Mrs. Fatou Bensouda, ICC Prosecutor
Information and Evidence Unit
Office of the Prosecutor
International Criminal Court
Post Office Box 19519
2500 CM The Hague
The Netherlands
Dear Ms. Bensouda,
I am a
56-year-old Disability Studies specialist from Montreal, Canada who has
been reporting frequently, for the past sixteen months, to United Nations officials on
the crisis for the United Kingdom's sick and disabled. Austerity
measures, consisting of draconian welfare reforms and "sham"
means-testing (Atos Healthcare U.K. and the Department for Work and
Pensions) are ostensibly to blame for their plight—with disability hate
crime and inflammatory media attacks factored into this mix.
According to a October 2, 2012 letter that I received from the OTP Information Desk, the International Criminal Court
"may only address the crimes of genocide, crimes against humanity, and war
crimes as defined by Articles 6 to 8 of the Rome Statute."
Frankly,
the OTP Information Desk response, omitting article 7, is puzzling. As
you are well aware, the Rome Statute is the document under which the ICC
was established.
Article 7, which covers crimes against humanity, states: “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:
“(k)
Inhumane acts … intentionally causing great suffering, or serious injury to body or to mental or physical health.”
Article 7 (k) is a perfect description of what
the DWP and its ministers are trying to achieve.
Is the ICC striving to discourage the filing of austerity complaints?
I would like to bring the following to your attention:
A German human rights lawyer has brought charges to the International
Criminal Court (ICC): austerity enforced on Greece is a crime against
humanity.
Human rights lawyer Sarah Luzia Hassel-Reusing submitted charges to
the ICC at the Hague. She accused the heads of government and
international financial institutions responsible for Greece’s austerity
of crimes against humanity. These were submitted in late November. Using
the Rome Statute article 7, Hassel-Reusing’s indictment related to the
destruction of Greek healthcare and incidents of starvation. Those
accused are
- Christine Lagarde (Director of the International Monetary Fund, IMF),
- Jose Manuel Barroso (President of the EU Commission),
- Herman van Rompuy (President of the European Council),
- Dr. Angela Merkel (German Chancellor),
Hassel-Reusing’s submission asserts how stipulations of austerity,
set by the Troika, are causing a humanitarian crisis. Greeks are denied
access to vital medicine and healthcare, suffer a massive reduction in
health service provision, whilst under conditions of mass unemployment.
The human rights lawyer’s charges rely on statistics and media reports,
showing that even before the 2009 imposition of austerity – many Greeks
lived below the poverty line. Thus she presented that by reducing the
rights, welfare, employment and state provisions: austerity has made a
bad situation far graver.
In legal terms, a crime against humanity is judged if someone
purposefully attacks a population or acts knowing this will happen. This
is why she is is focusing on the removal of health provision, and the
impact Troika’s measures are having against the Greek’s access to food.
Both healthcare and the universal right to food are protected by UN
articles. The charges assert that the policy of financial stability is a
smokescreen, deceiving the public about the real human disaster that
these measures are causing.
Hassel-Reusing is arguing that Greece is being used as an experiment,
to see how far austerity can be implemented to attack public services
and increase privatisation. The motive of those implementing the
austerity she argues, is to create a transfer of wealth by squeezing the
poor. The submission asserts how this even risks the disintegration of
the European Union. The charges broadens too, to include financial
powers, both political and international bankers, especially Goldman
Sachs, Bilderberg, and Deutsche Bank.
(See
https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=sites&srcid=ZGVmYXVsdGRvbWFpbnxidWVyZ2VycmVjaHRlbWVuc2NoZW5yZWNodGV8Z3g6NTBmYzQ5ZGUxMjhlMmYzNA)
Furthermore, there is growing recognition by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) that
Austerity measures may violate human rights
Half
a decade has passed since the sub-prime mortgage crisis in the United
States developed into a global financial crisis. In response, many
countries undertook large-scale “bailouts” of virtually bankrupt banks.
With the bailouts and other knock-on effects of the financial crisis,
public deficits have risen sharply in many countries.
Governments,
notably in Europe, have responded to mounting deficits with “austerity”
measures - making drastic reductions to public expenditure.
Austerity has entailed rapid decreases in standards of living as cuts
have been made to public services and social protection, while
unemployment levels have risen dramatically.
Addressing the United Nations General Assembly in New York on 23
October 2012, the Chairperson of the Committee on Economic, Social and
Cultural Rights, Ariranga Govindasamy Pillay, noted that although States
face tough decisions when dealing with rising public deficits,
austerity measures are potentially violations of the legal obligations
of States Parties to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and
Cultural Rights.
“All States Parties should avoid at all times taking decisions which
lead to the denial or infringement of economic, social and cultural
rights,” Pillay said, citing an open letter to States Parties from the
Committee earlier this year. The letter elaborated the Committee’s
position on austerity measures.
By ratifying the Covenant, States Parties have a legally binding
obligation to progressively improve, without retrogression, universal
access to goods and services such as healthcare, education, housing and
social security and to ensure just and favourable conditions of work,
without discrimination, in accordance with established international
standards.
