25 signatures reached
To: Jeremy Hunt, Foreign Secretary
Condemn Immigration Detention Centres in the U.S.A. as a Crime Against Humanity
Conditions at the U.S.A.'s ICE detention centres constitute a Crime Against Humanity. The global community has a responsibility to condemn them as such.
Why is this important?
I submit that the ICE immigrant detention centres are a Crime Against Humanity by forcibly separating families, detaining asylum seekers with no criminal record, and detaining minor children for committing NO CRIME. So far, 24 people have died in the centres since the Trump administration took office.
Recent visits to the U.S.A.'s ICE migrant detention centres by lawyers and members of congress exposed the following conditions endured by inmates:
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2019/07/democrats-visit-texas-detention-centers/593191/
https://time.com/5623148/migrant-detention-centers-conditions/
According to the United Nations Office on Genocide Protection and the Responsibilty to Protect, the following are among 11 definitions of Crimes Against Humanity, taken from Article 7 of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court:
"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:"
The fourth of these is: "Deportation or forcible transfer of population"
The fifth is: "Imprisonment or other severe deprivation of physical liberty in violation of fundamental rules of international law"
and the eleventh is: "Other inhumane acts of a similar character intentionally causing great suffering, or serious injury to body or to mental or physical health."
A further clarification is given below: "For the purpose of paragraph 1:‘Attack directed against any civilian population’ means a course of conduct involving the multiple commission of acts referred to in paragraph 1 against any civilian population, pursuant to or in furtherance of a State or organizational policy to commit such attack."
Full text can be found here: https://www.un.org/en/genocideprevention/crimes-against-humanity.shtml
