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Raphael Lemkin was instrumental in the drafting and the adoption of the United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. With the ratification of this treaty, Raphael Lemkin's original goal was realized. Now there was an international law that nations could draw on to prosecute and punish perpetrators of genocide; now leaders like Mehmed Talaat could be brought to trial in International Criminal Court and men like Soghomon Tehlirian might not feel...
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This lesson focuses on how Lemkin turned his moral outrage into action. Upon learning about the trial of Tehlirian, Lemkin became educated about international law. Following Lemkin's path, students will explore the concept of sovereignty that made it difficult to prosecute perpetrators of genocide. Lemkin was also frustrated by the fact that people, including politicians such as Winston Churchill, did not have sufficient language to represent horrible crimes against humanity and...
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In his early adulthood, Raphael Lemkin did not set out to change the world. He was inspired to act by his own outrage when he learned about the crimes the Ottoman Empire committed against Armenians during World War I- and outraged that the perpetrators of these crimes went unpunished. He could not believe that there was no legal precedent for punishing perpetrators of such terrible crimes against humanity. The purpose of this lesson is to help students understand Lemkin's outrage so that...
The following is a list of Facing History and Ourselves lessons and activities for the classroom. Some of these lessons are available only to teachers in our network. (To become part of the Facing History network, teachers must attend either a face-to-face seminar or participate in an online seminar. Learn more about how to become a part of the Facing History network.)
