Starvation (crime) in the context of "Death march"

Starvation is a severe deficiency in caloric energy intake, below the level needed to maintain an organism's life. It is the most extreme form of malnutrition. In humans, prolonged starvation can cause permanent organ damage and eventually, death. The term inanition refers to the symptoms and effects of starvation. Starvation may have a natural cause or be man-made. Deliberately inflicting starvation upon a population is a crime according to international criminal law and may also be used as a means of torture or execution.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), hunger is the single gravest threat to the world's public health. The WHO also states that malnutrition is by far the biggest contributor to child mortality, present in half of all cases. Undernutrition is a contributory factor in the death of 3.1 million children under five every year. The results also demonstrates that as global hunger levels have stabilized, however, despite some progress in specific areas such as stunting and exclusive breastfeeding, an alarming number of people still face food insecurity and malnutrition. In fact, the world has been set back 15 years, with levels of undernourishment similar to those in 2008-2009, with between 713 and 757 million people undernourished in 2023, and over 152 million more than in 2019 when the mid-range was 733 million.

The Circassian genocide, or Tsitsekun, was the systematic mass killing, ethnic cleansing, and forced displacement of between 95% and 97% of the Circassian people during the final stages of the Russian invasion of Circassia in the 19th century. It resulted in the deaths of between 1,000,000 and 1.5 million and the destruction of Circassia, which was then annexed by the Russian Empire. Those planned for extermination were mainly the Circassians, who are predominantly Muslims, but other ethnic groups in the Caucasus were also affected, as part of the Caucasian War. The Imperial Russian Army also impaled their victims and tore open the bellies of pregnant women to intimidate the Circassians and devastate their morale. Many Russian generals, such as Grigory Zass, described the Circassians as "subhuman filth" and a "lowly race" to justify and glorify their wholesale slaughter and their use as human test subjects in unethical scientific experiments. Russian soldiers were also permitted to rape Circassian women.

The native Circassian population was largely decimated or expelled to the Ottoman Empire. Only those who accepted Russification and made agreements with Russian troops, were spared. Starvation was used as a tool of war against Circassian villages, many of which were subsequently burned down. Russian writer Leo Tolstoy reported that Russian soldiers attacked village houses at night. British diplomat Gifford Palgrave, stated that "their only crime was not being Russian." Seeking military intervention against Russia, Circassian officials sent "A Petition from Circassian leaders to Her Majesty Queen Victoria" in 1864, but were unsuccessful in their attempt to solicit aid from the British Empire. That same year, the Imperial Russian Army launched a campaign of mass deportation of Circassia's surviving population. By 1867, a large portion of the Circassians were expelled. Many died from epidemics or starvation. Some were reportedly eaten by dogs after their death, while others died when their ships sank during storms.

The Hunger Plan (German: der Hungerplan, der Backe-Plan) was a partially implemented plan developed by Nazi bureaucrats during World War II to seize food from the Soviet Union and give it to German soldiers and civilians. The plan entailed the genocide by starvation of millions of Soviet citizens following Operation Barbarossa, the 1941 invasion of the Soviet Union (see Generalplan Ost). The plan created a famine as an act of policy, killing millions of people.

The Hunger Plan was first formulated by senior German officials during a Staatssekretäre meeting on 2 May 1941 to prepare for the Wehrmacht (German armed forces) invasion and the Nazi war of extermination (Vernichtungskrieg) in Eastern Europe. Its means of mass murder were outlined in several documents, including one that became known as Göring's Green Folder. As part of the plan, Nazi military forces were ordered to capture food stocks in occupied territories, redirect them to supply German troops and fuel the German war economy. In addition to the extensive exploitation of resources to support the German war economy, the Hunger Plan intended to create an artificial famine in Eastern Europe, which would have resulted in deaths of around 31 to 45 million inhabitants through forced starvation.

The blockade of Biafra by the Nigerian federal government during the Nigerian Civil War (1967–1970) resulted in a famine that ultimately cost at least a million lives and ended with the capitulation of the secessionist state of Biafra.

The blockade and the ensuing humanitarian crisis stimulated worldwide mobilization and widespread debate about the concept of genocide. It also stimulated widespread debate about whether or not it was appropriate to describe the events which occurred in Biafra as a genocide. Ultimately, it contributed to reform in the law of blockade to protect civilians and the prohibition of starvation as a method of warfare in the 1977 amendments to the Geneva Conventions.

Since the beginning of the Gaza war on 7 October 2023, the Israeli military and authorities committed numerous war crimes, such as the collective punishment of the Palestinian people, attacks on civilians in densely populated areas (including bombings of hospitals and medical facilities, refugee camps, schools and educational institutions, and municipal services); the torture and executions of civilians; sexual violence including rape; and genocide. Further war crime charges against Israel include forced evacuations, mistreatment and torture of Palestinian prisoners, and the destruction of cultural heritage. Humanitarian organizations such as Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, B'tselem, and Oxfam, as well as human rights groups and experts, including the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry and United Nations special rapporteurs, have documented these actions.

Israel has faced legal charges for its conduct in the war. At the International Court of Justice, Israel was charged with committing genocide in Gaza. In May 2024, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued arrest warrants against Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Israeli defence minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity, including using starvation as a weapon of war.

Throughout the history of Canada, the Canadian government, its colonial predecessors, and European settlers perpetrated systematic violence against Indigenous peoples that in contemporary times, increasingly has been described as genocide. These collective actions included instances of forced displacement, land dispossession, policies alleged to have intentionally caused starvation, physical violence, and compulsory assimilation programs. These atrocities have also been described as ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity.

Canada is a settler-colonial nation whose initial economy relied on farming and exporting natural resources like fur, fish, and lumber. The Canadian government implemented policies such as the Indian Act, health-care segregation, residential schools and displacement that attempted assimilation of Indigenous peoples into Euro-Canadian culture while asserting control over the land and its resources. Despite current views that might define these actions as racist or genocidal, they were seen as progressive at the time. In response, a number of Indigenous communities mobilized to resist such policies.