Which of These Is 2020’s Greatest “Crime against Humanity”?

[Elderberry]

Savvy Street By Vinay Kolhatkar 12/28/2020

The United Nations (U.N.) notes that the concept of “crimes against humanity” has evolved “through the jurisdictions of international courts.” In the U.N.’s opinion, the 1998 Rome Statute establishing the International Criminal Court (the Rome Statute) “is the document that reflects the latest consensus among the international community on this matter.”

The concept of “crimes against humanity” has evolved through the jurisdictions of international courts.

Article 7 of the Rome Statute states:

    For the purpose of this Statute, ‘crime against humanity’ means any of the following acts when committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack directed against any civilian population, with knowledge of the attack [emphasis mine].

The acts in themselves include many crimes including murder, enslavement, enforced disappearance, etc. and also “other inhumane acts of a similar character intentionally causing great suffering, or serious injury to body or to mental or physical health.”

The U.N. adds:

    In contrast with genocide, crimes against humanity do not need to target a specific group. Instead, the victim of the attack can be any civilian population, regardless of its affiliation or identity.

Systemic crimes by communist regimes, such as the Holodomor (the famine manufactured by the Soviets in Ukraine) and the Great Leap Forward (Chairman Mao’s “reconstruction” that killed 45 million) have been described as “crimes against humanity.”
 
Calendar 2020: A Most Unusual Year

Human Rights Watch (HRW), which bills itself as an independent NGO, produces an annual report which claims to “scrupulously investigate abuses.” Virtually every nation gets a mention in their 652-page 2020 report. Here is a sample:

    “Iranian law considers acts such as ‘insulting the prophet,’ ‘apostasy,’ same sex relations, adultery, and certain nonviolent drug-related offenses as crimes punishable by death.” Numerous executions are carried out.

    In Russia, “torture and other ill-treatment [of those accused or convicted] remained widespread; especially in pretrial detention and prisons.”

    “Saudi Arabia applies Sharia (Islamic law) as its national law. There is no formal [tightly-worded] penal code,” which allows judges and prosecutors to “convict people on a wide range of offenses under broad, catch-all charges such as ‘breaking allegiance with the ruler’ or ‘trying to distort the reputation of the kingdom.’”

The 2020 HRW report, however, lists the wrongs of 2019. Not since WWII has there been a year in which almost every human adult was adversely affected by one global event, when even the topic of conversation around the globe converged on the same issue so frequently. But we shall not await HRW’s report on the injustices of 2020.

Instead, let me submit for your consideration an unusual account that will not make it into the U.N.’s files or the left-liberal HRW’s catalog of abuses. Nothing in the list below will test the Rome Statute or secure a trial in the hallowed international courts of justice.

But first, let’s remind ourselves of the most critical ingredient for the thriving of humanity.
 
The Quintessential Nature of Humanity

Human beings are organisms capable of directing themselves, governing and even manufacturing, their emotions. They can also modify, physiologically, the very source of directedness and emotion (i.e., the brain) with purpose and practice (neuroplasticity).

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