Domicide is defined as the intentional destruction of home. This is inherently a violation of the human right to home. Domicide can manifest in two main ways. First, ‘everyday domicide’ means the destruction of homes due to development projects and processes like decay. However, ‘extreme domicide’ is the intentional destruction of homes during times of political violence (war, atrocity, and human rights abuses). It is this second form of domicide that Dr. Bree Akesson (Wilfrid Laurier University – Faculty of Social Work) and I examine in a series of publications, asking the question: why are homes intentionally targeted and destroyed during times of political violence?
The most sizeable collaborative project between Dr. Akesson and myself is a co-authored book we recently completed, From Bureaucracy to Bullets: Extreme Domicide and the Right to Home (Rutgers University Press, Winter 2022). Our book examines extreme domicide in eight spatially and temporally unique cases. Through inductive theory creation methods, we offer a way to classify types of extreme domicide through a typology. The cases are:
The uncovered causal pathways provide an ability to explain and predict extreme domicide in various spaces and times. The events and processes of home demolitions, home assimilations, and homes left vacant and their measurable biopsychosocial effects upon targeted populations are central to this book. Importantly, we offer new understandings on the violation of the right to home and posit on international and domestic legal mechanisms that can be created to prevent and punish domicide. This multi-year project incorporated Dr. Akesson’s knowledge of humanitarian studies and social work and my knowledge of forced displacement, international law, human rights, violence, and justice. We are also launching a website on domicide prevention and plan to build a consensus for a Convention Against Domicide.
In addition to past studies analyzing domicide and the rights of the child and cumulative domicide against the Sayisi Dene in Canada, we have begun research on reciprocal domicide in Nagorno-Karabakh. Both Armenians and Azeris have been victims and perpetrators of what we call ‘reciprocal domicide’ – the persistent use of domicide across space and time by two or more parties to a conflict against each other.
Finally, we are in the process of submitting a funding proposal to host an international conference on domicide with the plan to publish a co-edited book manuscript from papers presented by conference participants.
The most sizeable collaborative project between Dr. Akesson and myself is a co-authored book we recently completed, From Bureaucracy to Bullets: Extreme Domicide and the Right to Home (Rutgers University Press, Winter 2022). Our book examines extreme domicide in eight spatially and temporally unique cases. Through inductive theory creation methods, we offer a way to classify types of extreme domicide through a typology. The cases are:
- Cherokee Trail of Tears (1838-1839) in the United States
- Violence Against Chechens (1944-1956; 1994-2009) in the Caucuses
- Palestinian-Israeli Conflict (1945-present) in Israel and Palestine
- Mau Mau Uprising (1952-1960) in Kenya
- Division of Cyprus (1974)
- Genocide in Bosnia (1992-1995)
- Syrian Civil War (2011-present)
- Myanmar’s Genocide of the Rohingya (2012-present)
The uncovered causal pathways provide an ability to explain and predict extreme domicide in various spaces and times. The events and processes of home demolitions, home assimilations, and homes left vacant and their measurable biopsychosocial effects upon targeted populations are central to this book. Importantly, we offer new understandings on the violation of the right to home and posit on international and domestic legal mechanisms that can be created to prevent and punish domicide. This multi-year project incorporated Dr. Akesson’s knowledge of humanitarian studies and social work and my knowledge of forced displacement, international law, human rights, violence, and justice. We are also launching a website on domicide prevention and plan to build a consensus for a Convention Against Domicide.
In addition to past studies analyzing domicide and the rights of the child and cumulative domicide against the Sayisi Dene in Canada, we have begun research on reciprocal domicide in Nagorno-Karabakh. Both Armenians and Azeris have been victims and perpetrators of what we call ‘reciprocal domicide’ – the persistent use of domicide across space and time by two or more parties to a conflict against each other.
Finally, we are in the process of submitting a funding proposal to host an international conference on domicide with the plan to publish a co-edited book manuscript from papers presented by conference participants.
Photo: Ağdam, Nagorno-Karabakh.
Source: Andrew R. Basso, 2015.
Source: Andrew R. Basso, 2015.
