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Collective punishment is a punishment or sanction imposed on a group for acts allegedly perpetrated by a member of that group, which could be an ethnic or political group, or just the family, friends and neighbors of the perpetrator. Because individuals who are not responsible for the wrong acts are targeted, collective punishment is not compatible with the basic principle of individual responsibility. The punished group may often have no direct association with the perpetrator other than living in the same area and can not be assumed to exercise control over the perpetrator's actions. Collective punishment is prohibited by
treaty A treaty is a formal, legally binding written agreement between actors in international law. It is usually made by and between sovereign states, but can include international organizations, individuals, business entities, and other legal pers ...
in both international and non-international armed conflicts, more specifically Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions and Additional Protocol II. When collective punishment has been imposed it has resulted in atrocities. Historically, occupying powers have used collective punishment against resistance movements. In some cases entire towns and villages believed to have harboured or aided such resistance movements have been destroyed. Occupying powers have claimed that collective punishment can be justified by necessity as a deterrent. Another view is that it is a retaliatory act prohibited under the laws of war.


Sources of law


Hague Conventions

The Hague Conventions are often cited for guidelines concerning the limits and privileges of an occupiers rights with respect to the local (occupied) property. One of the restrictions on the occupier's use of natural resources is the Article 50 prohibition against collective punishment protecting private property. An exception exists allowing takings for military uses with the requirement that the property "must be restored and compensation fixed when peace is made".


Geneva Conventions

According to '' Médecins Sans Frontières'':
International law posits that no person may be punished for acts that he or she did not commit. It ensures that the collective punishment of a group of persons for a crime committed by an individual is forbidden...This is one of the fundamental guarantees established by the Geneva Conventions and their protocols. This guarantee is applicable not only to protected persons but to all individuals, no matter what their status, or to what category of persons they belong..."


Issues


Collective responsibility

Modern legal systems usually limit criminal liability to individuals. An example of this is the prohibition on "Corruption of Blood" in the Treason Clause of the United States Constitution. The ''
ius commune ''Jus commune'' or ''ius commune'' is Latin for "common law" in certain jurisdictions. It is often used by civil law jurists to refer to those aspects of the civil law system's invariant legal principles, sometimes called "the law of the land" i ...
'' of late medieval Florence already held individual responsibility as a bright line rule. With few exceptions (such as treason) an individual could not be punished for a criminal offense they did not
know Knowledge can be defined as awareness of facts or as practical skills, and may also refer to familiarity with objects or situations. Knowledge of facts, also called propositional knowledge, is often defined as true belief that is distinc ...
about, even if it was committed by a member of their family. To preserve the
Lombard law The ''Edictum Rothari'' (lit. ''Edict of Rothari''; also ''Edictus Rothari'' or ''Edictum Rotharis'') was the first written compilation of Lombard law, codified and promulgated on 22 November 643 by King Rothari in Pavia by a gairethinx, an assem ...
's historic mitigating impact on blood feuds an exception was made recognizing a collective responsibility for vendettas, in which case father, son and kinsmen were all held responsible. Rather than attempt to discover some "contra-causal free will", modern philosophers will usually use notions of intention to establish individual moral responsibility. This Kantian approach may not be the only way to assess responsibility, especially considering groups may need a unique approach to individuals.http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/collective-responsibility/#5 Collective Responsibility. At Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. First published Mon August 8, 2005; substantive revision Mon June 14, 2010 For instance, there is the problem is that consistent (not hypocritical) individuals may nevertheless experience a
discursive dilemma Discursive dilemma or doctrinal paradox is a paradox in social choice theory. The paradox is that aggregating judgments with majority voting can result in self-contradictory judgments. Consider a community voting on road repairs asked three quest ...
when they try to act as a group. Philosopher Kenneth Shockley suggests we focus on group faults and the punishments that would bring change. Punishments, for a group, might include: full or partial disbanding, weakening bonds between members, or de-institutionalizing some of the group's norms.
Neta Crawford Neta ( ) C. Crawford (born 1961) is an American political scientist. She is Montague Burton Chair in International Relations at the University of Oxford and holds a Professorial Fellowship at Balliol College. Crawford previously served as profes ...
says groups can be expected to change, but also apologize and make amends. That might mean groups must forfeit important parts of themselves. In this case, groups are being held responsible for organizing or incentivizing harmful behaviors. Shockley calls this the group's "coordinating control" over members. He says group responsibility can mitigate individual responsibility.


Deterrence

Collective liability may be effective as a deterrent, if it creates the incentive for the group to monitor the activities of other members. This type of "indirect deterrence" or "delegated deterrence" has historically targeted boards of officials or those in a position to monitor and control others. A deterrent theory of collective punishment may be more attractive in the context of military occupation where punishing the innocent is not considered costly.


