Human Rights & Internal Conflict: Definitions, Terms

human rights

the basic freedoms to which all people are entitled as human beings

Zionism

A movement to create a Jewish homeland in Palestine

intifada

means Uprising, name for period when Palestinians used riots and violence to protest Israeli occupation

refugee

A person who has been forced to leave their country in order to escape war, persecution, or natural disaster

internally displaced person

someone who is forced to flee his or her home but who remains within his or her country's borders

ethnic group

a community or population made up of people who share a common cultural background or descent

proxy war

a war in which the powers in conflict use third parties as substitutes instead of fighting each other directly

sect

a subgroup of a religious, political, or philosophical belief system, branch of a religion

sectarian violence

violence between sects or subgroups of a larger group, for example, Sunni and Shia Islam

shatterbelt

strategically-positioned region that is internally divided and involved in the competition between the great powers

autonomy

the right or condition of self-government

hijab

a headscarf worn by Muslim women

apartheid

a policy or system of segregation or discrimination on grounds of race; means separteness (in Afrikaans)

boycott

to refuse to buy, use, or participate in (something) as a way of protesting

ethnic cleansing

the mass expulsion or killing of members of an unwanted ethnic or religious group in a society.

genocide

Deliberate extermination of a racial or cultural group; an act committed “with the intent to destroy an ethnic, national, racial or religious group.”