Chronology
Compare term use across 79 years. Counts show how many mentions or speeches appear in the record. Rates account for the changing volume of speech: choose a share of speeches or occurrences per 100,000 words.
How much of each year's record does the selected reading set hold?
Computed from the recordDrawing…
The line is the reading set as a share of the speeches the Council held that year.
How often does each term appear over time, relative to the volume of speech?
Computed from the record speeches using the term ÷ speeches held
Drawing…
Terms — select as many as you like
Select individual terms or click a family name to show all its terms as separate lines. A family, also called a register, is a grouping chosen for this study. Its terms are not added together.
View the plotted values as a table
Month by month, are there times of year when the Council reaches for this vocabulary more than others?
Computed from the record 475 of 948 months drawn
View the grid as a table
A dash marks a month with no published rate. Links open that month's matching passages, including months below the rate threshold.
Shading always carries a rate, never a count. Twice as dark is not twice the rate — read the key. A hatched square has no rate; it is not a zero.
Which calendar months have the highest rates when all years are combined?
Computed from the record| Month | Speeches | Using the term | Rate | Without 1994/1995 | Largest agenda item behind them |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 11,913 | 288 | 2.42% | 2.46% | The situation in the Middle East, including the Palestinian question 53 · 18.40% |
| February | 12,796 | 303 | 2.37% | 2.25% | Maintenance of international peace and security 42 · 13.86% |
| March | 13,971 | 251 | 1.80% | 1.80% | The situation in the Middle East 54 · 21.51% |
| April | 14,006 | 372 | 2.66% | 2.54% | Women and peace and security 45 · 12.10% |
| May | 14,057 | 359 | 2.55% | 2.58% | Protection of civilians in armed conflict 73 · 20.33% |
| June | 15,898 | 696 | 4.38% | 4.30% | International Tribunal — Rwanda & Yugoslavia 84 · 12.07% |
| July | 13,663 | 271 | 1.98% | 1.94% | The situation in the Middle East, including the Palestinian question 50 · 18.45% |
| August | 11,874 | 196 | 1.65% | 1.55% | The situation in the Middle East 28 · 14.29% |
| September | 12,981 | 178 | 1.37% | 1.28% | The situation in the Middle East 22 · 12.36% |
| October | 16,311 | 324 | 1.99% | 1.99% | Women and peace and security 56 · 17.28% |
| November | 14,460 | 383 | 2.65% | 2.50% | The situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina 55 · 14.36% |
| December | 15,712 | 512 | 3.26% | 3.19% | International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals 68 · 13.28% |
These rows are measured against a different total from any square in the grid above, so the two figures do not share a scale.
Is the genocide series better described by one steady rate, or by two?
Computed from the record| Unit | Partition | Earlier | Later | Ratio | p, meetings moved | p, speeches independent |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Share of speeches | 1978 | 0.62% | 3.05% | 4.95× | 0.0005 | 0.0005 |
| Per 100,000 words | 1992 | 2.90 | 11.85 | 4.09× | 0.0005 | 0.0005 |
View the second, exploratory change-point method
This method shuffles the same yearly values into a new order to see how unusual the real ordering is, which detects a step up or down but not a gradual trend: a series that rises smoothly will return a break at its midpoint regardless. Read these candidates against the plotted series rather than in place of it.
| Unit | Candidate year | Diagnostic p |
|---|---|---|
| Speeches | 1978 | 0.0060 |
| Speeches | 1993 | 0.0005 |
| Speeches | 1999 | 0.0255 |
| Speeches | 2013 | 0.0005 |
| Occurrences | 1979 | 0.0190 |
| Occurrences | 1993 | 0.0005 |
| Occurrences | 2014 | 0.0030 |
| Share of speeches | 1957 | 0.0020 |
| Share of speeches | 1978 | 0.0035 |
| Share of speeches | 1992 | 0.0005 |
| Per 100,000 words | 1957 | 0.0265 |
| Per 100,000 words | 1978 | 0.0085 |
| Per 100,000 words | 1992 | 0.0005 |
Is the rise or fall concentrated in one kind of speaker, or one part of the agenda?
Computed from the recordChoose a split above to break the series apart.