Types


Family punishment

Family punishment is a type of collective punishment based on kinship. Historically, it has been employed most often in the context of political crimes. Collective punishment as family sanction in Ancient Greece was connected with the concept of a ritual pollution that contaminated the entire group when one member committed an offense. An example of this type was the punishment imposed on the
Alcmaeonidae The Alcmaeonidae or Alcmaeonids ( grc-gre, Ἀλκμαιωνίδαι ; Attic: ) were a wealthy and powerful noble family of ancient Athens, a branch of the Neleides who claimed descent from the mythological Alcmaeon, the great-grandson of Nesto ...
for taking part in the Cylonian conspiracy. During the Qin dynasty of China (221–207 BC), emperor Qin Shi Huang upheld his rule by enforcing strict laws, with the most serious of crimes, such as treason, punishable by what is known as
nine familial exterminations The nine familial exterminations or nine kinship exterminations or execution of nine relations, also known by the names ''zuzhu'' ("family execution") and ''miezu'' ("family extermination"), was the most severe punishment for a capital offense in ...
– this involved the execution of the perpetrator's entire families as well as the perpetrators themselves, where the members are categorized into nine groups. The process of familial extermination was carried on by subsequent Chinese dynasties for serious crimes, with a significant number of recorded sentences during the Ming dynasty (1368–1644), until the punishment was officially repealed by the government of the Qing dynasty (1644–1912) in 1905. During the Ming dynasty of China, 16 palace women attempted to assassinate the
Jiajing Emperor The Jiajing Emperor (; 16September 150723January 1567) was the 12th Emperor of the Ming dynasty, reigning from 1521 to 1567. Born Zhu Houcong, he was the former Zhengde Emperor's cousin. His father, Zhu Youyuan (1476–1519), Prince of Xing, w ...
. All were sentenced to death by slow slicing. Ten members of the women's families were also beheaded, while a further 20 were enslaved and gifted to ministers. It was called ''
Sippenhaft ''Sippenhaft'' or ''Sippenhaftung'' (, ''kin liability'') is a German term for the idea that a family or clan shares the responsibility for a crime or act committed by one of its members, justifying collective punishment. As a legal principle, i ...
'' in Nazi Germany, and was applied to the families of racially acceptable individuals who were accused of acting against the state, whether by desertion, cowardice, treason or more minor incidents of disobedience. Related to family punishment is the concept of
corruption of blood In English criminal law, attainder or attinctura was the metaphorical "stain" or "corruption of blood" which arose from being condemned for a serious capital crime (felony or treason). It entailed losing not only one's life, property and heredita ...
, where the collective punishment of families may reflect primitive values that emphasize the importance of "inherited" bad character and the "purity" of hereditary bloodlines.


Sanctions


Collective fines

A collective fine like the ''
weregild Weregild (also spelled wergild, wergeld (in archaic/historical usage of English), weregeld, etc.), also known as man price ( blood money), was a precept in some archaic legal codes whereby a monetary value was established for a person's life, to ...
'' may create incentives for a group to identify perpetrators where they might not do so otherwise.
Richard Posner Richard Allen Posner (; born January 11, 1939) is an American jurist and legal scholar who served as a federal appellate judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit from 1981 to 2017. A senior lecturer at the University of Chicago ...
and others consider collective fines to be the most effective type of collective punishment for deterring bad behavior when they are sufficiently costly and target those in a position to identify perpetrators. When collective fines are imposed on select groups of elites it can create an incentive for them to identify perpetrators but the effectiveness declines with an increase in the size of the group and their relative wealth. The
frankpledge Frankpledge was a system of joint suretyship common in England throughout the Early Middle Ages and High Middle Ages. The essential characteristic was the compulsory sharing of responsibility among persons connected in tithings. This unit, unde ...
system of enforcement was by the 12th century established throughout much of the English realm.
Cnut Cnut (; ang, Cnut cyning; non, Knútr inn ríki ; or , no, Knut den mektige, sv, Knut den Store. died 12 November 1035), also known as Cnut the Great and Canute, was King of England from 1016, King of Denmark from 1018, and King of Norway ...
had organized the conquered peoples of England into " hundreds" and
tithing A tithing or tything was a historic English legal, administrative or territorial unit, originally ten hides (and hence, one tenth of a hundred). Tithings later came to be seen as subdivisions of a manor or civil parish. The tithing's leader or s ...
s, "within a hundred and under surety". Scholars do not know if the surety of Cnut's time was a collective or individual liability, or whether collective punishment was a feature of Anglo-Saxon law, before the Norman Conquest and the 12th century frankpledge system applied collective punishment to the whole tithing. The 13th century
Statute of Winchester The Statute of Winchester of 1285 (13 Edw. I, St. 2; Law French: '), also known as the Statute of Winton, was a statute enacted by King Edward I of England that reformed the system of Watch and Ward (watchmen) of the Assize of Arms of 1252, and re ...
(1285) stipulated "the whole hundred ... shall be answerable" for any theft or robbery.


