A CRIME AGAINST HUMANITY? IN THE CARIBBEAN? ON OUR WATCH?
By David Comissiong, Ambassador of Barbados to CARICOM
According to the International Criminal Court, Crimes Against Humanity consist of acts such as murder, enslavement, deportation, persecution, and other inhumane acts that are committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack directed against a civilian population.
In addition, under the 1948 United Nations Convention, Genocide is defined as an act committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national group by – among other things – deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life that are calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part.
Against the background of these definitions of ” Crime Against Humanity ” and “Genocide”, what are we to make of the February 2021 Report of the United Nations’ Special Rapporteur- Ms Alena Douhan – who visited Venezuela between 1st to 12th February 2021 and carried out an investigation into the impact that economic sanctions are having on the people of that country?
The Report establishes that the sanctions that have been inflicted on Venezuela over the past six years have devastated the Venezuelan economy, severely disrupted the Venezuelan people’s access to electricity, health care, food, water, and education, and have caused tragic increases in hunger, malnutrition, poverty, diseases, family crises, maternity and childhood mortality, crime, and outward migration.
The Special Rapporteur also clearly states in her Report that these sanctions, which have been unilaterally imposed by the Governments of the USA, Canada, the UK, and the European Union (EU), constitute a violation of International Law, and have had “a devastating effect on the whole population of Venezuela, especially those in extreme poverty, women, children, medical workers, people with disabilities or life threatening or chronic diseases, and the indigenous population.”
And let us be very clear about this point: these are UNILATERAL sanctions. These are not sanctions that have been authorized or imposed by the UN Security Council: nor are they sanctions that have been imposed as an act of self-defense, in response to a Venezuelan attack on the USA, Canada, UK or EU.
So, now that this United Nations investigation has been undertaken and this UN Report published, we have clear and incontrovertible evidence of something horrible, something that affronts, or that should affront, the conscience of Mankind, taking place in the Caribbean — right under our noses, right in front of our very eyes.
Will we continue to remain silent on, and unresponsive to this unfolding Crime?
