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Deliberate destruction of the home From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Domicide (from Latin domus, meaning home or abode, and caedo, meaning deliberate killing, though used here metaphorically) is the deliberate destruction of housing by human agency in pursuit of specified goals.[1][2] This also encompasses the widespread destruction of a living environment, forcing the incumbent humans to move elsewhere.[1][3] The concept of domicide originated in the 1970s, but only assumed its present meaning in 2022, after a report by the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Adequate Housing, Balakrishnan Rajagopal.[2][4][5]
Rajagopal has argued that international law should be amended to consider domicide to be a war crime.[6]
Notable historical examples of domicide include: the Bombing of Tokyo, which was the most destructive and deadly non-nuclear bombing in human history,[7] the bombing of Warsaw and Dresden and the destruction perpetrated by the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia.[8]
The recent Israeli bombing of the Gaza Strip is considered to be the one of the most destructive campaigns in history.[9] Balakrishnan Rajagopal, advisor to the United Nations on dams and Special Rapporteur on adequate housing accused Israel of committing domicide in the Gaza Strip during the Israel-Hamas war.[10][11]
John Porteus and Sandra Smith in their book Domicide: The Global Destruction of Home also highlight the Indian Removal Act as a definite case of domicide.[12]
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