Ch.II Crimes against Humanity

Subject(s):

Crimes against humanity

This chapter explores the concept of crimes against humanity that goes back to the Declaration of 28 May 1915 by the governments of France, Great Britain, and Russia, relating to the massacres of the Armenian population in Turkey. It analyzes the declaration that described the atrocities as crimes against humanity for which all members of the Turkish Government will be held responsible together with its agents implicated in the massacres. Similarly, in the Nuremberg trials crimes against humanity were dealt with as crimes committed by Germans against fellow Germans. The chapter discusses crimes against humanity that provides penal protection against the transgression of the most basic laws protecting the individuality as political beings and social entity as members of political communities. The transgressor becomes an enemy and legitimate target of all humankind, who may bring to justice.