America's International Crimes (Script & Sources)

Good morning, bad news: the United States is one of the biggest violators of international law and documented crimes against humanity - in fact, the United States has been repeatedly found guilty by international courts, and you may be hearing on TikTok that an international tribunal of legal experts found the US guilty of multiple human and civil rights violations against Black, Brown and Indigenous people through racist police killings, hyper incarceration, political retribution, environmental and public health discrimination, and a broader historic genocide against those groups. This is all absolutely true, but unfortunately the International Tribunal that made this ruling is not a legal body, and isn’t associated with the United Nations or the International Court of Justice, which IS the recognized body that can judge supranational disputes, or in other words, find countries guilty of crimes. But wait! Guess what? The UN and the ICJ HAVE put the United States on trial for violating international law over a dozen times, and the US has been found guilty repeatedly.

So, what happens when the US is found guilty of violating international law and committing crimes against humanity?

Since it was created in 1964, the US has been on trial fifteen times. In the 1980s, Ronald Reagan directed the CIA to fund a rebellion against the Nicaraguan government by illegally selling weapons to Iran and taking part in the Colombian cocaine trade. This was known as the Iran-Contra affair, and was very well documented, with plenty of hard evidence - it was a blatant violation of Nicaragua's sovereignty, and many many treaties that prohibited governments from selling weapons and drugs to other countries. In 1986, the US was put on trial by the ICJ, and found guilty on all counts - ruling that Nicaragua was owed $17 billion dollars in reparations. What did the US do? They withdrew their support of the ICJ’s authority, and because the US is a permanent member of the UN Security Council, and therefore has veto power, they’ve vetoed every attempt to enforce the ICJ’s judgement on this case.

Another case arose two years later, when the US Navy shot down an Iranian civilian aircraft flying in Iranian airspace - an absolutely clear cut international violation. 290 people died on Iran Air Flight 655, and it was the 9th worst aviation incident in history. In court, the US categorically refused to admit fault or legal liability, and specifically rejected apologizing to Iran for the attack. They did, however, 8 years later, agree to pay $61.8 million dollars to the families of the victims by using a legal principle that established this payment as a favor done out of kindness, not as a legal responsibility. To this day, the US government has never apologized.

The third case occurred in 1999. Two German nationals were executed by the US government for killing a man during a bank robbery - but in doing so, the US violated a critical portion of the Vienna Convention, which says that foreign nationals have the right to get assistance from their consulate. The US was clearly in the wrong, and even though they refused to accept the ICJ ruling as legally binding, they did agree to never violate that specific portion of the Vienna Convention again.

Two years later, they violated that specific portion of the Vienna Convention again this time with 54 Mexican nationals who were sentenced to death without informing the Mexican consulate. Again, the ICJ found the United States guilty, and this ruling required the US to change its conviction process for foreign nationals - a pretty obvious step to avoid this happening a third time. But instead of fixing their process, the United States simply withdrew from the section of the Vienna Convention that required them to adhere to the ICJ’s ruling - thereby making it unenforceable.

The problem is pretty obvious, right? The US simply doesn’t adhere to international law, it’s entirely too powerful and controls the legal bodies that can prosecute it. In fact, despite forcing nearly all other UN member nations to adhere to treaties like the Rome Statue, the Vienna Convention, and nuclear weapon and landmine bans - the US itself always refuses to sign them, and be prosecuted under them. It’s such a blatant and ridiculous loophole that it’s less of a legal principle, and more just pure global arrogance. The United States is untouchable, and they want you to know.