1 The first and second parts lay the foundation for the third, especially for readers who are non-expert in dehumanization studies.

2 In addition to what follows, Kontler reviews thinking around “diversity versus unity, and the diversity within unity”, and the challenges posed by distinct practices (perceived as negative or less desirable) in people recognized as physically human. “[T]he quest for humanity remained a thoroughly contingent pursuit, and ‘mankind’ an unstable notion, over several centuries of intense European engagement with the subject.” Kontler, László, “‘Humanity’ and Its Limits in Early Modern European Thought”, in Kronfeldner, Maria (ed.), Routledge Handbook of Dehumanization, 1st ed., Routledge, Abingdon, 2021, p. 61Google Scholar.

3 The Fundamental Principle of humanity is given in Figure 6. See ICRC, The Fundamental Principles of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, 1986, available at: www.icrc.org/en/doc/resources/documents/red-cross-crescent-movement/fundamental-principles-movement-1986-10-31.htm (all internet references were accessed in February 2024).

4 Henry Dunant, Un souvenir de Solferino, Institut Henry-Dunant and Slatkine Reprints, Geneva, 1980, pp. 42, 61 (fn.), 80, 92, 103, 107, 109, 112, 113. Note also Dunant's references to “Tutti fratelli” (p. 59) and “Sono madre” (p. 82), evoking universal brotherhood (sic) and fundamental human relationships. The influence of Dunant's Christian faith is clear, but his call to action in the face of suffering is areligious and universal, further exemplified by the founding in 1868 of the precursor of today's Turkish Red Crescent Society in the Ottoman Empire. See Turkish Red Crescent Society, “About Us”, available at: www.kizilay.org.tr/about-us/history.

5 H. Dunant, above note 4, p. 8.

6 Ibid., pp. 38, 58, 84.

7 Pictet discusses “human” and “humanity” as follows: “Human, in its original sense, refers to all that concerns man. However, in the sense which is now of interest to us, the word human is used to describe a man who is good to his fellow beings. … Humanity is therefore the sentiment or attitude of someone who shows himself to be human. Following Littré's dictionary, we would define humanity as a sentiment of active goodwill towards mankind. The word humanity in this sense is so perfectly suited to the Red Cross that it was chosen to designate its essential principle. At the same time, the word also serves to specify human nature and even the human species as a whole. In addition, it is rather more a feeling than a principle, so that perfect logic would suggest a preference for the word humanitarianism. These are minor drawbacks however and we should maintain the word humanity, for it is simple, direct and closer to man [sic].” Pictet, Jean, “The Fundamental Principles of the Red Cross”, International Review of the Red Cross, Vol. 19, No. 210, 1979, p. 143Google Scholar, available at: https://international-review.icrc.org/sites/default/files/S0020860400019872a.pdf.

8 See Coupland, Robin, “Humanity: What Is It and How Does It Influence International Law?”, International Review of the Red Cross, Vol. 83, No 844, 2001, p. 972Google Scholar, available at: www.icrc.org/en/doc/assets/files/other/irrc-844-coupland.pdf. Coupland refers to “the human race; mankind; [and] human beings collectively”, alongside “the character or quality of being humane; behaviour or disposition towards others such as befits a human being.”

9 Hugo Slim, “The Power of Humanity: On Being Human Now and in the Future”, Humanitarian Law and Policy Blog, 30 July 2019, available at: https://blogs.icrc.org/law-and-policy/2019/07/30/power-of-humanity-being-human-now-future/.

10 “There is nevertheless a link between these two fields [principles of the Movement and principles of IHL], for humanitarian law had its origin in the ideal of the Red Cross, which continues to stimulate its development. Thus, there are certain principles, such as those of humanity and of non-discrimination, which in a sense are common to both.” J. Pictet, above note 7, pp. 131–132.

11 Fast, Larissa, “Unpacking the Principle of Humanity: Tensions and Implications”, International Review of the Red Cross, Vol. 97, No. 897–898, 2015, pp. 112, 116CrossRefGoogle Scholar, available at: https://doi.org/10.1017/S1816383115000545.

12 R. Coupland, above note 8, p. 988.

13 Maria Kronfeldner, “Preface”, in M. Kronfeldner (ed.), above note 2, p. xvii. See also Richard Rorty, “Human Rights, Rationality and Sentimentality”, in Richard Rorty, Philosophical Papers, Vol. 3: Truth and Progress, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1998.

14 See “Curbing Dehumanization” below; hence also the bidirectional arrows in Figure 1.

15 Sophie Oliver, “Dehumanization: Perceiving the Body as (In)Human”, in Paulus Kaufmann, Hannes Kuch, Christian Neuhäuser and Elaine Webster (eds), Humiliation, Degradation, Dehumanization, Springer, Dordrecht, 2011, p. 94.

16 Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, World Publishing Company, Cleveland, OH, 1962 (first published 1951), p. 296.

17 Anne Phillips, The Politics of the Human, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2015, pp. 9, 20–46. “When we speak the language of the human, we engage in a politics of inclusion; yet in offering our definitions of this human, we endorse something that serves to exclude.”

18 Luigi Corrias, “Dehumanization by Law”, in M. Kronfeldner (ed.), above note 2, p. 205. A discussion of the development of the modern human rights system, particularly in relation to Arendt's 1951 work (above note 16), is beyond the scope of this paper.

19 World War I saw the introduction of more systematic border controls. John Torpey, The Invention of the Passport: Surveillance, Citizenship, and the State, 2nd ed., Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2018, pp. 136–137. As a side note, “British tourists of the 1920s complained … about attached photographs and physical descriptions, which they considered led to a ‘nasty dehumanisation’”. Michael Marrus, The Unwanted: European Refugees in the Twentieth Century, Oxford University Press, New York, 1985, p. 92.

20 The indeterminate status of a missing person – neither clearly alive nor dead – confounds most legal and administrative frameworks.

21 2021 multi-sector needs assessment results for Syria. See Syria HCT Coordinated Response, Protection Sector Update: Al-Hol Camp, Syria, June 2022, available at: https://reliefweb.int/attachments/dbe2b70c-6034-4a16-993c-94f111bac529/Protection-Sector-Update-Al-Hol-June-2022.pdf.

