Crimes Against Humanity
I grew up in the sixties. During that time, some Americans had the “John Wayne” view: we were the “good guys” in the “white hats” riding in to save the world, or at least the settlers in the wagon train. We, the United States, “did good.” And at the same time, the “not good” parts of America’s actions were being thrust onto our TV screens and into our faces: the need for civil rights marches, the summer riots in the cities, the protests against the War, and the nightly visions of death and destruction in Vietnam.
This has been the historic place of the United States, a nation founded on principles of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness; that from the moment of its inception failed to live up to that standard. The inherent conflict of the founding fathers, fighting for their independence from Great Britain while holding other humans in bondage, has haunted our heritage.
They knew that what they said and did was important. Washington and Jefferson, Hamilton and Madison, Paine and Henry; they wrote and spoke not just for the present, but for the future. They knew: the awkward wording of “more perfect union” in the Constitution was not a grammatical flaw, but a recognition of the hope that future generations would redress the wrongs they committed.
The horrors of World War II, beyond even the extremes of modern warfare, led us to find a way to describe actions so far out of bounds that they are never acceptable. First defined as War Crimes, the end of the war saw the attempt to hold individuals responsible for their horrific acts. Unlike historic “retribution” at the end of war, lining defeated enemies in front of a firing squad; this was an attempt to seek justice for those consumed as part of the horrific ideology of Nazism.
Out of those trials came a concept that was even greater than warfare: crimes against humanity. The idea is that nation/states can commit actions against civilians in war or in peace that are outside of the boundaries of human decency, and that they could be held accountable for those actions in the eyes of the world. If a crime is committed, then a place of justice must be found that can hear evidence and reach conclusions about that crime. The world has created the World Court in the Hague, including the International Criminal Court (adjudicating individuals) and the International Court of Justice (adjudicating countries.)
It is a crime against humanity if a country commits:
“…as part of a widespread or systematic attack directed against any civilian population, with knowledge of the attack:… (items ‘a’ through ‘h’)
i. Enforced disappearance of persons…; (item ‘j’)
- Other inhumane acts of a similar character intentionally causing great suffering, or serious injury to body or to mental or physical health.”
The government of the United States, with planning and intent, took away the children of migrants crossing the Southern Border and separated them from their parents. They placed those children in often far-away facilities, without safeguards or intentions of re-uniting them to those parents, and for the express purpose of creating in migrant populations a fear of losing their children if they crossed the border.
The government of the United States not only did this during the “known” time of April 2018 to July of 2018, but was actually separating children much earlier. The United States government, in responding in US Federal Courts, has now admitted that thousands of children were transferred to facilities and are unaccounted for (Reuters.)
The United States government, in the name of its citizens, has stolen children from their parents. Many, perhaps thousands of those children are unaccounted for today, and surely some of those children have been “disappeared” into the US foster and adoption system, and will never be returned to their parents.
This was a planned policy, emanating from the highest levels of the White House and the Justice Department, implemented by the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Health and Human Services. This was not a “rogue” action of a few on the border; it was a concerted action of the United States government, a policy whose outcome, “disappeared children,” was not only foreseeable, but the expressed intent of the government.
This is not how the “good guys in the white hats” behave. This is not how we expect our government to act. This is not what our founding fathers intended for their “more perfect union.” In fact, it is difficult to see why the US government should not be held accountable for these actions; these crimes against children, and migrants; and against humanity.
