Take the log out of your own eye

In recent months, words like genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes have been used extensively in the media. These are important legal terms, they should not be used loosely, and using them as political weapons risks making these words meaningless.

The word “genocide” was coined in 1944 by Polish-Jewish law professor Raphael Lemkin after he studied the Armenian Genocide and watched his family suffer under the Nazis.

Lemkin, who had fled to the United States, combined the Greek word “genos,” meaning people or tribe, with the Latin word “cide,” meaning to kill. After the Second World War ended, Lemkin lobbied the newly formed United Nations to pass the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide in 1948.

Crimes against humanity is a more broadly based term to refer to crimes committed by a state or actors of a state against civilians in times of peace or in times of war.

International Humanitarian Law, which was also revised after the carnage of the Second World War, stipulates what is permitted and what is not permitted in warfare. It involves the rules of engagement for those in the military.

Unfortunately, once the Cold War began, promoting human rights took a back seat to one’s political agenda.

It wasn’t until the early 1990s that it became safe to talk about genocide and crimes against humanity without being called a traitor to one’s nation.

As a result, we have been free to discuss the fact that neither the United States nor Russia has ratified the Rome Statute which established the International Criminal Court (ICC), the legal body which upholds the Genocide Convention.

It has also become clear that while citizens of powerful countries may be guilty of crimes against humanity, only Africans get tried and convicted in the ICC. In addition, citizens in the global south recognize the impunity that permeates among representatives of powerful nations. In many countries, it is common knowledge that no American has been held responsible for the 1991 bombing of an Iraqi bomb shelter resulting in the death of 1,500 innocent civilians.

When Joe Biden and other NATO leaders accuse Vladimir Putin of genocide, the words of Jesus of Nazareth come into clear focus: “You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye.”