22 “Dehumanization happens when people are depicted, regarded, or treated as not human or less human. … What ‘being human’ means as part of dehumanization varies, is often idealized, and is rarely about an easy-to-capture matter. … [N]ot much agreement exists beyond [this notion] in the scholarship on dehumanization.” M. Kronfeldner, above note 13, p. xvi. Though this paper discusses examples and practices from across the world, a further caveat is that the scholarship on dehumanization remains heavily Western.

23 As with their “humanity” inversions as shown in Figure 1, the three elements shown in Figure 2 also have porous boundaries, though I have tried to be precise in both cases by referring to access to rights. The examples given hopefully clarify further.

24 David Livingstone Smith, Making Monsters: The Uncanny Power of Dehumanization, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 2021, p. 26. See also his earlier work: David Livingstone Smith, Less Than Human: Why We Demean, Enslave, and Exterminate Others, St Martin's Griffin, New York, 2011, p. 26.

25 Thus also forestalling what Nick Haslam calls “concept creep”. Nick Haslam, “The Social Psychology of Dehumanization”, in M. Kronfeldner (ed.), above note 2, p. 140.

26 As Smith himself says, “it becomes an open question whether the dehumanizing mentality lurks behind any given episode of animalistic derogation”. D. L. Smith, above note 24, Making Monsters, p. 235.

27 “For example, solid objects like the chair on which you are sitting look and feel gapless. But physicists tell us that such objects consist mostly of empty space. Even though our eyes tell us that solid objects are gapless, we defer to the physicists because, in our culture, they are supposed to know.” Ibid., pp. 238–239.

28 Maria Kronfeldner, “Introduction”, in M. Kronfeldner (ed.), above note 2, p. 20. For context, a potential positive dehumanization is agreeing that a lover treat one's body as a pillow: Nussbaum, Martha, “Objectification”, Philosophy and Public Affairs, Vol. 24, No. 4, 1995, p. 265CrossRefGoogle Scholar. This is discussed further in Maria Mikkola, “Why Dehumanization is Distinct from Objectification”, in M. Kronfeldner (ed.), above note 2, p. 329.

29 The study of dehumanization seeks to explain – and to prevent – particularly harmful instances of suffering and oppression including those less common today, like slavery.

30 Many discussions of dehumanization go well beyond these, exploring entrenched societal attitudes and norms. One can even conclude that any person not enjoying the full range of human rights is dehumanized. Conflict magnifies such harms, but this paper will not address these broader discussions beyond the section on “Efforts Elsewhere in the Movement” below.

31 M. Kronfeldner, above note 28, p. 15 (emphasis in original).

32 Ibid., p. 15.

33 Sara Heinämaa and James Jardine, “Objectification, Inferiorization, and Projection in Phenomenological Research on Dehumanization”, in M. Kronfeldner (ed.), above note 2, p. 309.

34 M. Kronfeldner, above note 28, p. 16; full discussion in M. Mikkola, above note 28. See also L. Corrias, above note 18.

35 Further informed by others’ thinking, e.g. Beyond Conflict, Decoding Dehumanization: Policy Brief for Policymakers and Practitioners, May 2019, available at: https://beyondconflictint.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Decoding-Dehumanization-Policy-Brief-2019.pdf.

36 Notwithstanding discussion of monsters/demons and attribution of superhuman powers to the dehumanized: D. L. Smith, Making Monsters, above note 24; Nick Haslam, Yoshihisa Kashima, Stephen Loughnan, Junqi Shi and Caterina Suitner, “Subhuman, Inhuman, and Superhuman: Contrasting Humans with Nonhumans in Three Cultures”, Social Cognition, Vol. 26, No. 2, 2008.

37 “Animalizing dehumanization reduces the person to a more primitive life form …. Mechanizing dehumanization reduces the person to being a robot …. Objectifying dehumanization reduces the person to a passive thing.” Susan Fiske, “How Status and Interdependence Explain Different Forms of Dehumanization”, in M. Kronfeldner (ed.), above note 2, p. 255. There is, however, disagreement about whether seeing humans as objects is part of mechanistic dehumanization. See also Nick Haslam, “The Social Psychology of Dehumanization”, in M. Kronfeldner (ed.), above note 2, p. 132; Beyond Conflict, above note 35, p. 4.

38 Again, this is not to minimize the suffering that the less extreme effects of dehumanization cause for millions whose humanity is violated, including by blocking full access to rights: think of the Taliban's treatment of women and girls in Afghanistan or systemic racism in many countries.

39 ICRC, “Israel and the Occupied Territories: Targeting Civilians Leads to Further Spirals of Violence and Hatred”, 10 October 2023, available at: www.icrc.org/en/document/israel-and-occupied-territories-targeting-civilians-leads-further-spirals-violence-and-hatred.

40 Notably via the “Ascent” measure of blatant dehumanization, as illustrated by the iconic “Ascent of Man” image depicting the stages of evolution from ape to human: see Nour Kteily, Emile Bruneau, Adam Waytz and Sarah Cotterill, “The Ascent of Man: Theoretical and Empirical Evidence for Blatant Dehumanization”, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Vol. 109, No. 5, 2015, available at: https://doi.org/10.1037/pspp0000048. See also Nour Kteily and Emile Bruneau, “Darker Demons of Our Nature: The Need to (Re)Focus Attention on Blatant Forms of Dehumanization”, Current Directions in Psychological Science, Vol. 26, No. 6, 2017.

41 Research summarized in Beyond Conflict, above note 35.

42 See e.g. Tage S. Rai, Piercarlo Valdesolo and Jesse Graham, “Dehumanization Increases Instrumental Violence, but not Moral Violence”, PNAS, Vol. 114, No. 32, 2017, available at: https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1705238114. For an overview, see Nick Haslam, “The Many Roles of Dehumanization in Genocide”, in Leonard S. Newman (ed.), Confronting Humanity at Its Worst: Social Psychological Perspectives on Genocide, Oxford University Press, New York, 2019, pp. 124-126.