These rights must be achieved by using the maximum of available
resources. However, Pillay pointed out that austerity measures are also a
disincentive to economic growth and thereby hamper progressive
realization of economic and social rights.
The Committee had pointed out that social insecurity and political
instability, as seen in parts of Europe today, were also potential
effects of the denial or infringement of economic, social and cultural
rights. The poor, women, children, persons with disabilities, older
persons, people with HIV/AIDS, indigenous peoples, ethnic minorities,
migrants and refugees were particularly at risk, the Committee had
noted.
In a
recent statement,
the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay,
expressed concern over rising social tensions inflamed by the effects of
the economic crises in Greece and Spain and the broader adverse impacts
of austerity measures on the most vulnerable.
Several United Nations human rights experts have recently highlighted
how austerity measures are incongruent with economic, social and
cultural human rights and called for banking sector reforms and human
rights-based approaches out of financial and economic crises. (2 November 2012; see
http://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/AusterityMeasures.aspx)
and recognition, from the prestigious British medical journal "The Lancet", that European austerity is costing lives:
03/27/2013 05:08 PM
Shredded Social Safety Net
European Austerity Costing Lives
As the euro crisis wears on, the tough
austerity measures implemented in ailing member states are resulting in
serious health issues, a study revealed on Wednesday. Mental illness,
suicide rates and epidemics are on the rise, while access to care has
dwindled.
The rigid austerity measures brought on by the euro crisis are having
catastrophic effects on the health of people in stricken countries,
health experts reported on Wednesday.
Not only have the fiscal
austerity
policies failed to improve the economic situation in these countries,
but they have also put a serious strain on their health care systems,
according to an analysis of European health by medical journal
The Lancet. Major cuts to public spending and health services have brought on drastic deterioration in the overall
health of residents, the journal reported, citing the outbreak of epidemics and a spike in suicides.
In addition to crippling public health care budgets, the deep
austerity measures implemented since the economic crisis began in 2008
have increased unemployment and lowered incomes, causing depression and
prompting sick people to wait longer before seeking help or medication,
the study found.
The countries most affected by this have been
Portugal,
Spain and
Greece,
the latter of which saw outbreaks of both malaria and HIV after
programs for mosquito spraying and needle exchanges for intravenous drug
users were axed. There were also outbreaks of West Nile virus and
dengue fever.
"Austerity measures haven't solved the economic problems and they
have also created big health problems," Martin McKee, a professor of
European Public Health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical
Medicine, who led the research, told news agency AP.
It will take years to understand the health consequences of the euro
crisis and the policies it has prompted, but some effects are already
clear, the study said. Not only has there been an increase of mental
disorders in Greece and Spain, but the number of suicides for those
younger than 65 has increased in the EU since 2007 -- "reversing a
steady decrease." In Greece, the Ministry of Health reported a 40
percent jump in suicides between January and May 2011, compared to the
same period the year before.
Officials Accused of Ignoring Problems
While budget cuts have restricted health care access with increased
costs for patients in these three nations, Greece has also seen
shortages in medication, hospital staff and supplies, according to the
study, commissioned in part by the European Observatory on Health
Systems and Policies, a partner of the World Health Organization.
The study authors also accuse European officials of failing to
address these issues, writing that "public health experts have remained
largely silent during this crisis."
"There is a clear problem of denial of the health effects of the crisis,
even though they are very apparent," lead researcher McKee told
Reuters, comparing their response to the "obfuscation" of the tobacco
industry. "The European Commission has a treaty obligation to look at
the health effect of all of its policies but has not produced any impact
assessment on the health effects of the austerity measures imposed by
the troika."
The troika, made up of the European Commission, European Central Bank
and International Monetary Fund, has been in charge of bailing out
ailing European economies -- most recently in
Cyprus -- and of policing the implementation of the austerity measures the study blames for deteriorating health in these countries.
But it doesn't have to be that way, the study suggests, citing
Iceland as a success story. Though the country was one of the first to
be hit by the financial crisis, it "rejected the economic orthodoxy that
advocated austerity … and invested in its people who, evidence
suggests, have had very few adverse health consequences."
kla -- with wire reports
In closing, I believe that I am owed an explanation as to why your office will not prosecute austerity cases under article 7(k).
I look forward to receiving your response at the earliest possible convenience.
Samuel Miller
--
Samuel Miller
http://independent.academia.edu/SamuelMiller
http://socialwelfareunion.org/archives/2501
http://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/letter-to-the-icc-at-the-hague-re-mistreatment-of-the-disabled-and-sick
http://mikesivier.wordpress.com//?s=Samuel+Miller&search=Go
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VnHBfW0_u5A&feature=youtu.be
E-Mail:
disabilityinliterature@gmail.com
Blog: Hephaestus: Disability Studies
http://illnessandcivilization.blogspot.com/
Blog: My Disability Studies Blackboard
http://mydisabilitystudiesblackboard.blogspot.com/
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