Viral Violence: Infectious Disease and Genocide

COVID-19 is a modest reminder of the catastrophic toll of viral pathogens and their potential weaponization against human groups. In both the Armenian genocide and the Holocaust, deliberate exposure to infectious disease was a significant means of extermination. The drafters of the 1948 Genocide Convention were mindful that living conditions in the ghettos and concentration camps claimed more lives than mass-executions. Although "slow death" was included under Article II(c) however, there has been almost no jurisprudence or scholarship on its application to infectious disease. Contemporary examples from East Timor, Sudan, and Myanmar demonstrate its direct and continuing relevance to the crime of genocide.