Expand international crimes
The establishment of the International Criminal Court (ICC) has been a huge step taken by civilized nations to prosecute “unimaginable atrocities that deeply shock the conscience of humanity.” These “most serious crimes” that the ICC has the mandate to prosecute and penalize are war crimes, genocide, crimes against humanity, and the crime of aggression.
Notwithstanding the giant step taken by the 125 countries that have agreed to be bound by the ICC, there are still criticisms of the inadequacies of the international court. One accusation is that the ICC only prosecutes direct and personal crimes committed mostly by Third World countries, but not the indirect and institutional crimes committed by developed countries.
There are, indeed, grievous wrongdoings of wealthy and powerful countries that are not recognized and penalized as international crimes, even if they are equally or even more grievous forms of transnational crimes, because they either are intended or actually already causing a massive number of deaths, massive destruction, and extreme hardship. Let me enumerate my own list of some of these de facto international crimes that should be the subject of campaigns for their inclusion as formal international crimes.
First on my list is the possession of nuclear weapons. By their very nature, nuclear weapons are intended to cause the indiscriminate killing of a massive number of people, without regard to whether they are combatants or criminals, or legitimate targets. They will inevitably result in the massacre of innocent civilians, such as children, women, the handicapped, and the elderly. These armaments are, without doubt, weapons that have no other purpose than to bring about crimes against humanity. As weapons of crimes against humanity, their mere possession by any country must be classified as an international crime.
The current international campaign is limited to preventing more countries from possessing nuclear weapons. But those who are already in possession of nuclear weapons are not being taken to task for possessing weapons of crimes against humanity. There must be a campaign to name and shame possession of nuclear weapons as, by itself, a crime against humanity, with the purpose of eventually formalizing its treatment and punishment as an international crime. The world must not wait for a nuclear weapon to be detonated again, and for bodies to pile up, before condemning nuclear weapons. The world must denounce and criminalize possession of nuclear weapons, to help prevent any nuclear catastrophe.
The necessary campaign in this regard—no matter how long it takes—will contribute to stopping more countries from developing and possessing nuclear weapons, while at the same time shaming, ostracizing, and condemning countries that already possess nuclear weapons. The need for this campaign has taken greater urgency recently because United States President Donald Trump threatened to use nuclear weapons on Iran when he said that “[a] whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again.”
Another candidate in my list of transnational wrongdoings that must be the subject of a campaign for condemnation as an international crime is the conduct and practices of countries that are recklessly contributing to global climate change. Every year, so many deaths and massive destruction of property have resulted from super typhoons, unprecedented wildfires, record droughts, and massive flooding. Global climate change has been scientifically identified as the cause of these recurring disasters. There must be a social and political campaign to name and shame countries that are climate change criminals. The egregious nature of this crime is demonstrated by the fact that the death and destruction it brings do not occur as a singular event, but recur annually, and even multiple times every year.
The third transnational wrongdoing on my list that should be included in a campaign for condemnation as an international crime is ecocide. This refers to wanton acts committed with knowledge that they will cause severe, widespread, and long-term damage to the environment. Destructive mining, massive deforestation, destruction of critical coral reefs, pollution of the seas, and the like are some of the acts that must be treated as ecocide crimes. These acts must be named and shamed as de facto international crimes, with a view to eventually formalizing their inclusion as punishable universal crimes. The fact that the fatal and destructive consequences of ecocide are suffered by multiple generations, adds urgency to the need for a campaign treating ecocide as an international crime.
The aspirational campaigns to name and shame possessors of nuclear weapons, global climate change enablers, and ecocide perpetrators as international criminals will be long, arduous, and challenging. Social and political campaigns must snowball. The “unimaginable atrocities” these real international crimes bring or threaten to bring must shock the conscience of humanity, not in the future but most urgently now.
—————-
Comments to fleamarketofideas@gmail.com
