I suggest that recognition of a nation’s genocide by a foreign state is a political exercise, having little to do with law or morality. Perhaps the best argument for this is that the State of Israel has never recognized any genocide other than its own – the Holocaust. Why? Frankly no one knows except, perhaps by way of an interpretation by many that somehow recognizing someone else’s grief diminishes one’s own.
The Jewish Holocaust was in every respect a genocide as defined by the Convention of the United Nations. The number of victims has never been ascertained scientifically but is acknowledged by the global community as six million.
The number of victims does not matter in determining the components of the crime of genocide. Elements of a crime are important, but the number only refers to the number of counts and perhaps sentences. In the case of genocide, simply thousands would suffice. However, in terms of honoring the victims, the numbers do matter.
The US has recognized certain genocides in history yet remains diplomatic and careful in its assessment. Interestingly enough, the legislative branch of the US has been much more understanding in this regard than the executive branch. One can argue that given that the legislative branch is described in Article One of the US Constitution while the executive branch was relegated to Article Two by the Founding Fathers. The opinion expressed by the legislative is therefore more important.
Still, recognition and international relations are generally ascribed to the executive branch, so, to perhaps ascertain whether the US has recognized the Ukrainian Famine of 1932-33 (the Holodomor) as genocide, we need to look to both branches.
It is important to note that in recognizing the Holodomor, the executive branch in the US has been at the least very careful, and some may say duplicitous. Politics is the art of the possible and American politics over the last century has been accommodating or appeasing to the bad people to say the least.
America was not a global player until post-World War I. US President Woodrow Wilson, the alleged father of the League of Nations, struggled with the concept, and could not convince his own country to ultimately join. This was to be the denouement of International Law but it proved to be the harbinger of its futility.
A striking example was when the US, through its Department of State and President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, after many years, gave recognition on Nov. 16, 1933 to the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). At that time, the USSR was the perpetrator of the greatest genocide that the global community had ever witnessed in the modern era.
Polish lawyer Raphael Lemkin, who lost 49 members of his family in the Holocaust, coined the term “genocide” and initiated the United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. Lemkin wrote that the destruction of the Ukrainian nation “is a classic example of the Soviet genocide, the longest and most extensive experiment in Russification, namely the extermination of the Ukrainian nation...”
At the opening of the United States Holocaust Museum, the following words were spoken:
“In the aftermath of World War II, Raphael Lemkin… could find no suitable language to describe the scale and scope of the crime perpetrated against the Jews of Europe. A word that conveyed the depth of the atrocity did not exist – so he created it. In 1944, Lemkin combined the Greek prefix for “race” (génos), with the Latin suffix for “killing” (-cide) to coin the term “genocide,” and with this, launched his quest to create an international legal framework to prevent and punish any future attempt to destroy a group of people because of their national, ethnical, racial, or religious identity. Lemkin’s tireless efforts following the Holocaust led, in 1948, to the adoption of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide by the United Nations General Assembly, a turning point in world history. For the first time, nations of the world undertook to prevent and punish the crime of genocide under international law. “
In fact, Lemkin, in drafting the language of the UN Convention, specifically inserted the words “in times of peace” referring to the Ukrainian Genocide.
Condemnation
On Sept. 13, 1984, on the 50th anniversary of the Holodomor, the US Senate passed a resolution condemning the systematic disregard for human life and liberties by the Soviet Union, expressing sympathy for the victims of such policies.
A Commission on the Ukraine Famine was set up by Senate resolution S 2458 (98th Congress) on Sept. 21, 1984. The 99th Congress, on Jan. 3, 1985, passed appropriations to fund the Famine Commission and, on April 23, 1986, the Commission held its organizational meeting at the Rayburn House Office Building “to conduct a study of the 1932–33 Ukrainian Famine in order to expand the world’s knowledge of the famine and provide the American public with a better understanding ...and to submit a final report to Congress on or before April 23, 1988.”
On that day, the Commission submitted its report to Congress. Among the findings in the Commission’s report was that “Josef Stalin and those around him committed genocide against Ukrainians in 1932-33”.
Subsequent resolutions by either house or concurrently referred to the findings of the Commission mostly by reference and sometimes verbatim including the term “genocide” in the text of the resolution itself.
On Oct. 20, 2003, the House of Representatives adopted resolution #356, referring to “genocide perpetrated in 1932-33 by Stalin and his accomplices against Ukrainians.”
On Sept. 29, 2006, the US Congress passed a joint bill. “The Government of Ukraine is authorized to establish a memorial on Federal land in the District of Columbia to honor the victims of the Ukrainian famine genocide of 1932-33.” President George W. Bush signed the bill into law on Oct. 13, 2006.
The monument was established and unveiled in November 2015 through the efforts of the Ukrainian-American diaspora.
On March 14, 2018, the US Senate passed a Resolution marking the 85th anniversary of the Ukraine Famine 1932-33 referring to Raphael Lemkin, the United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, as well as Lemkin’s essay in 1953 entitled “Soviet Genocide in (the) Ukraine” which highlighted the “classic example of Soviet genocide,” characterizing it “not simply a case of mass murder, (but as) a case of genocide, of destruction not of individuals only, but of a culture and a nation.” The Resolution went on to recognize “the findings of the Commission on the Ukraine Famine as submitted to Congress on April 22, 1988, including that “Joseph Stalin and those around him committed genocide against the Ukrainians in 1932-1933.”
On Feb. 8, 2023, the US House of Representatives expressed the sense that the Holodomor be recognized as a genocide.
In the course of this analysis, I have not been able to locate a proclamation by US President Donald J. Trump during his first term (2016-2020) or this (10 months) recognizing the Holodomor as genocide or simply paying respects to the 7-10 million victims, four million of them children
The views expressed are the author’s and not necessarily of Kyiv Post.