Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-dh8gc Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-16T15:29:36.942Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Is global poverty a crime against humanity?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 August 2015

Gwilym David Blunt
Gwilym David Blunt*
Affiliation:
Department of Politics and International Studies, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
*
E-mail: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Pogge has repeatedly compared the causes of global poverty with historical crimes against humanity. This claim, however, has been treated as mere rhetoric. This article argues that there are good reasons to take it seriously. It does this by comparing Pogge’s thesis on the causes of global poverty with the baseline definition of crimes against humanity found in international law, especially the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. It argues that the causes of global poverty are comparable with the crimes of slavery and apartheid. This has important consequences for cosmopolitan thought, as it makes the need for practical solutions to global poverty more urgent and raises questions about the global poor’s right to resist the international system by violent means.

Keywords

crimes against humanityglobal povertyinternational lawcosmopolitanismresistancehuman rights
Type
Original Papers
Information
International Theory , Volume 7 , Issue 3 , November 2015 , pp. 539 - 571
Copyright
© Cambridge University Press 2015 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Arendt, Hannah. 2006. Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil. London: Penguin.Google Scholar
Badar, Mohamed Elewa. 2004. “From the Nuremberg Charter to the Rome Statute: Defining the Elements of Crimes Against Humanity.” San Diego International Law Journal 5:73–144.Google Scholar
Bales, Kevin. 2012. Disposable People: New Slavery in the Global Economy. London: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Bales, Kevin, Trodd, Zoe, and Williamson, Alex Kent. 2009. Modern Slavery: The Secret World of 27 Million People. Oxford: Oneworld.Google Scholar
Bassiouni, M. Cherif. 2003. “The Permanent International Criminal Court.” In Justice for Crimes Against Humanity, edited by Mark Latimer, and Phillipe Sands, 173–210. Oxford: Hart Publishing.Google Scholar
Bassiouni, M. Cherif. 2011a. Crimes Against Humanity: Historical Evolution and Contemporary Application. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Bassiouni, M. Cherif. 2011b. “Revisiting the Architecture of Crimes Against Humanity: Almost a Century in the Making, with Gaps and Ambiguities Remaining – the Need for a Specialized Convention.” In Forging a Convention for Crimes Against Humanity, edited by Leila Nadya Sadat, 43–58. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Blunt, Gwilym David. 2015. “On the Source, Site and Modes of Domination.” Journal of Political Power 8(1):5–20.Google Scholar
Brock, Gillian, and Pogge, Thomas. 2014. “Global Tax Justice and Global Justice.” Moral Philosophy and Politics 1(1):1–15.Google Scholar
Cohen, Michael A., and Küpçü, Maria Figueroa. 2005. “Privatising Foreign Policy.” World Policy Journal 22(3):34–52.Google Scholar
Dikötter, Frank. 2010. Mao’s Great Famine: The History of China’s Most Devastating Catastrophe, 1958–1962. USA: Bloomsbury Publishing.Google Scholar
Douglass, Frederick. 2003. “My Bondage and My Freedom.” In My Bondage and My Freedom , edited by John W. Blassingame, John R. McKivigan, and Peter P. Hinks. London: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Drumbl, Mark A. 2007. Atrocity, Punishment, and International Law. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Geras, Norman. 2011. Crimes Against Humanity: The Birth of a Concept. Manchester: Manchester University Press.Google Scholar
Glosny, Michael A. 2010. “China and the BRICs: A Real (but Limited) Partnership in a Unipolar World.” Polity 42(1):100–129.Google Scholar
Goldhagen, Daniel Jonah. 1996. Hitler’s Willing Executioners: Ordinary Germans and the Holocaust. London: Little Brown.Google Scholar