Destruction of houses

According to W. R. Connor "the importance of the ''oikos'' in ancient Greece, an importance that goes far beyond the needs for physical shelter and comfort, is well known". The destruction of homes is then "especially awesome and charged with symbolic as well as practical meaning." The practice of the ''kataskaphai'' of houses is attested to by several ancient Greek sources. According to Plutarch's account of the murder of Hesiod (found in the ''
Moralia The ''Moralia'' ( grc, Ἠθικά ''Ethika''; loosely translated as "Morals" or "Matters relating to customs and mores") is a group of manuscripts dating from the 10th–13th centuries, traditionally ascribed to the 1st-century Greek scholar Plu ...
'') the house of the murderers was razed el, οὶκίαν κατέσκαψαν. When the Corinthians kill
Cypselus Cypselus ( grc-gre, Κύψελος, ''Kypselos'') was the first tyrant of Corinth in the 7th century BC. With increased wealth and more complicated trade relations and social structures, Greek city-states tended to overthrow their traditional her ...
they "razed the houses of the tyrants and confiscated their property", according to
Nicholas of Damascus Nicolaus of Damascus (Greek: , ''Nikolāos Damaskēnos''; Latin: ''Nicolaus Damascenus'') was a Greek historian and philosopher who lived during the Augustan age of the Roman Empire. His name is derived from that of his birthplace, Damascus. He w ...
. Sources are inconsistent as to the razing of the Alcamaeonid houses. Of the many sources on the Cylonian conspiracy, only Isocrates mentions ''kataskaphe''. There have been a large number of home demolitions in Israel since 1967. The legal arguments center on Regulation 119(1) of the Defense Emergency Regulations, an emergency law that dates to the British occupation under the Mandate for Palestine, by which Israel claims the legal authority for home demolitions by the
Israeli Defense Force The Israel Defense Forces (IDF; he, צְבָא הַהֲגָנָה לְיִשְׂרָאֵל , ), alternatively referred to by the Hebrew-language acronym (), is the national military of the State of Israel. It consists of three service branch ...
(IDF). In '' Alamarin v. IDF Commander in Gaza Strip'' the
Israeli High Court of Justice ar, المحكمة العليا , image = Emblem of Israel dark blue full.svg , imagesize = 100px , caption = Emblem of Israel , motto = , established = , location = Givat Ram, Jerusalem , coordinat ...
held that the homes of Palestinians who have committed violent acts may be demolished under the Defence (Emergency) Regulations, even if the residence has other inhabitants who are unconnected to the crime. The counterargument against the validity of the regulation is two-fold: firstly, that it should have been properly revoked by 1967 as an institution of the former colonial rule; secondly, that it is incompatible with Israel's modern treaty obligations.


Rape

Some scholars consider the rape of German women by the Red Army during the Russian advance into Germany as a form of collective punishment. Women were also targeted as a collective punishment for
collaboration Collaboration (from Latin ''com-'' "with" + ''laborare'' "to labor", "to work") is the process of two or more people, entities or organizations working together to complete a task or achieve a goal. Collaboration is similar to cooperation. Most ...
in
Vichy France Vichy France (french: Régime de Vichy; 10 July 1940 – 9 August 1944), officially the French State ('), was the fascist French state headed by Marshal Philippe Pétain during World War II. Officially independent, but with half of its ter ...
where photographs were taken of women stripped and paraded through the streets of Paris. A prostitute accused of serving the Germans was kicked to death. Responding to the 2014 murder of three Israeli teenagers kidnapped near the settlement of
Alon Shvut Alon Shvut ( he, אַלּוֹן שְׁבוּת) is an Israeli settlement located southwest of Jerusalem, one kilometer northeast of Kfar Etzion, in the West Bank. Established in June 1970 in the heart of the Etzion bloc, Alon Shvut became the p ...
, Israeli professor Mordechai Kedar said:
The only thing that can deter terrorists, like those who kidnapped the children and killed them, is the knowledge that their sister or their mother will be raped. It sounds very bad, but that's the Middle East.
Women are frequently targeted in the Kashmir conflict "to punish and humiliate the entire community". Even in well publicized cases like the Kunan Poshpora mass rape no action has been taken against perpetrators.


History


18th century

The Intolerable Acts were seen as a collective punishment of Massachusetts for the
Boston Tea Party The Boston Tea Party was an American political and mercantile protest by the Sons of Liberty in Boston, Massachusetts, on December 16, 1773. The target was the Tea Act of May 10, 1773, which allowed the British East India Company to sell tea ...
.


19th century

The principle of collective punishment was laid out by Union General William Tecumseh Sherman in his Special Field Order 120, November 9, 1864, which laid out the rules for his "March to the sea" in the American Civil War:
V. To army corps commanders alone is entrusted the power to destroy mills, houses, cotton-gins, etc..., and for them this general principle is laid down: In districts and neighborhoods where the army is unmolested, no destruction of such property should be permitted; but should guerrillas or bushwhackers molest our march, or should the inhabitants burn bridges, obstruct roads, or otherwise manifest local hostility, then army commanders should order and enforce a devastation more or less relentless according to the measure of such hostility.
The British (in the Second Boer War) and the Germans (in the Franco-Prussian War) justified such actions as being in accord with the laws of war then in force.


20th century


World War I

The mass shootings of Nicholas Romanov's distant relatives after his
abdication Abdication is the act of formally relinquishing monarchical authority. Abdications have played various roles in the succession procedures of monarchies. While some cultures have viewed abdication as an extreme abandonment of duty, in other societ ...
in 1917 and the
shooting of the Romanov family The Russian Imperial Romanov family (Nicholas II of Russia, his wife Alexandra Feodorovna, and their five children: Olga, Tatiana, Maria, Anastasia, and Alexei) were shot and bayoneted to death by Bolshevik revolutionaries under Yako ...
themselves in July of the following year, 1918, was two such examples of this during World War I.


