this post was submitted on 25 Mar 2026
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*Sigh*
Wonder why... Other than they vote against literally everything that a normal person would recognize as good.
Oh, right:
13th amendment
"Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction."
Abstaining also means no
Well yes, but no.
Yes but yes
It's probably mostly because it says "the gravest crime against humanity" and not "a grave crime against humanity". Except for the US, which always seems to vote against anything that might bind it.
There are 11 types of crimes against humanity in the Rome charter (must be widespread/systemic and targeted against civilian population):
Should also be noted that it's specifically about african slavery in the transatlantic slave trade, not a general ranking of slavery above the rest. I think there's merit to that actually just being the worst we've done due to its sheer scale and cruelty (not to mention its effects still lingering to this day), but it carries the usual issues of potentially feeling like it diminishes other horrible things (irish potato famine, holocaust, ...). So this might be a rare case where I actually agree with my government voting abstain. I'm a little surprised even that, in their usual israel bootlicking, they didn't just vote against because "clearly holocaust was the worst".
Edit: it seems the meat of it is also about recognizing that there have never been any reparations, and that there really should be some. Which I absolutely agree with, and I figure votes wouldve looked the same regardless of whether it also recognizes it as the greatest crime against humanity (maybe israel wouldve actually been the exception, since their against vote was probably "but holocaust", and I don't think they'd really be on the hook for reparations). So you can now pretty clearly see the map as "how much did the country benefit from transatlantic slave trade, ergo how scared are they that they might actually have to pay reparations for the still lasting economic advantages they gained". All while africa is still largely being exploited by those same countries (plus others, now).
... no mention of environmental crimes that impact humanity/human groups?
Toxic pollutants & climate change I mean.
The water wars & subsequent great migrations are gonna fuel the above list directly (+ the additional loss of habitat, biodiversity, and possibly the ability to raise children).
But all that would hint at megacorps of today being at fault. Which we apparently can't have.
(Saying megacorps of the past benefiting from slavery is "victimless" ... and ofc isn't counting forced prison labour some countries like the USA practice today.)
Not sure if they would come under #11?
Oh, yeah, possibly.
I read 11 as directly intentional and toward a specific individual or groups - like building a damn to starve ppl, not to feed your own ... and with climate change I meant that a "weapon of mass destruction" version of that indirect, non-targeted destruction (that inevitably leads to an environment where more of the 11 points happen - more killing, more slavery, more rapes, etc).
Yeah fair enough, no doubt getting countries to agree that corporations should be accountable for "accidental" damage to the enviroment would be even more difficult than getting them to sign up to this!