The Nature of Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes

Céline Pina explains that there is educational work to be done in clarifying that crimes against humanity and war crimes are not a matter of degree—they are a matter of nature. A bomb that explodes and destroys, causing collateral damage, will undoubtedly kill children. But these children do not die with the impression that humanity before them has betrayed everything they had a right to expect. What is horrible is to imagine these children—eight, nine, ten years old—and these women who departed carrying as their final image an image of inhumanity, atrocity, and contempt for what they were. This is where crimes against humanity nest: in absolute negation.

The Distinction Between Deaths and Their Meaning

Pina argues there is an urgent need to explain this much more clearly, because otherwise the reign of emotion puts equal signs between all victims. It is true that a Palestinian dead and an Israeli dead are both dead. But the manner in which they were killed is different, and that manner speaks to our inhumanity or our humanity. Jean-Sébastien Ferjou is asked whether he agrees with the analysis just presented. He responds that of course each life is equal—this is an absolute truth—but the dead do not have the same meaning. The significance of how they died carries moral and historical weight that distinguishes one death from another.