43 Beyond Conflict, above note 35; ICRC, The Roots of Restraint in War, Geneva, 2018, available at: www.icrc.org/en/publication/4352-roots-restraint-war; David M. Markowitz and Paul Slovic, “Social, Psychological, and Demographic Characteristics of Dehumanization toward Immigrants”, PNAS, Vol. 117, No. 17, 2020, available at: www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.1921790117; Babak Bahador, “Classifying and Identifying the Intensity of Hate Speech”, Social Science Research Council, November 2020, available at: https://items.ssrc.org/disinformation-democracy-and-conflict-prevention/classifying-and-identifying-the-intensity-of-hate-speech/.

44 Edouard Machery, “Dehumanization and the Loss of Moral Standing”, in M. Kronfeldner (ed.), above note 2, p. 145. See also the summaries in M. Kronfeldner, above note 28, p. 23, and D. L. Smith, Less Than Human, above note 24, p. 264.

45 D. L. Smith, Making Monsters, above note 24.

46 See e.g. Roger Giner-Sorolla, Bernhard Leidner and Emanuele Castano, “Dehumanization, Demonization, and Morality Shifting: Paths to Moral Certainty in Extremist Violence”, in Michael A. Hogg and Danielle L. Blaylock (eds), Extremism and the Psychology of Uncertainty, Wiley-Blackwell, Chichester, 2011, available at: https://doi.org/10.1002/9781444344073.ch10.

47 N. Kteily, E. Bruneau, A. Waytz and S. Cotterill, above note 40.

48 Emile Bruneau and Nour Kteily, “The Enemy as Animal: Symmetric Dehumanization during Asymmetric Warfare”, PLoS ONE, Vol. 12, No. 7, 2017, available at: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0181422.

49 See e.g. Beyond Conflict, above note 35; Nour Kteily, Gordon Hodson and Emile Bruneau, “They See Us as Less than Human: Metadehumanization Predicts Intergroup Conflict via Reciprocal Dehumanization”, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Vol. 110, No. 3, 2016, available at: https://doi.org/10.1037/pspa0000044; Emanuele Castano, Daniel Muñoz-Rojas and Sabina Čehajić-Clancy, “Thou Shalt Not Kill: Social Psychological Processes and International Humanitarian Law among Combatants”, Peace and Conflict: Journal of Peace Psychology, Vol. 26, No. 1, 2020, available at: https://dx.doi.org/10.1037/pac0000410.

50 Smith notes that dehumanizing beliefs “can lose their causal efficacy, and become latent, but they can be reignited by changes in a social ecology that is hospitable to them, including effective dehumanizing propaganda”. D. L. Smith, Making Monsters, above note 24, p. 256.

51 Opotow, Susan, “Moral Exclusion and Injustice: An Introduction”, Journal of Social Issues, Vol. 46, No. 1, 1990, p. 1CrossRefGoogle Scholar. See also Adam Waytz, Kurt Gray, Nicholas Epley and Daniel M Wegner, “Causes and Consequences of Mind Perception”, Trends in Cognitive Sciences, Vol. 14, No. 8, 2010, p. 386.

52 Herbet C. Kelman, “Violence without Moral Restraint: Reflections on the Dehumanization of Victims and Victimizers”, Journal of Social Issues, Vol. 29, No. 4, 1973, p. 48, available at: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-4560.1973.tb00102.x.

53 D. L. Smith, Making Monsters, above note 24, p. 255; David Livingston Smith, On Inhumanity: Dehumanization and How to Resist It, Oxford University Press, New York, 2020, p. 100.

54 In Smith's conception, “the most dangerous and destructive kind of dehumanization transforms others into monsters” who “pose … a threat to the natural order itself”. D. L. Smith, Making Monsters, above note 24, p. 254 (emphasis in original). More generally, see Daniel Muñoz-Rojas and Jean-Jacques Frésard, The Roots of Behaviour in War: Understanding and Preventing IHL Violations, ICRC, Geneva, 2004, available at: www.icrc.org/en/doc/assets/files/other/icrc_002_0853.pdf.

55 A. Waytz et al., above note 51, esp. p. 384. For an overview of the “mind perception” theory of dehumanization, see N. Haslam, above note 37, p. 133.

56 Abraham Harold Maslow, “A Theory of Human Motivation”, Psychological Review, Vol. 50, No. 4, 1943.

57 Biljana Plavsić, “Statement of Guilt: Biljana Plavšić”, International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, 17 December 2002, available at: www.icty.org/en/content/statement-guilt-biljana-plav%C5%A1i%C4%87#

58 Distinct from methods for such exploitation, such as propaganda: see “Overt Efforts, including Language” below.

59 ICRC, “I Saw My City Die”: Voices from the Front Lines of Urban Conflict in Iraq, Syria and Yemen, Geneva, 2017, p. 67, available at: www.icrc.org/en/publication/i-saw-my-city-die-voices-front-lines-urban-conflict-iraq-syria-and-yemen.

60 H. C. Kelman, above note 52, pp. 48–52; S. Opotow, above note 51, p. 13.

61 The authorities may still be accountable out of a duty of care, if people under their charge are denied their individuality, importance in the community and/or moral standing; the below section on “Tacit Encouragement” touches on this.

62 Latent dehumanization (undiscernible beliefs), expressive dehumanization (thoughts into words), activist dehumanization (trying to convince others of one's belief) and finally actualized dehumanization (all treatment of others grounded in their being “not (fully) human”). Marie-Luisa Frick, “Dehumanization and Human Rights”, in M. Kronfeldner (ed.), above note 2, pp. 188–189.

63 This paper does not explore self-dehumanization, either as discussed in the literature or from the less rigorous perspective that human existence is inherently relational, as exemplified by Desmond Tutu's statement: “I am human because you are human. My humanity is caught up in yours. And if you are dehumanized, I am dehumanized.” “‘My Humanity Is Caught Up in Yours’: How Desmond Tutu Dedicated His Life to Greater Good”, News Hour, PBS, 27 December 2021, 3:41, available at: www.pbs.org/newshour/show/my-humanity-is-caught-up-in-yours-how-desmond-tutu-dedicated-his-life-to-greater-good. Curious readers may consult Stéphanie Demoulin, Pierre Maurage and Florence Stinglhamber, “Exploring Metadehumanization and Self-Dehumanization from a Target Perspective”, in M. Kronfeldner (ed.), above note 2.

