Why the United States historically avoided the term 'Crimes Against Humanity'
In short: For over a century, the United States maintained a distinct legal distance from the concept of crimes against humanity. While other Western powers moved to codify international protections, American officials often prioritized national sovereignty, fearing that a broad definition of international crime could eventually be turned against their own past actions.
The term 'crime against humanity' has a long, inconsistent history. While Abraham Lincoln used the phrase in his 1860 Electoral Platform to describe the reopening of the African slave trade, it lacked a specific legal framework until 1915. At that time, the phrase began to take on a more formal meaning, yet the United States remained notably hesitant to adopt it as a binding international standard.
This reluctance was evident during the Armenian massacres of 1915. While Britain, France, and Russia issued a declaration against the actions in Turkey, the United States withheld its involvement. US Secretary of State Robert Lansing defended the Turkish government's actions, characterizing the deportation of Armenians as a 'more or less justifiable' right of a state to manage populations within a 'zone of military operations.'
The tension peaked following World War II. During the 1945 London Conference, which preceded the Nuremberg trials, US prosecutor Justice Jackson argued that the United States should not interfere with the internal affairs of other countries, even in cases of domestic extermination. Jackson was candid about the risk: if 'crimes against humanity' were defined too broadly, it could expose the US to prosecution for its own historical actions. Consequently, pre-war actions against Jews within Nazi Germany were not covered by the law. It was only through the specific advocacy of Raphael Lemkin regarding 'genocide' that such acts were addressed at Nuremberg.
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Sources
- Summary by Intellect · source: America and "Crimes Against Humanity" - Sir Geoffrey Nice QC
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