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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]
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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 

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