How The Crimes Against Humanity Legal System Works And How You Can Use It

First off, the usual disclaimers apply especially including that this is not legal advice. In many cases it would be a good idea to talk to a lawyer first and possibly hire one. Just using some bullshit you read off the Internet (including this post) isn’t enough. Every possible jurisdiction can have different laws, rules, procedures and processes that could get you into trouble if you don’t follow them correctly.

Now that, that is out of the way, it’s time to talk about the various ways that human rights violations and crimes against humanity are handled. There are various governmental and international human rights institutions that don’t have any power themselves, but they can influence other bodies with the power to do something about the human rights violations and crimes against humanity. This means that whoever is committing these atrocities will often try to defend themselves to the human rights institution even if the human rights institution can’t do anything to stop them except writing a sternly written report. Two prominent examples of these are the UN Human Rights Committee and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights who only have power if the Countries involved agreed to be bound by them and often countries won’t do this for obvious reasons.

Fortunately there are other ways to get justice and accountability and stop crimes against humanity. You can use national courts within the country, regional courts, the ICC, and national courts around the world under universal jurisdiction. Using national courts within the country refers to you using the country’s courts and laws where you lived or where the crime against humanity happened etc. Using the country’s laws in their court system can include everything from local courts which are different from state or provincial courts which could be different from national courts or the country may have some other structure. The key takeaway here is that courts within a country can have all kinds of ways to be operated and organized and this is just a basic overview. The next type are regional courts like the Inter-American Court of Human Rights and the Court of Justice of the European Union and the European Court of Human Rights. These courts are also operated and organized in variety of actions. However, they usually have a few similarities. They are legally binding over various countries and they have the power to make governments under their jurisdiction do certain things and pay damages. These courts usually only bind countries who’ve joined them but they can sometimes affect other countries who haven’t. These courts usually can’t arrest and jail bad guys. The ICC does that. The International Criminal Court has the ability to indict, prosecute, try, and jail people who commit crimes against humanity. They have some limitations on their jurisdiction, but there are some situations where their jurisdiction doesn’t have limits so the bad guys who are trying to limit the ICC’s jurisdiction can still get indicted and tried and jailed. The ICC can also help with reparations in some crimes against humanity cases.

The last and most powerful way to get justice and accountability for crimes against humanity is Universal Jurisdiction. This means that any and all countries have worldwide jurisdiction over crimes against humanity cases regardless of the circumstances. There are no limitations on this whatsoever. If a crime against humanity has been committed any country can indict, prosecute, try, convict, and jail (or even execute) anyone who committed the crime. They can also do other things like sanctions or lawsuits against the perpetrators and can force them to pay reparations. Some countries allow for people to file lawsuits for damages and even initiate prosecutions (although the government will actually take over and run the trial and jail them etc.).

There are three main actions that you can take in crimes against humanity situations. These actions can be taken independently or with each other at the same time and can even be taken in some situations by completely different people. The first action you can take is to go to court to try to have the crimes against humanity stopped and force the government or whoever to stop doing that. In some courts you have to be directly affected by the crimes but not in every court and not in every case. This can be done through a lawsuit or some other petition to the court or similar government body (unless they have another process). The second action is to sue for damages. In many cases this has to be done in national or regional courts where the crimes against humanity took place or where the victims or offenders live or something like that, but there are some situations where you can sue in other courts because of universal jurisdiction. You can also seek criminal prosecution in any country using universal jurisdiction or at the ICC. There are some limitations to this route and in many cases you can only file a complaint with prosecutors but some countries do allow you to start the prosecution yourself and then their legal system takes over.

If you take any of these actions you have to understand what can happen. First of all many of these governments and their courts won’t take action (this often happens if the action can only be performed by the government like a prosecution) or they will seek to either continue the crime against humanity or not provide justice and accountability in the case. While they may be able to do this, these people whether they are judges, government bureaucrats, government lawyers or some other occupation are often aiding and abetting crimes against humanity which means that they are committing crimes against humanity themselves and there is no statute of limitations and they can be prosecuted by any country at any time and can’t be executed. Inaction or a judge ruling that victim shouldn’t really receive a lot of compensation for crimes against humanity or saying “we as the court just say it’s not really a crime against humanity” or that “crimes against humanity are OK” or whatever open themselves up to lifetime criminal liability. Government lawyers who argue that the actions are OK or it’s in the government’s power to do this or something like that also face lifetime criminal liability. In fact, in most cases for crimes against humanity they can’t even defend their own policies since to do would be an admission of guilt. Often when on trial they try to pin the blame on someone else for the crimes against humanity. Many people in positions of power aren’t that afraid of consequences because at the time they commit them they are often unlikely to face consequences because they control things, but new regimes take power, not just in their home country but around the world all the time, and thanks to universal jurisdiction, they can be prosecuted at anytime by anyone. They can also face lawsuits and sanctions and other punishments as well. Most of these people feel like they can get away with anything because for a long time they have. They should remember that revolutionary change can happen rapidly. In 1913 did anyone really believe that several large European countries would no longer exists in a few years and that most of the European nobility would lose their powers and that the great Russian Empire would be run by communists after their own civil war? Did anyone believe in 2019 that the next year would see a massive pandemic? These powerful people may be confident that their luck won’t run out, but if it does what these government insiders have done to everyone else might just be unleashed upon them.

This is just a surface level overview, but if it helps inspire people to crimes against humanity then this is a positive step for humanity. You probably still need to do a lot more research and talk to the right lawyers and get good legal advice to position yourself for success. Good luck!

Moral GPS, for a world where moral compasses aren’t enough, and kids can’t read a map. Not legal, financial, or any kind of advice. For entertainment purposes only.