64 Greenberg Research, Country Report Bosnia-Herzegovina: ICRC Worldwide Consultation on the Rules of War, 1999, available at: www.icrc.org/en/doc/assets/files/other/bosnia.pdf.

65 Khalil da Costa Silva, José Luis Álvaro, Ana Raquel Rosas Torres and Alicia Garrido, “Terrorist Threat, Dehumanization, and Right-Wing Authoritarianism as Predictors of Discrimination”, Scandinavian Journal of Psychology, Vol. 60, No. 6, 2019, available at: https://doi.org/10.1111/sjop.12574.

66 Dehumanization is identified as a core element contributing to genocide; see Gregory H. Stanton, “Ten Stages of Genocide”, 1996, available at: www.genocidewatch.com/tenstages. Indeed, modern studies of dehumanization began in reaction to the Holocaust and other atrocities of World War II, including those committed by Japanese and US forces: M. Kronfeldner, above note 28, p. 3. See also Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, 78 UNTS 277, 9 December 1948 (entered into force 12 January 1951), available at: https://treaties.un.org/doc/Treaties/1951/01/19510112%2008-12%20PM/Ch_IV_1p.pdf.

67 Among many other examples of colonial and post-colonial dynamics, which are not the main focus of this paper, State demands for natural resources and economic expansion alone motivated the genocide of the Aché indigenous group in Paraguay from the 1950 into the 1970s. See Patrick Breslin, “For Those Who Will Never Again Be Human”, Washington Post, 30 January 1977, available at: www.washingtonpost.com/archive/entertainment/books/1977/01/30/for-those-who-will-never-again-be-human/9eeeb8ef-224a-4532-adc4-786249b02c50/; Survival International, “South American Tribe Sues over Historic Genocide”, 1 July 2014, available at: www.survivalinternational.org/news/10264.

68 Brandon J. Griffin et al., “Moral Injury: An Integrative Review”, Journal of Traumatic Stress, Vol. 32, No. 3, 2019, available at: https://doi.org/10.1002/jts.22362.

69 Roscoe, Paul, “Intelligence, Coalitional Killing, and the Antecedents of War”, American Anthropologist, Vol. 109, No. 3, 2007, pp. 489–490CrossRefGoogle Scholar. See also Dave Grossman, On Killing, Back Bay Books, Boston, MA, 1995, pp 97–137, 156–170; Peter Watson, “War on the Mind: The Military Uses and Abuses of Psychology”, Hutchinson & Co., London, 1978, pp. 36–39.

70 S. Oliver, above note 15, p 89.

71 Wiktor Pastucha and Aleksandra Spychalska, “How Islamic State Uses Propaganda in the Service of Genocide”, 4 April 2016, available at: https://think.iafor.org/islamic-state-use-propaganda-service-genocide/; Hester Maria Greyvenstein, “Q&A: German Journalist on Surviving ISIL”, Al Jazeera, 15 January 2015, available at: www.aljazeera.com/news/2015/1/15/qa-german-journalist-on-surviving-isil.

72 This paper will not discuss the disturbing possibility that fighters are themselves dehumanized through training and in or after combat. The individual person is certainly suppressed, becoming part of a larger unit and her life given over to the orders of superior officers (see “The Soldier's Heart”, Frontline, PBS, 1 March 2005, available at: www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/documentary/showsheart/), at worst as “cannon fodder”. Efforts to guard against post-traumatic stress disorder might create an ultimately unhealthy distance from acts of violence: see Héloïse Goodley, “The Dangers of Dehumanizing Warfare”, in Pharmacological Performance Enhancement and the Military: Exploring an Ethical and Legal Framework for “Supersoldiers”, research paper, Chatham House, 11 November 2020, available at: www.chathamhouse.org/2020/11/pharmacological-performance-enhancement-and-military/04-dangers-dehumanizing-warfare.

73 D. Grossman, above note 69, pp. 1–39.

74 The dehumanizing effect is even more striking, and might be even greater, the more realistic the targets.

75 Mark Felton, “The Perfect Storm: Japanese Military Brutality during World War Two”, in Cathie Carmichael and Richard C. Maguire (eds), The Routledge History of Genocide, 1st ed., Routledge, London, 2015, p. 112.

76 “‘Anything That Moves': Civilians and the Vietnam War”, Fresh Air, NPR, 28 January 2013, available at: www.npr.org/2013/01/28/169076259/anything-that-moves-civilians-and-the-vietnam-war.

77 Anton Troianovski, “Atrocities in Ukraine War Have Deep Roots in Russian Military”, New York Times, 22 April 2022, available at: www.nytimes.com/2022/04/17/world/europe/ukraine-war-russia-atrocities.html.

78 See e.g. “Islamic State Seeks to Justify Enslaving Yazidi Women and Girls in Iraq”, Newsweek, 13 October 2014, available at: www.newsweek.com/islamic-state-seeks-justify-enslaving-yazidi-women-and-girls-iraq-277100. The IS example is peculiar, however, in that the group rejects current IHL.

79 Anonymous soldier, quoted in Herlinde Koelbl, “The Images Used to Teach Soldiers to Kill”, BBC News, 2 January 2015, available at: www.bbc.com/news/magazine-30573936.

80 D.L. Smith, Making Monsters, above note 24, p. 221.

81 Ibid., p. 221.

82 Victor Klemperer, The Language of the Third Reich, trans. Martin Brady, Bloomsbury, London, 1975, p. 15.

83 Salâhattin Güngör, “Bir Canlı Tarih Konu uyor”, Resimli Tarih Mecmuası, Vol. 4, No. 43, 1953, pp. 2444–2445. Also quoted in Uğur Ümit Üngör, “The Armenian Genocide, 1915”, in Barbara Boender and Wichert ten Have (eds), The Holocaust and Other Genocides: An Introduction, Amsterdam University Press, Amsterdam, 2012.

