Definition of crime against humanity
Noun
crime against humanity (plural crimes against humanity)
- (law) A large-scale persecution of or atrocity against a body of people.
Further reading
Crimes against humanity, as defined by the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court Explanatory Memorandum, "are particularly odious offences in that they constitute a serious attack on human dignity or grave humiliation or a degradation of one or more human beings. They are not isolated or sporadic events, but are part either of a government policy (although the perpetrators need not identify themselves with this policy) or of a wide practice of atrocities tolerated or condoned by a government or a de facto authority. Murder; extermination; torture; rape and political, racial, or religious persecution and other inhumane acts reach the threshold of crimes against humanity only if they are part of a widespread or systematic practice. Isolated inhumane acts of this nature may constitute grave infringements of human rights, or depending on the circumstances, war crimes, but may fall short of falling into the category of crimes under discussion."
Abolition of the slave trade
Although the phrase "crime against humanity" was not used in the Declaration of the Powers, on the Abolition of the Slave Trade, of 8th of February 1815 (Which also formed ACT, No. XV. of the Final Act of the Congress of Vienna of the same year) the text of the declaration included in its first sentence the concept of the "principles of humanity and universal morality" as justification for ending a trade that was "odious in its continuance".
First use
On May 24, 1915, the Allied Powers - Britain, France, and Russia - jointly issued a statement explicitly charging for the first time ever, another government of committing "a crime against humanity". The following joint statement was made to protest the Armenian Genocide:
References:
- Wiktionary. Published under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
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