Reference dates
59 dates, selected by hand, used to mark the chart above. Each links to the official record used to verify its date and description. They are there for context; a date falling near a change in the chart is not evidence that it produced the change.
| Date | Event | Kind | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| 11 December 1946 | General Assembly recognizes genocide as an international crime— First United Nations resolution devoted to the crime of genocide | legal | A/RES/96(I) |
| 9 December 1948 | Genocide Convention adopted— First human rights treaty adopted by the General Assembly | legal | A/RES/260(III) |
| 12 January 1951 | Genocide Convention enters into force— The twentieth ratification activated the Convention | legal | UNTS No. 1021 |
| 24 January 1957 | Council resolution on the final status of Jammu and Kashmir— Reference date for the renewed Kashmir debates carrying repeated genocide claims | council | S/RES/122 |
| 14 July 1960 | United Nations operation in the Congo authorised— Reference date for the Congo debates in which genocide language recurs | council | S/RES/143 |
| 9 June 1961 | Council establishes its Angola subcommittee— Reference date for the Angola debates carrying colonial genocide claims | council | S/RES/163 |
| 7 August 1963 | Council calls for an arms embargo on South Africa— Reference date for apartheid debates carrying genocide language | council | S/RES/181 |
| 21 December 1971 | Council demands an India-Pakistan ceasefire— The 1971 debates include competing claims about violence in East Pakistan and Bangladesh | council | S/RES/307 |
| 17 April 1975 | Khmer Rouge capture Phnom Penh— Beginning of the Democratic Kampuchea period later prosecuted before the ECCC | atrocity | UN Audiovisual Library of International Law |
| 7 January 1979 | Khmer Rouge rule ends— Cambodia becomes a major object of genocide claims in Council debate | atrocity | UN Audiovisual Library of International Law |
| 16 December 1982 | General Assembly calls Sabra and Shatila an act of genocide— A contested institutional qualification following the September massacres | contested | A/RES/37/123 D |
| 16 March 1988 | Halabja chemical attack— Subsequent United Nations debate described the wider campaign against Iraqi Kurds as genocide | atrocity | E/CN.4/1989/SR.45/Add.1 |
| 25 September 1991 | Arms embargo imposed on Yugoslavia— Opening Council measure in the wars that preceded the Bosnia genocide cases | council | S/RES/713 |
| 30 May 1992 | Sanctions on the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia— First Council enforcement action of the Bosnian war | council | S/RES/757 |
| 25 May 1993 | International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia established— First international criminal tribunal since Nuremberg | legal | S/RES/827 |
| 6 April 1994 | Rwandan genocide begins— Habyarimana's aircraft shot down over Kigali | atrocity | UN Rwanda outreach |
| 21 April 1994 | UNAMIR cut to 270 troops— The Council's withdrawal at the height of the killing | council | S/RES/912 |
| 22 June 1994 | Operation Turquoise authorised— French-led intervention under Chapter VII | council | S/RES/929 |
| 4 July 1994 | RPF takes Kigali— End of the hundred days | atrocity | UN Rwanda outreach |
| 8 November 1994 | International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda established— Rwanda voted against the resolution creating it | legal | S/RES/955 |
| 11 July 1995 | Fall of Srebrenica— Later ruled genocide by the ICTY and the ICJ | atrocity | UN Srebrenica outreach |
| 14 December 1995 | Dayton Agreement signed in Paris | conflict | S/1996/1017 |
| 17 July 1998 | Rome Statute adopted— Genocide as the first of the four core crimes | legal | A/CONF.183/9 |
| 2 September 1998 | Akayesu judgement: first international genocide conviction— Trial Chamber I of the ICTR convicts Jean-Paul Akayesu of genocide; rape recognised as an act of genocide | legal | ICTR-96-4-T |
| 24 March 1999 | NATO air campaign over Kosovo begins— Intervention without Council authorisation | conflict | SC/6657 |
| 15 December 1999 | Independent inquiry into UN action in Rwanda— The Carlsson report | institutional | S/1999/1257 |