84 Imperial War Museums, “Operation Barbarossa and Germany's Failure In The Soviet Union”, available at: www.iwm.org.uk/history/operation-barbarossa-and-germanys-failure-in-the-soviet-union; Stewart Gabel, “The Role of Dehumanization in the Nazi Era in Activating the Death Drive Resulting in Genocide”, PhD. diss., University of Denver, 2021, available at: https://digitalcommons.du.edu/etd/1929/; V. Klemperer, above note 82.

85 Kosal Path and Angeliki Kanavou, “Converts, not Ideologues? The Khmer Rouge Practice of Thought Reform in Cambodia, 1975–1978”, Journal of Political Ideologies, Vol. 20, No. 3, 2015, pp. 308, 313, 325, available at: https://doi.org/10.1080/13569317.2015.1075266.

86 Biljana Plavšić, quoted in Michael A. Sells, “The Construction of Islam in Serbian Religious Mythology and Its Consequences”, in Maya Shatzmiller (ed.), Islam and Bosnia: Conflict Resolution and Foreign Policy in Multi-Ethnic States, McGill-Queen's University Press, Montreal, 2002, p. 58; see also Refik Hodžić, “Dehumanisation of Muslims Made Karadzic an Icon of Far-Right Extremism”, IBJ JusticeHub, 22 March 2019, web archive.

87 Todd H. Green, “The Mainstreaming of Islamophobia in United States Politics”, in Naved Bakali and Farid Havez (eds), The Rise of Global Islamophobia in the War on Terror, Manchester University Press, Manchester, 2022, pp. 58–62; Southern Poverty Law Center, “Ten Days After: Harassment and Intimidation in the Aftermath of the Election”, 29 November 2016, available at: www.splcenter.org/20161129/ten-days-after-harassment-and-intimidation-aftermath-election#antimuslim.

88 Steve Stecklow, “Hatebook: Inside Facebook's Myanmar operation”, Reuters, 15 August 2015, available at: www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/myanmar-facebook-hate/.

89 For example, non-Black residents of the United States “have a bias to perceive young Black men as bigger … and more physically threatening … than young White [sic] men”. John Paul Wilson, Kurt Hugenberg and Nicholas Rule, “Racial Bias in Judgments of Physical Size and Formidability: From Size to Threat”, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Vol. 113, No. 1, 2017, p. 59, available at: www.apa.org/pubs/journals/releases/psp-pspi0000092.pdf.

90 D. L. Smith, Making Monsters, above note 24, pp. 268–269.

91 ICRC, above note 39.

92 ICRC, Harmful Information: Misinformation, Disinformation and Hate Speech in Armed Conflict and Other Situations of Violence, Geneva, 2021, available at: www.icrc.org/en/publication/4556-harmful-information-misinformation-disinformation-and-hate-speech-armed-conflict. See also Tilman Rodenhäuser and Samit D'Cunha, “Foghorns of War: IHL and Information Operations during Armed Conflict”, Humanitarian Law and Policy Blog, 12 October 2023, available at: https://blogs.icrc.org/law-and-policy/2023/10/12/foghorns-of-war-ihl-and-information-operations-during-armed-conflict/.

93 As well as for the margin of manoeuvre and safety of the humanitarians trying to respond. More generally, Waldron argues that hate speech is dually concerning: “First, it aims to dispel the sense of assurance that … constitutes the social upholding of individual dignity. … Second, … the hate-speaker is trying to construct an alternative public good” where harmful beliefs about others, including their dehumanization, are given stature and credence. See Jeremy Waldron, The Harm in Hate Speech, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 2012, pp. 166–167. This paper uses the ICRC's definitions: “Misinformation: False information that is spread by individuals who believe the information to be true or who have not taken the time to verify it.” “Disinformation: False information that is fabricated or disseminated with malicious intent.” “Hate speech: All forms of expression (text, images, audio) that spread, incite, promote or justify hatred and violence based on intolerance, usually against identity traits (gender, religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation, etc.).” ICRC, above note 92, pp. 18–19.

94 D. L. Smith, Making Monsters, above note 24, pp. 190–191.

95 Ilana Dutton, Argentina's Dirty War: Memory, Repression and Long-Term Consequences, Summer Research No. 308, University of Puget Sound, 2018, available at: https://soundideas.pugetsound.edu/summer_research/308.

96 Kennedy Ndahiro, “In Rwanda, We Know All About Dehumanizing Language”, The Atlantic, 13 April 2019, available at: www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/04/rwanda-shows-how-hateful-speech-leads-violence/587041/.

97 Outrage and fear are more likely to draw people's attention, and algorithms that try to maximize user engagement with the platform suggest homogenous content, creating echo chambers. Text, as opposed to oral, communication appears to more readily dehumanize, making social media platforms especially fruitful ground. See Jordan Carpenter, William Brady, Molly Crockett, Rene Weber and Walter Sinnott-Armstrong, “Political Polarization and Moral Outrage on Social Media”, Connecticut Law Review, Vol. 52, No. 3, 2021, available at: https://digitalcommons.lib.uconn.edu/law_review/454/.

98 Tal Orian Harel, Jessica Katz Jameson and Ifat Maoz, “The Normalization of Hatred: Identity, Affective Polarization, and Dehumanization on Facebook in the Context of Intractable Political Conflict”, Social Media and Society, Vol. 6, No. 2, 2020, available at: https://doi.org/10.1177/2056305120913983. For the theoretical basis, which also touches on dehumanization, see Terrell A. Northrup, “The Dynamic of Identity in Personal and Social Conflict”, in Louis Kriesberg, Terrell A. Northrup and Stuart J. Thorson (eds), Intractable Conflicts and Their Transformation, Syracuse University Press, Syracuse, NY, 1989, esp. pp. 72–75. See also J. Waldron, above note 93, on the causal danger of hate speech. States, alongside international and regional organizations, civil society and tech companies, are putting more resources into curbing MDH, some policy frameworks and good practices are emerging, and there is more awareness of the additional dangers in conflict, but the effects have yet to be felt in practice.

99 L. Corrias, above note 18, p. 205.

100 Others include the Nazi regime and the Spanish colonies in Latin America.

101 Ibid., p. 207.

102 This is arguably the case for people in the Al Hol and Roj camps in northeast Syria; recall the discussion in “Understanding Dehumanization” above.