Kara, Siddharth. 2009. Sex Trafficking: Inside the Business of Modern Slavery. New York, NY: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Kearney, Diana. 2013. “Food Deprivations as Crimes Against Humanity.” New York University Journal of International Law and Politics 46:253–290.Google Scholar
Laborde, Cécile. 2010. “Republicanism and Global Justice: A Sketch.” European Journal of Political Theory 9(1):48–69.Google Scholar
Leader Maynard, Jonathan. 2014. “Rethinking the Role of Ideology in Mass Atrocities.” Terrorism and Political Violence 26(5):821–841.Google Scholar
Lippert-Rasmussen, Kasper. 2013. “Global Injustice and Redistributive Wars.” Law, Ethics and Philosophy 1:65–86.Google Scholar
Lovett, Francis. 2010. A General Theory of Domination and Justice. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Lovett, Frank, and Pettit, Philip. 2009. “Neorepublicanism: A Normative and Institutional Research Program.” Political Science 12(1):11–29.Google Scholar
Luban, David. 2004. “A Theory of Crimes Against Humanity.” Yale Journal of International Law 29:85–168.Google Scholar
Makino, Uwe. 2001. “Final Solutions, Crimes Against Mankind: On the Genesis and Criticism of the Concept of Genocide.” Journal of Genocide Research 3(1):49–73.Google Scholar
May, Larry. 2005. Crimes Against Humanity: A Normative Account. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Miller, David. 2007. National Responsibility and Global Justice. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Narlikar, Amrita. 2010. “New Powers in the Club: The Challenges of Global Trade Governance.” International Affairs 86(3):717–728.Google Scholar
Osiel, Mark. 2005. “The Banality of Good: Aligning Incentives Against Mass Atrocity.” Columbia Law Review 105(6):1751–1862.Google Scholar
Pettit, Philip. 1997. Republicanism: A Theory of Freedom and Government. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Pettit, Philip. 2008. “Republican Freedom: Three Axioms, Four Theorems.” In Republicanism and Political Theory, edited by Cécile Laborde, and John W. Maynor, 45–56. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Pogge, Thomas. 2008. World Poverty and Human Rights: Cosmopolitan Responsibilities and Reforms, 2nd ed. Cambridge: Polity.Google Scholar
Pogge, Thomas. 2010a. Politics as Usual: What Lies Behind the Pro-Poor Rhetoric. Cambridge: Polity.Google Scholar
Pogge, Thomas. 2010b. “Responses to the Critics.” In Thomas Pogge and His Critics, edited by Alison M. Jaggar, 175–250. Cambridge: Polity.Google Scholar
Pogge, Thomas. 2011. “The Health Impact Fund: Enhancing Justice and Efficiency in Global Health.” Journal of Human Development and Capabilities 13(4):537–559.Google Scholar
Pogge, Thomas. 2013. “Poverty and Violence.” Law, Ethics and Philosophy 1:87–111.Google Scholar
Robertson, Geoffrey. 2012. Crimes Against Humanity: The Struggle for Global Justice, 4th ed. London: Penguin.Google Scholar
Robinson, Darryl. 1999. “Defining ‘Crimes Against Humanity’ at the Rome Conference.” American Journal of International Law 93(1):43–57.Google Scholar
Scarpa, Silvia. 2008. Trafficking in Human Beings: Modern Slavery. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Schabas, William A. 2002. “Mens Rea and the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia.” New England Law Review 37:1015–1036.Google Scholar
Skinner, Quentin. 2008. “Freedom as the Absence of Arbitrary Power.” In Republicanism and Political Theory, edited by Cécile Laborde, and John W. Maynor, 83–101. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Taylor, Telford. 1949. “Final Report to the Secretary of the Army on the Nuernberg War Crimes Trials Under Control Council Law No. 10.” Office, Chief of Counsel for War Crimes; Washington, DC.Google Scholar
Vickers, Brendan. 2013. “Africa and the Rising Powers: Bargaining for the ‘Marginalized Many’.” International Affairs 89(3):673–693.Google Scholar
Walzer, Michael. 2006. Just and Unjust Wars: A Moral Argument with Historical Illustrations. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
World Bank. 2015. “Povcalnet.” World Bank. Accessed March 31. http://iresearch.worldbank.org/PovcalNet/index.htm?1.Google Scholar