The Politics of Persecution

The age-old practice of persecution has been recognised since the mid-20th century as a crime against humanity under international law. Even so, scores of states have continued to commit this serious human rights violation, characterised by systematic discrimination against groups of people based on aspects of their identity. While acknowledging the legal aspects involved, this book emphasizes the essentially political nature of acts of state-driven discrimination on such grounds as race, language, culture and political orientation. Fifteen contemporary cases of persecution are examined to determine who discriminated against whom, why, how, when and with what outcomes. Among the examples are Indonesia, Turkey, China, Iraq, Uganda, South Africa, Israel, Zimbabwe, Croatia, Myanmar and Sri Lanka.

Deon Geldenhuys is an emeritus professor of Politics at the University of Johannesburg and a distinguished fellow of the RISC consortium (Consortium for Comparative Research on Regional Integration and Social Cohesion). His books include Isolated States (1990), Deviant Conduct in World Politics (2004) and Contested States in World Politics (2009).