103 Ibid., p. 208.

104 Mukimbiri, Jean, “The Seven Stages of the Rwandan Genocide”, Journal of International Criminal Justice, Vol. 3, No. 4, 2005, pp. 828–829CrossRefGoogle Scholar, available at: https://doi.org/10.1093/jicj/mqi070.

105 Jay Bybee and John Yoo, “Standards of Conduct for Interrogation under 18 U.S.C. §§ 2340–2340A”, Memorandum, Assistant Attorney General, Office of Legal Counsel, U.S. Department of Justice, to Counsel to the President, 1 August 2002, available at: https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB127/02.08.01.pdf. See also L. Corrias, above note 18, pp. 209–210.

106 Mia Martin Hobbs, “Why Soldiers Commit War Crimes – and What We Can Do about It”, The Conversation, 30 June 2022, available at: https://theconversation.com/friday-essay-why-soldiers-commit-war-crimes-and-what-we-can-do-about-it-185391. See also Heonik Kwon, After the Massacre: Commemoration and Consolation in Ha My and My Lai, University of California Press, Berkeley, CA, 2006, pp. 50–51; Inspector-General of the Australian Defence Force Afghanistan Inquiry Report, 19 November 2020, p. 524 (Brereton Report), available at: www.defence.gov.au/sites/default/files/2021-10/IGADF-Afghanistan-Inquiry-Public-Release-Version.pdf.

107 See e.g. Sarah Malik, “Spy Agency Asio ‘Acquiesced in the Use of Torture’ When Detaining Egyptian Refugee, Court Told”, The Guardian, 12 October 2022, available at: www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/oct/13/spy-agency-asio-acquiesced-in-the-use-of-torture-when-detaining-egyptian-refugee-court-told.

108 ICRC, Allies, Partners and Proxies: Managing Support Relationships in Armed Conflict to Reduce the Human Cost of War, Geneva, 2021, available at: www.icrc.org/en/publication/4498-allies-partners-and-proxies-managing-support-relationships-armed-conflict-reduce.

109 Brereton Report, above note 106, pp. 29, 334, 516; Samantha Crompvoets, “Special Operations Command (SOCOMOD) Culture and Interactions: Insights and Reflection”, Australian Government Defence, January 2016, available at: www.defence.gov.au/sites/default/files/2021-10/SOCOMD-Culture-and-Interactions-Insights-and-Reflection-Jan-16_0.pdf.

110 ICRC, “ICRC Statement on Latest Developments in Myanmar”, 28 March 2021, available at: www.icrc.org/en/document/icrc-statement-developments-myanmar-28-march.

111 M. Kronfeldner, above note 28, p. 18.

112 The examples of egregious harm in Figure 2 that can indicate dehumanization are almost all illegal under international law.

113 “The primary aim of IHL is to protect the victims of armed conflict and to regulate the conduct of hostilities based on a balance between military necessity and humanity.” Nils Melzer, Interpretive Guidance on the Notion of Direct Participation in Hostilities under International Humanitarian Law, ICRC, Geneva, 2009, p. 11, available at: www.icrc.org/en/doc/assets/files/other/icrc-002-0990.pdf.

114 Which, in its first modern form, is twice as old as international human rights law.

115 Certainly by today's even wider human rights standards but even “just” considering conflict, these examples do not imply that the societies they come from were perfectly humane. Again, understandings of humanity have evolved, e.g. from rulers with life-and-death power over subjects or caste systems.

116 Francis Lieber, Instructions for the Government of Armies of the United States in the Field, General Order No. 100, War Department, Washington, DC, 24 April 1863 (Lieber Code), Art. 4, available at: https://ihl-databases.icrc.org/en/ihl-treaties/liebercode-1863/article-4?activeTab=undefined; Declaration Renouncing the Use, in Time of War, of Explosive Projectiles Under 400 Grammes Weight, Saint Petersburg, 29 November/11 December 1868 (entered into force 11 December 1868), available at: https://ihl-databases.icrc.org/en/ihl-treaties/st-petersburg-decl-1868. Both references originally sourced from Dietrich Schindler and Jirí Toman, The Laws of Armed Conflicts, 3rd ed., Martinus Nijhoff, Leiden, 1988, pp. 3–23, 102.

117 Rupert Ticehurst, “The Martens Clause and the Laws of Armed Conflict”, International Review of the Red Cross, Vol. 37, No. 317, 30 April 1997, available at: www.icrc.org/en/doc/resources/documents/article/other/57jnhy.htm.

118 Geneva Convention (I) for the Amelioration of the Condition of the Wounded and Sick in Armed Forces in the Field of 12 August 1949, 75 UNTS 31 (entered into force 21 October 1950), Art. 63; Geneva Convention (II) for the Amelioration of the Condition of Wounded, Sick and Shipwrecked Members of Armed Forces at Sea of 12 August 1949, 75 UNTS 85 (entered into force 21 October 1950), Art. 62; Geneva Convention (III) relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War of 12 August 1949, 75 UNTS 135 (entered into force 21 October 1950), Art. 142; Geneva Convention (IV) relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War of 12 August 1949, 75 UNTS 287 (entered into force 21 October 1950), Art. 158. All four Geneva Conventions are available at: www.icrc.org/en/war-and-law/treaties-customary-law/geneva-conventions.

119 Protocol Additional (II) to the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949, and relating to the Protection of Victims of Non-International Armed Conflicts, 1125 UNTS 609, 8 June 1977 (entered into force 7 December 1978), preambular para. 4, available at: https://ihl-databases.icrc.org/en/ihl-treaties/apii-1977.

120 Convention on Prohibitions or Restrictions on the Use of Certain Conventional Weapons which May Be Deemed to Be Excessively Injurious or to Have Indiscriminate Effects, 1342 UNTS 137, 10 October 1980 (entered into force 2 December 1983), Preamble, available at: https://treaties.un.org/doc/Treaties/1983/12/19831202%2001-19%20AM/XXVI-2-revised.pdf; Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on Their Destruction, 2056 UNTS 211, 18 September 1997 (entered into force 1 March 1999), Preamable, available at: https://treaties.un.org/doc/Treaties/1997/09/19970918%2007-53%20AM/Ch_XXVI_05p.pdf; Cluster Munitions Convention, 2688 UNTS 39, 30 May 2008 (entered into force 1 August 2010), Preamble, available at: https://treaties.un.org/doc/Publication/CTC/26-6.pdf.

