" must be recognised as an international crime: UN expert". Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. October 28, 2022.
- ^ Rajagopal, Balakrishnan (2024-01-29). "Opinion | Domicide: The Mass Destruction of Homes Should Be a Crime Against Humanity". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2024-01-29.
- ^ Long, Tony (9 March 2011). "March 9, 1945: Burning the Heart Out of the Enemy". Wired.
1945: In the single deadliest air raid of World War II, 330 American B-29s rain incendiary bombs on Tokyo, touching off a firestorm that kills upwards of 100,000 people, burns a quarter of the city to the ground, and leaves a million homeless.
- ^ Collins, Andrew E (2009). Disaster and Development. Routledge. p. 109. ISBN 9780203879238.
- ^ "UN rights expert condemns 'systematic' war-time mass destruction of homes | UN News". news.un.org. 2024-03-05. Retrieved 2024-08-29.
- ^ "Mr. Balakrishnan Rajagopal". United Nations Human Rights.
- ^ Frankel, Julia (11 January 2024). "Israel's military campaign in Gaza seen as among the most destructive in recent history, experts say". Associated Press. Retrieved 5 October 2024.
- ^ Zitun, Yoav (2024-06-27). "IDF says 16% of Gaza buildings destroyed; disputes higher UN figures". Ynetnews. Retrieved 2024-11-21.
- ^ "UNOSAT Gaza Strip 7th Comprehensive Damage Assessment". unosat.org. 31 May 2024. Retrieved 2024-11-21.
Further reading
edit- Akesson, Bree; Basso, Andrew R. (February 2022). From Bureaucracy to Bullets: Extreme Domicide and the Right to Home. Rutgers University Press. ISBN 978-1978802728.
- Azzouz, Ammar (November 2022). Domicide: Architecture, War and the Destruction of Home in Syria. Bloomsbury. ISBN 978-1350248106.
- Porteous, Douglas; Smith, Sandra E. (2001). Domicide: The Global Destruction Of Home. McGill-Queen's University Press. ISBN 978-0773522572.
External links
edit
- Domicide: The Mass Destruction of Homes Should Be a Crime Against Humanity, MIT Faculty Newsletter (January—March 2024)
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