Today it's Holocaust Remembrance Day.
I think the most important part of memory is to relate it to the present.
So it's a good day to have a look at ONGOING genocides.

Disclaimer: I'm not an expert about ANY of these, even if I try to stay informed about them. Any precisation or correction is welcome.
But I think it's important that such huge, violent events become a mainstream discussion topic.

Also, there's a lot of debate about WHAT constitutes a genocide, and people get very emotional about it.
It's an important debate, but please keep the important points in sight: HUGE human rights violations are still going on, and there's little talk about them.

CW: pretty much every possible kind of violence. In general a seriously unpleasant thread.

1) Very likely the single largest episode of genocidal violence in the current world: PRC detention camps (and security operations) in Xinjang.
Estimates for the number of people *detained* in concentration camps range between 200 000 and over a million.

Despite the secretiveness and censorship of the PRC, the scale is so wide that overwhelming proof can easily be found (for example from methodical study of satellite imagery).
Note that PRC doesn't deny the existence of the camps.

There's vast evidence for torture, brainwashing, forced sterilization, separation families and forced labor in the camps, and widespread oppressive measures throughout the region.
The main (but not only) target is the Uyghur ethnical and religious minority.

It's not, however, the only one - Hui and Kazakh minorities have also been found to be interned in Xinjang. Of course, obtaining detailed numbers about the convictions (or anything else) is impossible.

It's also likely prisoners are subject to the organ harvesting policy that is widely accepted to take place in PRC.
This is especially relevant for westerners, since there's substantial "transplant tourism" to China.

You can find a lot of material about Xinjang, all of it frankly horrific.
I'll just link a piece about a Uyghur model who managed to send messages from his detention.
It's useful to put a face on large scale atrocities. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/aug/05/secret-footage-uighur-detention-merdan-ghappar-chinese-prison-xinjiang

2) Rohingya ethnic cleansing in Myanmar:
Another very-large-scale atrocity, which caused over a milion displaced people and deaths in the tens of thousands.
Rohingya are a muslim minority in Myanmar, and they've historical been subject to oppression and apartheid.

Since 2016, the Myanmar authorities begun a "crackdown" in Rakhine state (where most Rohingya used to live), burning Rohingya villages and arbitrarily arresting, raping and killing the villagers.
About 2\\3 of the Rohingya population fled Myanmar.

More than 100 000 Rohingya are detained in Myanmar (or were in recent years).
The crackdown seems to be cooling down since 2017, but MOST Rohyngia have been expelled from Myanmar, imprisoned or killed.
A huge number of refugees still live in camps.

The Myanmar government actively tries to destroy evidence of the atrocities, and only in 2020 took ANY action to stop (or even aknowledge) violence against the Rohingya minority.

It's worth noting that this all happened with the complacency (or active support) of head of government Aung San Suu Kyi, nobel prize winner and long considered a hero of democracy.

3) Darfur crisis.
This one seems to be finally winding down, but a huge amount of people lost their lives or were (and still are) displaced, so I think it should be listed.

Darfur conflict is very complex and explaining it would be going out of my depth.
In its essence, it's a conflict for control of the darfur region in Sudan. (this is different from the indipendence conflict of South Sudan, which involved its own atrocities)

A long, drawn out conflict between central government (plus allies) and Darfur insurgents begun in 2003 and flared up repeatedly.
A government-backed militia proved especially bloody in its operation, engaging in mass killing and rape, especially toward non-arabs.

In 2019 a revolution in Sudan started a peace process, and while sporadic fighting is still ongoing, and a huge amount of refugees are still outside the country, there's concrete hope for lasting peace.

4) ISIL genocides.
I assume you all know about ISIL, and with its power in Iraq and Syria mostly gone, most observer consider the genocide over rather than ongoing.
Still, it's a very recent event with still ongoing consequences.

From 2014, ISIL actively persecuted religious and ethnic minorities in its territory, mostly Yazidis, christians and shia muslims.
Beside mass killings and displacements, there are well documented cases of people abducted and sold into slavery.

(incidentally, the slave trade is still a huge risk for vulnerable groups like minorities and displaced people. Women are at especially high risk of being sold into sexual slavery)

The huge wave of displacement from Syria (with more than 7 millions refugees!), even if mostly directed to neighbouring countries, was one of the factors triggering the so-called "refugee crisis" in Europe in 2015 to 2018.

Most european countries reacted with hostility and repression toward the refugees.
So much for remembering past atrocities and doing better.

5) Other ongoing human right violations might or might not be considered genocidal - some I excluded simply because I couldn't find reliable information about those.
However, a brief mention of some:

- Nigeria: Boko Haram, a rebel group in northern Nigeria, is known for targeting christians in north Nigeria, abducting and selling children, routinely killing civilians, and displacing millions of poeple.

- Several armed groups in Central African Republic and neighboruing countries: ethnic conflict within CAR, from 2017 on, caused ten of thousands of displacements and there are reports of mass civilian killings.
Honestly, I can't find much material, suggestions are appreciated.

- Yemen: The Saudi intervention in Yemen has been accused of war crimes, especially bombing of civilian targets like refugee camps. With the war still hot, it's difficult to get reliable information.

Honestly, the sad truth is there are so many cases of ethnic violence, especially in conflict zones, that this list is necessarily incomplete.

I think these terrible events don't attract nearly as much attention as they should. Even the situation in Xinjang and Rakhine very rarely makes the headlines.

On one hand, it can feel pointless to discuss events in foreign countries - none of us has any say on PRC policy, after all.
But do you feel that way about non-germans in 1939?

Yes, most of us can't do anything to directly stop any of these.
But beside a moral obligation, in my opinion, to at least be *aware* of what happens, discussing them is not pointless.

First, there are *direct* ways we interact with those events, sometimes. Western people travel to china for transplants, which directly cause executions.
Myanmar is an important tourism destination.

Second, our countries can (or at least could) provide assistance to people who *flee* those events, if there were political will.
But when is the last time you heard refugees politics discussed in those terms?

In western countries it's usually just the right screaming THEY COME TO STEAL OUR JOBS AND WOMEN, and the left saying "mpfgh let's discuss something else".
Most people are literally unaware of what those refugees are fleeing *from*.

Third, international politics is a thing. Various kind of pressure *can* be exerted on those countries, especially by wealthy western countries like US and EU.
We can complain about politicians not caring, but there's a striking lack of popular demand for it.

So, by any means study the history of holocaust. It's terrible, it's important, and it's very well documented.
But remember genocide is not some cautionary tale from a distant past: it's something that is happening, in our world.

A few useful websites if you want to read more:
https://www.hrw.org/ 
https://www.genocidewatch.com/ 
https://www.unhcr.org/