121 Among many other specific protections; see Geneva Convention III.

122 Melzer, Nils, “Keeping the Balance between Military Necessity and Humanity: A Response to Four Critiques of the ICRC's Interpretive Guidance on the Notion of Direct Participation in Hostilities”, International Law and Politics, Vol. 42, 2010, pp 908–909Google Scholar, available at: https://nyujilp.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/42.3-Melzer.pdf.

123 Kjetil Mujezinović Larsen, Camilla Guldahl Cooper and Gro Nystuen, “Introduction by the Editors: Is there a ‘Principle of Humanity’ in International Humanitarian Law?”, in Kjetil Mujezinović Larsen, Camilla Guldahl Cooper and Gro Nystuen (eds), Searching for a “Principle of Humanity” in International Humanitarian Law, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2013, p. 1.

124 “[H]umanity, has a special place because it is the expression of the profound motivation of the Red Cross, from which all the other principles are derived.” J. Pictet, above note 7, p. 135.

125 Ibid., p. 136.

126 The obvious opportunities for other humanitarian actors are not the focus here.

127 Unless focusing on that aspect could help, e.g. by paying special attention to children or ensuring that prisoners of war are recognized as such.

128 ICRC, “ICRC Position on Autonomous Weapon Systems”, 12 May 2021, available at: www.icrc.org/en/document/icrc-position-autonomous-weapon-systems. Several characteristics of autonomous weapon systems are already or potentially dehumanizing, including (disproportionate) civilian casualties, abstraction of human targets, and algorithms, not people, making life-and-death decisions. Richard Jordan, “Lessons from Game Theory about Humanizing Next-Generation Weapons”, Penn State Journal of Law and International Affairs, Vol. 7, No. 3, 2020, available at: https://elibrary.law.psu.edu/jlia/vol7/iss3/1.

129 Founded as neutral relief actors in wartime, National Society staff and volunteers still sometimes pay the ultimate price: see International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), “Five IFRC Network Members Killed. Civilians and Healthcare Workers must Be Respected and Protected”, 11 October 2023, available at: www.ifrc.org/press-release/five-ifrc-network-members-killed-civilians-and-healthcare-workers-must-be-respected.

130 See e.g. 33rd International Conference of the Red Cross and Red Crescent, “Bringing IHL Home: A Road Map for Better National Implementation of International Humanitarian Law”, Res. 33IC/19/R1, 2019, available at: https://rcrcconference.org/app/uploads/2019/12/33IC-R1-Bringing-IHL-home_CLEAN_ADOPTED_FINAL-171219.pdf.

131 S. Oliver, above note 15, pp. 86, 87. Per Haslam, “dehumanization becomes an everyday social phenomenon, rooted in ordinary social–cognitive processes”: Haslam, Nick, “Dehumanization: An Integrative Review”, Personality and Social Psychology Review, Vol. 10, No. 3, 2006, p. 252CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed.

132 IFRC and European Red Cross Action for Trafficked Persons Network, Action to Assist and Protect Trafficked Persons, 2017, noting definitions on p. 7, available at: https://pgi.ifrc.org/resources/guidance-european-red-cross-national-societies-assistance-and-protection-victims-human.

133 See e.g. a seventh-century BCE poetic taxonomy of women's mainly animal origins: Hugh Lloyd-Jones, Females of the Species: Semonides on Women, Gerald Duckworth & Co., London, 1975, pp. 35–54. Discussing Aristotle and then Aquinas's (somewhat tempered) perspective, see Prudence Allen, The Concept of Woman: The Aristotelian Revolution: 750 BC–AD 1250, William B. Eerdmans Publishing, Grand Rapids, MI, 1997, pp. 385–386. Think also, including recently, of female infanticide and sex-selective abortions.

134 ICRC, “My Father and Cows Will Go to Court, Not Me”: Male Perceptions of Sexual Violence in South Sudan and the Central African Republic, Geneva, 2022, p. 24, available at: https://shop.icrc.org/male-perceptions-of-sexual-violence-in-south-sudan-and-the-central-african-republic-pdf-en.html.

135 Laurie A. Rudman and Kris Mescher, “Of Animals and Objects: Men's Implicit Dehumanization of Women and Likelihood of Sexual Aggression”, Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, Vol. 38, No. 6, 2012.

136 Red Cross EU Office, “It's Time to End Violence against Women and Girls”, 25 November 2020, available at: https://redcross.eu/latest-news/it-s-time-to-end-violence-against-women-and-girls; ICRC, above note 134, pp. 8, 9, 14, 29, 37. See also ICRC, Domestic Implementation of International Humanitarian Law Prohibiting Sexual Violence: A Checklist for States and the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, Geneva, 2020, available at: www.icrc.org/en/document/checklist-domestic-implementation-international-humanitarian-law-prohibiting-sexual.

137 Officially, as under the Nazi regime, but also by private citizens: Mead Gruver, “Matthew Shepard's Murder Still Haunts Wyoming after 20 Years”, AP News, 13 October 2018, available at: https://apnews.com/article/10235168c63041a0909ae6c0303cece7.

138 32nd International Conference of the Red Cross and Red Crescent, “Sexual and Gender-Based Violence: Joint Action on Prevention and Response”, Res. 32IC/15/R3, 2015, available at: https://rcrcconference.org/app/uploads/2015/04/32IC-AR-on-Sexual-and-gender-based-violence_EN.pdf. See also Jihane Latrous and May Maloney, “Addressing Sexual and Gender-Based Violence – the Challenges of a Global Pandemic”, Red Cross and Red Crescent Statutory Meetings Blog, December 2020, available at: https://rcrcconference.org/blog/addressing-sexual-and-gender-based-violence-the-challenges-of-a-global-pandemic/.

