By SETH J. FRANTZMAN
Does it seem a bit ironic that Europeans established the International Criminal Court and legislated various forms of universal jurisdiction conveniently after they had just ended centuries of colonial rule and genocide. And then they used their new found legal institutions to prosecute…what a surprise…people in the third world former colonies they had just left.
Basically when we think of Europe and their “justice system” we need to acknowledge that not one European has ever been charged with the crimes of colonialism, including slavery, genocide, mass murder, and illegal conquest.
Yet today we never stop being lectured by the endless finger wagging of Europe about “human rights” and how the world must never change the borders imposed on it by European colonial map-makers who carved up most of the known world.
What if we just started saying “no.” No, we will not listen to Europe’s new colonialism of “human rights”, how it did slavery and genocide and then suddenly discovered “human rights” as a zeal, but somehow magically never prosecuted its own citizens for human rights violations.
Seth J. Frantzman - author - analyst 