World War II


By Germany

During the
Nazi occupation of Poland Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Naz ...
, the Germans applied collective responsibility: any kind of help given to a person of Jewish faith or origin was punishable by death, and that not only for the rescuers themselves but also for their families. This was widely publicized by the Germans. During the occupation, for every German killed by a Pole, 100–400 Poles were shot in retribution. Communities were held collectively responsible for the purported Polish counter-attacks against the invading German troops. Mass executions of
roundup A roundup is a systematic gathering together of people or things. Roundup, Round Up or Round-up may also refer to: Agriculture * A muster (livestock) (AU/NZ) or a roundup (US/CA) is the process of gathering livestock. * Roundup (herbicide), a M ...
(pol: ''łapanka'') hostages were conducted every single day during the Wehrmacht advance across Poland in September 1939 and thereafter. Poland lost over 5 million citizens during the occupation by Nazi Germany, mostly civilians. Germany also applied collective punishment elsewhere. In the summer of 1941, Wehrmacht troops executed several hundred people in
Kondomari Kondomari or Kontomari ( el, Κοντομαρί) is a Greek village, part of the municipality of Platanias in Crete. It is located near the northern coast of Crete, 18 km west of Chania and 3 km southeast of Maleme. It is known for bein ...
, Alikianos,
Kandanos Kandanos or Kantanos ( el, Κάνδανος or Κάντανος), also Candanos, is a town and former municipality in the Chania regional unit, Crete, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality Kantanos-Selino, ...
and elsewhere in retaliation for the participation of
Cretan Crete ( el, Κρήτη, translit=, Modern: , Ancient: ) is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, the 88th largest island in the world and the fifth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, after Sicily, Sardinia, Cyprus, ...
civilians in the
Battle of Crete The Battle of Crete (german: Luftlandeschlacht um Kreta, el, Μάχη της Κρήτης), codenamed Operation Mercury (german: Unternehmen Merkur), was a major Axis airborne and amphibious operation during World War II to capture the islan ...
. During its
occupation Occupation commonly refers to: *Occupation (human activity), or job, one's role in society, often a regular activity performed for payment *Occupation (protest), political demonstration by holding public or symbolic spaces *Military occupation, th ...
by the Axis from 1941 to 1944, Greece suffered a remarkably high death toll due to reprisals against the support and involvement of the population in the Resistance. Large-scale massacres were carried out in places such as
Domeniko Domeniko ( el, Δομένικο, ) is a village and a community of the Elassona municipality. Before the 2011 local government reform it was a part of the municipality of Potamia, of which it was a municipal district. The 2011 census recorded 62 ...
,
Kommeno Kommeno ( el, Κομμένο) is a village and a former community in the Arta regional unit, Epirus, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality Nikolaos Skoufas, of which it is a municipal unit. The municipal ...
,
Viannos Viannos ( el, Βιάννος) is a municipality in the Heraklion regional unit, Crete, Greece. The municipality has an area of . Population 5,563 (2011). The seat of the municipality is in Ano Viannos. In September 1943, German occupation forces ...
, Lyngiades, Kali Sykia, Drakeia, Kalavryta, Mesovouno, Damasta,
Distomo :"Distomo" ''may also refer to a work by Federico García Lorca'' Distomo ( el, Δίστομο) is a town in western Boeotia, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality Distomo-Arachova-Antikyra, of which it is ...
, Kedros,
Chortiatis Chortiatis ( el, Χορτιάτης) is a suburb and a former municipality in the Thessaloniki regional unit, Greece. Since the 2011 Kallikratis local government reform it is part of the municipality Pylaia-Chortiatis, of which it is a municipa ...
and many others. Entire villages (e.g.
Anogeia Anogeia (Ανώγεια) is a municipality in the Rethymno regional unit, Crete, Greece. The municipality has an area of ., excluding the former municipal departments Axos and Zoniana. Population 2,379 (2011). When exactly Anogeia was founded an ...
, Vorizia, Magarikari, Kamares, Lochria), were also pillaged and burnt. In Yugoslavia (now Serbia), Nazi troops killed 434 men in three villages near Kragujevac on October 19, 1941, as punishment for previous actions of the Serbian resistance movement. In the next two days, the Nazis also killed more than 13,000 people in Kraljevo, Kragujevac, and Sumarice, including 300 students from Kragujevac First High School. In 1942, the Germans destroyed the village of
Lidice Lidice (, german: Liditz) is a municipality and village in Kladno District in the Central Bohemian Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 600 inhabitants. Lidice is built near the site of the previous village of the same name, which was com ...
, Czechoslovakia (now the Czech Republic) killing 340 inhabitants as collective punishment or reprisal for that year's assassination of
Reinhard Heydrich Reinhard Tristan Eugen Heydrich ( ; ; 7 March 1904 – 4 June 1942) was a high-ranking German SS and police official during the Nazi era and a principal architect of the Holocaust. He was chief of the Reich Security Main Office (inclu ...
by nearby commandos (the village
Ležáky Ležáky (german: Ležak, from 1939: ''Lezaky''), in the Miřetice municipality, was a village in Czechoslovakia. During the German occupation of Czechoslovakia, it was razed by Nazi forces as reprisal for Reich Protector Reinhard Heydrich's assa ...
was also destroyed in retribution). In the French village of
Oradour-sur-Glane Oradour-sur-Glane (; oc, Orador de Glana) was a commune in the Haute-Vienne department, New Aquitaine, west central France, as well as the name of the main village within the commune. History The original village was destroyed on 10 June 19 ...
642 of its inhabitants – men, women, and children – were slaughtered by the German Waffen-SS in 1944, as were 335 Italians in that same year's
Ardeatine massacre The Ardeatine massacre, or Fosse Ardeatine massacre ( it, Eccidio delle Fosse Ardeatine), was a mass killing of 335 civilians and political prisoners carried out in Rome on 24 March 1944 by German occupation troops during the Second World W ...
in caves outside Rome. In the Dutch village of Putten and the Italian villages of
Sant'Anna di Stazzema Sant'Anna di Stazzema, officially Sant'Anna, is a village in Tuscany, Italy. Administratively, it is a ''frazione'' of the ''comune'' of Stazzema, in the province of Lucca. History In 1944, it was the site of a notorious Nazi crime against hum ...
and
Marzabotto Marzabotto ( Medial Mountain Bolognese: ) is a small town and ''comune'' in Italian region Emilia-Romagna, part of the Metropolitan City of Bologna. It is located south-southwest of Bologna by rail, and lies in the valley of the Reno. The area in ...
, as well as in the Soviet village of Kortelisy (in what is now Ukraine), large-scale reprisal killings were carried out by the Germans. The Massacre of Borovë occurred on July 9, 1943, in the village of Borovë, in southeastern
Albania Albania ( ; sq, Shqipëri or ), or , also or . officially the Republic of Albania ( sq, Republika e Shqipërisë), is a country in Southeastern Europe. It is located on the Adriatic and Ionian Seas within the Mediterranean Sea and shares la ...
. German forces killed 107 civilians as a reprisal for a partisan attack on a German convoy the days before. In Lithuania, on June 3, 1944, after attack of Soviet partisans on a group of Germans in a nearby forest, a punishment squadron burned alive 119 people (including 49 children under the age of 16) – almost all inhabitants of the village of Pirčiupiai.