139 Robert A. Wilson, “Dehumanization, Disability, and Eugenics”, in M. Kronfeldner (ed.), above note 2, p. 178.

140 Council of Delegates of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, “Promoting Disability Inclusion in the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement”, Res. CD/13/R9, November 2013, available at: www.icrc.org/en/doc/assets/files/red-cross-crescent-movement/council-delegates-2013/cod13-r9--people-with-disabilities-adopted-eng.pdf.

141 Heath, Malcolm, “Aristotle on Natural Slavery”, Phronesis: A Journal for Ancient Philosophy, Vol. 53, No. 3, 2008, p. 245CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Siep Stuurman, “Dehumanization before the Columbian Exchange”, in M. Kronfeldner (ed.), above note 2, pp. 43–44.

142 S. Stuurman, above note 141, p. 46.

143 For example, recent controversies over policing and custody practices in the United States and Australia have raised the question of whether the lives of people of colour or Aboriginal people are implicitly less valued.

144 See e.g. Canadian Nurses Association, “Racism in Health Care”, 2024, available at: www.cna-aiic.ca/en/policy-advocacy/advocacy-priorities/racism-in-health-care.

145 See e.g. “South African Xenophobes Run Amok”, The Economist, 9 June 2022, available at: www.economist.com/middle-east-and-africa/2022/06/09/south-african-xenophobes-run-amok.

146 South African Red Cross Society, “Red Cross Aids Victims of Xenophobia”, 23 April 2015, available at: https://reliefweb.int/report/south-africa/red-cross-aids-victims-xenophobia; IFRC, “South Africa IFRC Country Office Appeal Number MAA63001”, 2021, available at: www.ifrc.org/sites/default/files/2021-08/South_Africa_Plan_2021.pdf.

147 The IFRC has the Movement lead on migration: see IFRC, “Migration and Displacement”, available at: www.ifrc.org/our-work/disasters-climate-and-crises/migration-and-displacement; IFRC, “Central Mediterranean Population Movement: Humanitarian Service Point at Sea”, available at: www.ifrc.org/emergency/central-mediterranean-population-movement-humanitarian-service-point-sea. Calls and messages through the ICRC-coordinated global Family Links Network are among the most common services, helping people to keep their family identity – see the Restoring Family Links website, available at: https://familylinks.icrc.org/.

148 Ariana Lopes Morey, “What Does ‘Back To Basics’ Mean for Gender and the Fundamental Principles?”, Humanitarian Law and Policy Blog, 1 September 2022, available at: https://blogs.icrc.org/law-and-policy/2022/09/01/gender-fundamental-principles/.

149 As can be done in many ways that contribute to community-based protection. ICRC, Community-Based Protection: A Guide for National Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, Geneva, 2022, available at: www.icrc.org/en/publication/4599-community-based-protection-guide-national-red-cross-and-red-crescent-societies.

150 “By wrongly portraying targets of dehumanization as merely passive victims, scholars can contribute to a culture of memory and to ways of telling the history of inhumanity that reiterates what it meant to study in an objective manner, contributing to cycles of metadehumanization and selfdehumanization.” M. Kronfeldner, above note 28, p. 13.

151 Esmeir, Samera, “On Making Dehumanization Possible”, PMLA, Vol. 121, No. 5, 2006, p. 1546Google Scholar.

152 Referencing the 1999 NATO bombing campaign in Kosovo and the French government's closure of the Sangatte reception centre for migrants in Calais. Fassin, Didier, Humanitarian Reason: A Moral History of the Present, trans. Gomme, Rachel, University of California Press, Berkeley, CA, 2012, pp. 134, 223Google Scholar.

153 D. Fassin, above note 152, p. 226 and more generally Ch. 9, “Hierarchies of Humanity”. Another interesting point is Fassin's discussion of a “shift in legitimacy from social life to biological life” (pp. 15, 142) that again risks diminishing one aspect of humanity per Figure 1, though in a way that the ICRC rarely sees.

154 While there is still a long way to go, improved working conditions and general treatment of local humanitarian workers and actively listening to and involving people in responses to their needs is a start. Esmeir proposes “the forging of concrete alliances with human beings who await not our recognition but our participation in their struggles”: S. Esmeir, above note 151, p. 1545 (emphasis added). See also e.g. John Bryant, “Digital Tools Deepen the Power Imbalance in Aid. Here's How to Fix That”, The New Humanitarian, 4 July 2022, available at: www.thenewhumanitarian.org/opinion/2022/07/04/Digital-tech-tools-deepen-the-power-imbalance-in-aid; ICRC, Inclusive Programming Policy, 2022, available at: https://library.icrc.org/library/docs/DOC/icrc-4646-002.pdf; ICRC, Accountability to Affected People Institutional Framework, 2020, available at: www.icrc.org/en/publication/accountability-affected-people-institutional-framework. While this paper focuses on authorities’ responsibility in promoting or combating dehumanization, I would also hope that the discussion will inspire humanitarian actors, especially but not only the Movement, to reflect on how their practices may still contribute to dehumanization, to change those practices, and to redouble efforts that promote humanity. This could eventually include using tactics identified through current and future research that might be effective against particular subcategories of dehumanization – for example, animal- as compared to object-focused.

155 On the principle of neutrality, much criticized recently in the ICRC's work, see e.g. ICRC, “Why Does the International Committee of the Red Cross Stay Neutral in Conflict Zones?”, 2023, available at: www.youtube.com/watch?v=kPEWQEAlSZ8.

156 S. Oliver, above note 15, p. 88.

157 International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, “Humanitarian Crises, Digital Dilemmas”, 5 August 2021, available at: www.icrc.org/en/resource/digital-dilemmas-experience.

158 Dehumanization itself has become lucrative: see Global Disinformation Index, “Tracking US$235 Million in Ads on Disinformation Domains”, 20 August 2019, available at: www.disinformationindex.org/blog/2019-8-20-tracking-us235-million-in-ads-on-disinformation-domains/.

159 M. Kronfeldner, above note 28, p. 13.

160 ICRC, A Decade of Loss: Syria's Youth after Ten Years of Crisis, Geneva, 2021, p. 21, available at: www.icrc.org/en/download/file/157792/icrc_report-syria_a_decade_of_loss_en.pdf.