| 2 August 2001 | Krstić judgement: Srebrenica found to be genocide— First ICTY genocide conviction; the Appeals Chamber upheld the genocide finding in 2004 | legal | IT-98-33-T |
| 1 July 2002 | Rome Statute enters into force | legal | ICC-ASP/14/30 |
| 7 April 2004 | Action Plan to Prevent Genocide— Announced on the tenth anniversary of Rwanda | institutional | SG/SM/9245 |
| 30 July 2004 | Darfur: arms embargo and demands on the Janjaweed | council | S/RES/1556 |
| 9 September 2004 | US Secretary of State names Darfur a genocide— A state qualification the Council did not adopt | contested | US State Department |
| 1 February 2005 | Darfur Commission of Inquiry report transmitted to the Council— Finds crimes against humanity but concludes the Government did not pursue a policy of genocide | legal | S/2005/60 |
| 31 March 2005 | Darfur referred to the International Criminal Court— First Council referral to the ICC | legal | S/RES/1593 |
| 16 September 2005 | World Summit Outcome adopts the responsibility to protect— Paragraphs 138-139 | institutional | A/RES/60/1 |
| 28 April 2006 | Responsibility to protect reaffirmed by the Council— Protection of civilians in armed conflict | council | S/RES/1674 |
| 26 February 2007 | ICJ judgment in Bosnia and Herzegovina v. Serbia and Montenegro— Srebrenica held to be genocide; Serbia found to have breached its duty to prevent it | legal | ICJ General List No. 91 |
| 8 August 2008 | Russia-Georgia war— Competing genocide claims over South Ossetia | contested | SC/9417 |
| 4 March 2009 | First ICC arrest warrant for Omar al-Bashir— The genocide charge was added by a second warrant on 12 July 2010 | legal | ICC-02/05-01/09 |
| 12 July 2010 | ICC issues a genocide warrant for al-Bashir— Genocide added to the 2009 warrant | legal | ICC-02/05-01/09 |
| 17 March 2011 | Libya: all necessary measures— The high-water mark of R2P | council | S/RES/1973 |
| 4 October 2011 | First Russian and Chinese veto on Syria | council | SC/10403 |
| 21 August 2013 | Ghouta chemical attack | atrocity | A/67/997-S/2013/553 |
| 15 March 2014 | Crimea draft resolution vetoed | council | S/2014/189 |
| 16 April 2014 | Council debate on the twentieth anniversary of the Rwandan genocide— The corpus's largest meeting for the word: 198 occurrences in one sitting | council | S/PV.7155 |
| 3 August 2014 | Sinjar: ISIL attacks the Yazidis | atrocity | A/HRC/32/CRP.2 |
| 15 August 2014 | Sanctions on ISIL and the Al-Nusrah Front | council | S/RES/2170 |
| 8 July 2015 | Srebrenica genocide resolution vetoed— Russia's veto on the twentieth anniversary | contested | SC/11961 |
| 24 March 2016 | Karadžić judgement— Convicted of genocide at Srebrenica; upheld on appeal in 2019 | legal | IT-95-5/18-T |
| 25 August 2017 | Rakhine: the Rohingya exodus begins | atrocity | OHCHR mission report |
| 22 November 2017 | Mladić judgement— Convicted of genocide at Srebrenica; upheld on appeal in 2021 | legal | IT-09-92-T |
| 16 November 2018 | ECCC genocide convictions of Nuon Chea and Khieu Samphan— First genocide convictions concerning crimes committed under the Khmer Rouge | legal | ECCC Case 002/02 |
| 11 November 2019 | The Gambia v. Myanmar filed at the ICJ— First Genocide Convention case brought by a non-injured state | legal | ICJ 178 |
| 23 January 2020 | Provisional measures ordered in The Gambia v. Myanmar | legal | ICJ 178 |
| 24 February 2022 | Russia invades Ukraine— Invasion justified in part by a genocide claim in Donbas | conflict | SG/SM/21158 |
| 16 March 2022 | Provisional measures ordered in Ukraine v. Russia— Brought under the Genocide Convention | legal | ICJ 182 |
| 7 October 2023 | Hamas attack on Israel | conflict | SG/SM/22021 |
| 29 December 2023 | South Africa v. Israel filed at the ICJ— Two days before the corpus ends | legal | ICJ 192 |
| 26 January 2024 | ICJ indicates provisional measures in South Africa v. Israel— The order concerns claimed rights under the Genocide Convention and does not decide the merits | legal | ICJ 192 |
| 23 May 2024 | General Assembly establishes the Srebrenica genocide remembrance day— Designates 11 July as an annual international day and condemns genocide denial | institutional | A/RES/78/282 |