Against Germany

The expulsion of German speaking population groups after World War II by the Soviet Union, Poland and Czechoslovakia represent one of the greatest examples of collective punishment in terms of the number of victims. The goal was to punish the Germans;Ulf Brunnbauer, Michael G. Esch, Holm Sundhaussen, ''Definitionsmacht, Utopie, Vergeltung'', p. 91
The Expulsion of 'German' Communities from Eastern Europe at the end of the Second World War
'', Steffen Prauser and Arfon Rees, European University Institute, Florence. HEC No. 2004/1. p. 6
Zybura, p. 202 the Allies declared them collectively guilty of Nazi war crimes.
The Expulsion of 'German' Communities from Eastern Europe at the end of the Second World War
'', Steffen Prauser and Arfon Rees, European University Institute, Florence. HEC No. 2004/1. p. 5
Ulf Brunnbauer, Michael G. Esch, Holm Sundhaussen, ''Definitionsmacht, Utopie, Vergeltung'', p. 92Arie Marcelo Kacowicz, Pawel Lutomski, Population resettlement in international conflicts: a comparative study, Lexington Books, 2007, pp.101–02. In the US and UK the ideas of German
collective guilt Collective responsibility, also known as collective guilt, refers to responsibilities of organizations, groups and societies. Collective responsibility in the form of collective punishment is often used as a disciplinary measure in closed insti ...
and collective punishment originated not with the American and British people, but on higher policy levels. Francis R. Nicosia, Jonathan Huener "Business and industry in Nazi Germany", p.130,131 Not until late in the war did the US public assign collective responsibility to the German people.


