Refocusing on—Crimes Against—Humanity

This chapter contrasts the terms genocide and democratic social contract. It not only takes seriously the exterminatory rejection of human rights-based polities in the pursuit of social engineering by génocidaires, but also—in the vocabulary of Enlightenment—positively emphasizes the prime concern of a society based on “the common good” as democratically agreed on in a social contract. Related to its key argument, the chapter brings ancient and modern religion from the margins to center stage in genocide studies. By examining genocidal intent in the holy scriptures, it underlines (ethno)religious categorizations in genocides. It exposes the tension between such categories and the age-old faith in the sacredness of life in general and the dignity of human life in particular, on which human rights and democratic social contracts are based. Genocides may sign enduring “scapegoat-based” social pacts. As crimes against humanity, however, they are above all failures in concluding valid social contracts.