Soviet Union

Joseph Stalin's mass
deportations Deportation is the expulsion of a person or group of people from a place or country. The term ''expulsion'' is often used as a synonym for deportation, though expulsion is more often used in the context of international law, while deportation ...
of many nationalities of the USSR to remote regions (including the
Chechens The Chechens (; ce, Нохчий, , Old Chechen: Нахчой, ''Naxçoy''), historically also known as ''Kisti'' and ''Durdzuks'', are a Northeast Caucasian ethnic group of the Nakh peoples native to the North Caucasus in Eastern Europe. "Europe ...
,
Crimean Tatars , flag = Flag of the Crimean Tatar people.svg , flag_caption = Flag of Crimean Tatars , image = Love, Peace, Traditions.jpg , caption = Crimean Tatars in traditional clothing in front of the Khan's Palace ...
,
Volga Germans The Volga Germans (german: Wolgadeutsche, ), russian: поволжские немцы, povolzhskiye nemtsy) are ethnic Germans who settled and historically lived along the Volga River in the region of southeastern European Russia around Saratov ...
and many others) exemplifies officially orchestrated collective punishment. Stalin used the partial removal of potentially trouble-making ethnic groups as a technique consistently during his career:
Poles Poles,, ; singular masculine: ''Polak'', singular feminine: ''Polka'' or Polish people, are a West Slavic nation and ethnic group, who share a common history, culture, the Polish language and are identified with the country of Poland in Cen ...
(1939–1941 and 1944–45), Romanians (1941 and 1944–1953),
Estonians Estonians or Estonian people ( et, eestlased) are a Finnic ethnic group native to Estonia who speak the Estonian language. The Estonian language is spoken as the first language by the vast majority of Estonians; it is closely related to other ...
,
Latvians Latvians ( lv, latvieši) are a Baltic ethnic group and nation native to Latvia and the immediate geographical region, the Baltics. They are occasionally also referred to as Letts, especially in older bibliography. Latvians share a common Latv ...
,
Lithuanians Lithuanians ( lt, lietuviai) are a Baltic ethnic group. They are native to Lithuania, where they number around 2,378,118 people. Another million or two make up the Lithuanian diaspora, largely found in countries such as the United States, Unit ...
(1941 and 1945–1949),
Volga Germans The Volga Germans (german: Wolgadeutsche, ), russian: поволжские немцы, povolzhskiye nemtsy) are ethnic Germans who settled and historically lived along the Volga River in the region of southeastern European Russia around Saratov ...
(1941),
Chechens The Chechens (; ce, Нохчий, , Old Chechen: Нахчой, ''Naxçoy''), historically also known as ''Kisti'' and ''Durdzuks'', are a Northeast Caucasian ethnic group of the Nakh peoples native to the North Caucasus in Eastern Europe. "Europe ...
, and
Ingushes The Ingush (, inh, ГIалгIай, translit=Ghalghaj, pronounced ) per Oxford dictionary "a member of a people living mainly in Ingushetia in the central Caucasus." Ingushetia is a federal republic of Russian Federation. The Ingush are predomin ...
(1944). Shortly before, during and immediately after World War II, Stalin conducted a series of deportations on a huge scale which profoundly affected the ethnic map of the Soviet Union. Between 1941 and 1949 the Soviet authorities deported an estimated nearly 3.3 million people to Siberia and to the Central Asian republics. The deportations started with Poles from Belarus, Ukraine and European Russia (see
Poles in the former Soviet Union The Polish minority in the Soviet Union are Polish diaspora who used to reside near or within the borders of the Soviet Union before its dissolution. Some of them continued to live in the post-Soviet states, most notably in Lithuania, Belarus, and ...
) in the period 1932–1936. Koreans in the Russian Far East were deported in 1937 (see
Deportation of Koreans in the Soviet Union The deportation of Koreans in the Soviet Union (; ) was the forced transfer of nearly 172,000 Soviet Koreans (Koryo-saram) from the Russian Far East to unpopulated areas of the Kazakh SSR and the Uzbek SSR in 1937 by the NKVD on the orders of S ...
). After the Soviet invasion of Poland (17 September 1939) following the corresponding German invasion (1 September 1939) that marked the start of World War II in Europe, the Soviet Union annexed eastern parts (the so-called '' Kresy'') of the Second Polish Republic. During 1939–1941 the Soviet regime deported 1.45 million people inhabitants of this area, of whom 63% were
Poles Poles,, ; singular masculine: ''Polak'', singular feminine: ''Polka'' or Polish people, are a West Slavic nation and ethnic group, who share a common history, culture, the Polish language and are identified with the country of Poland in Cen ...
and 7% were Jews. Similar events followed in the
Baltic states The Baltic states, et, Balti riigid or the Baltic countries is a geopolitical term, which currently is used to group three countries: Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. All three countries are members of NATO, the European Union, the Eurozone, ...
of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania following their incorporation into the Soviet union in 1940. More than 200,000 people are estimated to have been deported from the Baltic in 1940–1953. 10% of the entire adult Baltic population was deported or sent to labor camps. (See June deportation,
Operation Priboi Operation Priboi (russian: Операция «Прибой» – "Operation 'Coastal Surf) was the code name for the Soviet mass deportation from the Baltic states on 25–28 March 1949. The action is also known as the March deportation ( et, M� ...
,
Soviet deportations from Estonia Soviet deportations from Estonia were a series of mass deportations by the Soviet Union from Estonia in 1941 and 1945–1951. The two largest waves of deportations occurred in June 1941 and March 1949 simultaneously in all three Baltic states ...
.)
Volga Germans The Volga Germans (german: Wolgadeutsche, ), russian: поволжские немцы, povolzhskiye nemtsy) are ethnic Germans who settled and historically lived along the Volga River in the region of southeastern European Russia around Saratov ...
and seven (overwhelmingly Turkic or non- Slavic) nationalities of the
Crimea Crimea, crh, Къырым, Qırım, grc, Κιμμερία / Ταυρική, translit=Kimmería / Taurikḗ ( ) is a peninsula in Ukraine, on the northern coast of the Black Sea, that has been occupied by Russia since 2014. It has a po ...
and the northern Caucasus were deported: the
Crimean Tatars , flag = Flag of the Crimean Tatar people.svg , flag_caption = Flag of Crimean Tatars , image = Love, Peace, Traditions.jpg , caption = Crimean Tatars in traditional clothing in front of the Khan's Palace ...
,
Kalmyks The Kalmyks ( Kalmyk: Хальмгуд, ''Xaľmgud'', Mongolian: Халимагууд, ''Halimaguud''; russian: Калмыки, translit=Kalmyki, archaically anglicised as ''Calmucks'') are a Mongolic ethnic group living mainly in Russia, ...
,
Chechens The Chechens (; ce, Нохчий, , Old Chechen: Нахчой, ''Naxçoy''), historically also known as ''Kisti'' and ''Durdzuks'', are a Northeast Caucasian ethnic group of the Nakh peoples native to the North Caucasus in Eastern Europe. "Europe ...
, Ingush,
Balkars The Balkars ( krc, Малкъарлыла, Malqarlıla or Таулула, , 'Mountaineers') are a Turkic people of the Caucasus region, one of the titular populations of Kabardino-Balkaria. Their Karachay-Balkar language is of the Ponto-Cas ...
, Karachays, and
Meskhetian Turks Meskhetian Turks, also referred to as Turkish Meskhetians, Ahiska Turks, and Turkish Ahiskans, ( ka, მესხეთის თურქები ''Meskhetis turk'ebi'') are an ethnic subgroup of Turks formerly inhabiting the Meskheti regio ...
. All
Crimean Tatars , flag = Flag of the Crimean Tatar people.svg , flag_caption = Flag of Crimean Tatars , image = Love, Peace, Traditions.jpg , caption = Crimean Tatars in traditional clothing in front of the Khan's Palace ...
were deported ''en masse'' in a form of collective punishment. One can regard
pogrom A pogrom () is a violent riot incited with the aim of massacring or expelling an ethnic or religious group, particularly Jews. The term entered the English language from Russian to describe 19th- and 20th-century attacks on Jews in the Russian ...
s as examples of unofficial collective punishment which resemble rioting. About 14 million Germans () were moved out of territories formerly part of the East of Germany; up to three million of them died.


India

The
1984 anti-Sikh riots The 1984 Anti-Sikh Riots, also known as the 1984 Sikh Massacre, was a series of organised pogroms against Sikhs in India following the assassination of Indira Gandhi by her Sikh bodyguards. Government estimates project that about 2,800 Sikhs ...
or the 1984 Sikh Massacre was a riot directed against Sikhs in India, by anti-Sikh mobs, in response to the
assassination of Indira Gandhi Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was assassinated at 9:30 a.m. on 31 October 1984 at her residence in Safdarjung Road, New Delhi. She was killed by her bodyguards Satwant Singh and Beant Singh in the aftermath of Operation Blue Star, an ...
by her Sikh bodyguards. This caused more than 3000 deaths. The CBI is of the opinion that the acts of violence were well organized with support from the officials in the
Delhi police The Delhi Police (DP) is the law enforcement agency for the National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT). Delhi Police comes under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), Government of India. In 2015, sanctioned strength of Delhi ...
and
central government A central government is the government that is a controlling power over a unitary state. Another distinct but sovereign political entity is a federal government, which may have distinct powers at various levels of government, authorized or deleg ...
at the time, headed by Indira Gandhi's son, Rajiv Gandhi. Rajiv, a
Congress party The Indian National Congress (INC), colloquially the Congress Party but often simply the Congress, is a political party in India with widespread roots. Founded in 1885, it was the first modern nationalist movement to emerge in the British Em ...
member who was sworn in as the Prime Minister after his mother's death, when asked about the riots said "When a big tree falls, the earth shakes".


Cold War


=United Kingdom

= In several
armed conflicts War is an intense armed conflict between states, governments, societies, or paramilitary groups such as mercenaries, insurgents, and militias. It is generally characterized by extreme violence, destruction, and mortality, using regular o ...
the United Kingdom engaged during the 1950s, collective punishment was utilized as a tactic to suppress various insurgencies such as the
Malayan Emergency The Malayan Emergency, also known as the Anti–British National Liberation War was a guerrilla war fought in British Malaya between communist pro-independence fighters of the Malayan National Liberation Army (MNLA) and the military forces o ...
, the
Mau Mau Uprising The Mau Mau rebellion (1952–1960), also known as the Mau Mau uprising, Mau Mau revolt or Kenya Emergency, was a war in the British Kenya Colony (1920–1963) between the Kenya Land and Freedom Army (KLFA), also known as the ''Mau Mau'', an ...
, and the
Cyprus Emergency The Cyprus Emergency ( gr, Απελευθερωτικός Αγώνας της Κύπρου 1955–59), also known as the Greek Cypriot War of Independence or Cypriot War of Independence, was a conflict fought in British Cyprus between November 19 ...
. In 1951, the British government announced plans which stipulated that non-combatants found supporting the Malayan National Liberation Army would be subject to 'collective punishment'. During the Mau Mau Uprising, the colonial administration also utilised collective punishment as a tactic against the
Kenya Land and Freedom Army The Kenya Land and Freedom Army (KLFA), also known as the Mau Mau, was a guerrilla army, formed mainly by the people of central and eastern Kenya, dominated by the Kikuyu people. It resisted British colonialism in Kenya from the late 1940s to ...
, while in Cyprus (during the Cyprus Emergency) the British authorities adopted a tactic of home evictions and business closures in regions where British personnel had been murdered in order to obtain information about the identities of the murderers.


=Azerbaijan

=
Black January Black January ( az, Qara Yanvar), also known as Black Saturday or the January Massacre, was a violent crackdown on the civilian population of Baku on 19–20 January 1990, as part of a state of emergency during the dissolution of the Soviet Unio ...
was a massacre of civilians committed by the Red Army in the
Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic Azerbaijan ( az, Азәрбајҹан, Azərbaycan, italics=no), officially the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic (Azerbaijan SSR; az, Азәрбајҹан Совет Сосиалист Республикасы, Azərbaycan Sovet Sosialist R ...
in 1990. The
Human Rights Watch Human Rights Watch (HRW) is an international non-governmental organization, headquartered in New York City, that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. The group pressures governments, policy makers, companies, and individual human ri ...
report entitled "Black January in Azerbaijan" states: "Indeed, the violence used by the Soviet Army on the night of January 19–20 was so out of proportion to the resistance offered by Azerbaijanis as to constitute an exercise in collective punishment."


21st century


North Korea

In North Korea, political prisoners are sent to the
kwalliso North Korea's political penal labor colonies, transliterated ''kwalliso'' or ''kwan-ri-so'', constitute one of three forms of political imprisonment in the country, the other two being what David Hawk translated as "short-term detention/for ...
concentration camps along with their relatives without any fair trial. North Korean citizens convicted of more serious political crimes are sentenced to life imprisonment, and the summary two generations of their family (children and grandchildren) will be born in the camps as part of the "3 generations of punishment" policy instigated by state founder Kim Il-Sung in 1948. North Korea's political penal labor colonies, transliterated ''kwalliso'' or ''kwan-li-so'', constitute one of three forms of political imprisonment in the country, the other two being what Hawk (2012) translates as "short-term detention/forced-labor centers" and "long-term prison
labor camp A labor camp (or labour camp, see spelling differences) or work camp is a detention facility where inmates are forced to engage in penal labor as a form of punishment. Labor camps have many common aspects with slavery and with prisons (especi ...
s" for
misdemeanor A misdemeanor (American English, spelled misdemeanour elsewhere) is any "lesser" criminal act in some common law legal systems. Misdemeanors are generally punished less severely than more serious felonies, but theoretically more so than adm ...
and
felony A felony is traditionally considered a crime of high seriousness, whereas a misdemeanor is regarded as less serious. The term "felony" originated from English common law (from the French medieval word "félonie") to describe an offense that resul ...
offences respectively. In total, there are an estimated 150,000 to 200,000 political prisoners housed within the North Korean imprisonment system. In contrast to these other systems, the condemned are sent there without any form of judicial process as are their immediate three generations of family members as kin punishment. North Korea's ''kwalliso'' consist of a series of sprawling encampments measuring kilometers long and kilometers wide. The number of these encampments has varied over time. They are located mainly in the valleys between high mountains, mostly in the northern provinces of North Korea. There are between 5,000 and 50,000 prisoners per kwalliso, totaling perhaps some 150,000 to 200,000 prisoners throughout North Korea. The kwalliso are usually surrounded at their outer perimeters by barbed-wire fences punctuated with guard towers and patrolled by heavily armed guards. The encampments include self-contained closed "village" compounds for single persons, usually the alleged wrongdoers, and other closed, fenced-in "villages" for the extended families of the wrongdoers.


Israel

The current blockade of Gaza has been criticized by the International Committee of the Red Cross, in a United Nations report, and by various other organisations as collective punishment aimed at the Palestinians.


Pakistan

On May 20, 2008, the
Pakistan Army The Pakistan Army (, ) is the land service branch of the Pakistan Armed Forces. The roots of its modern existence trace back to the British Indian Army that ceased to exist following the Partition of British India, which occurred as a result ...
conducted collective punishment against a village called Spinkai, located in the
Federally Administered Tribal Areas , conventional_long_name = Federally Administered Tribal Areas , nation = Pakistan , subdivision = Autonomous territory , image_flag = Flag of FATA.svg , image_coat = File:Coat of arms ...
of Pakistan. The operation was called 'zalzala', which is
Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walte ...
for earthquake. At first, the Pakistan Army swept through with helicopter gunships, artillery and tanks. After four days of heavy fighting, 25 militants and six soldiers died. The rest of the militants retreated up the valley. After the capture of the village the army discovered bomb factories, detonation-ready suicide jackets and schools for teenage suicide bombers. The Pakistan Army immediately decided to punish the village for harboring the Taliban and allowing the militants to operate in and from the village to conduct further terror attacks in Pakistan. Bulldozers and explosives experts turned Spinkai's bazaar into a mile-long pile of rubble. Petrol stations, shops, and even parts of the hospital were leveled or blown up. The villagers were forbidden from returning to their homes.


South Africa

South Africa still retains the
Apartheid Apartheid (, especially South African English: , ; , "aparthood") was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. Apartheid wa ...
-era law of
common purpose The doctrine of common purpose, common design, joint enterprise, joint criminal enterprise or parasitic accessory liability is a common law legal doctrine that imputes criminal liability to the participants in a criminal enterprise for all reas ...
, by which those who make up part of a group can be punished for the crimes of other group members, even if they were not themselves actively involved. In August 2012 this came to public attention when 270 miners were threatened with prosecution for participating in a demonstration. During the demonstration at the Marikana mine, 34 miners were shot by police. Many of the miners were armed. When prosecutors said they would pursue charges against other miners who were part of the protest, there was a public outcry.


Syria

Throughout most of Syria's ongoing
civil war A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policie ...
, collective punishment has been a recurring method used by the Syrian government to quell opposition cities and suburbs throughout the country, whereby entire cities are besieged, shelled, and destroyed if that city is deemed as pro-opposition. Upon retaking the capital Damascus after the 2012 Battle of Damascus, the Syrian government began a campaign of collective punishment against Sunni suburbs in-and-around the capital which had supported
Free Syrian Army The Free Syrian Army (FSA) ( ar, الجيش السوري الحر, al-jaysh as-Sūrī al-ḥur) is a loose faction in the Syrian Civil War founded on 29 July 2011 by officers of the Syrian Armed Forces with the goal of bringing down the govern ...
presence in their neighborhoods. In opposition-controlled cities and districts in Aleppo Province and Aleppo city, reports indicate that the Syrian government is attacking civilians at bread bakeries with artillery rounds and rockets, with the reports indicating that the bakeries were shelled indiscriminately.
Human Rights Watch Human Rights Watch (HRW) is an international non-governmental organization, headquartered in New York City, that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. The group pressures governments, policy makers, companies, and individual human ri ...
said these are war crimes, as the only military targets wherever the few rebels manning the bakeries, and that dozens of civilians were killed. In Idlib province in the northwest of the country, entire cities were shelled and bombed for sheltering opposition activists and rebels, with the victims mostly civilians, along with heavy financial losses.


See also

* Achan *
Achor Achor ( he, עכור "muddy, turbid: gloomy, dejected") is the name of a valley in the vicinity of Jericho. History The Book of Joshua, chapter seven, relates the story from which the valley's name comes. After the problems the Israelites ha ...
*
Decimation (Roman army) Decimation ( la, decimatio; ''decem'' = "ten") was a form of Roman military discipline in which every tenth man in a group was executed by members of his cohort. The discipline was used by senior commanders in the Roman army to punish units or ...
*
Family members of traitors to the Motherland "Traitor of the Motherland family members" ( ru , ЧСИР: члены семьи изменника Родины , translation = members of the family of a traitor of the Motherland) was a term in Article 58 of the Criminal Code of RSFSR (as am ...
* Market share liability * Terrorism


References


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Collective Punishment Collectivism