Bears Armed wrote:United Massachusetts wrote:No. I imagine killing the poor, in this sense, not to be a matter of any perceived characteristic of the poor, but rather, a perceived economic burden that maintaining their standard of living, in compliance with extant resolutions, entails. A more sinister regime certainly could assert that "leeching off the welfare system" without maintaining employment is a criminal activity, and thus could kill the unemployed. The reasons for killing wealthy individuals would be even easier to justify for these sinister regimes--by maintaining excessive stockpiles of wealth, the rich engage in "theft" of their own society and of the poor.
Either way, I imagine, the reasons for engaging in socioeconomic genocide are not on the basis of a characteristic. Nations have thousands of ways to justify it within the confines of CoCR.
Now consider the combination of:
GA Resolution #79 'Ban on Ex Post Facto Laws' (which says that you can't punish people for actions carried out before the laws making those actions illegal were actually passed),
GA Resolution #323 'No Penalty Without Law' (which says that you can't punish people for their actions without having passed a law that criminalises those actions).
If acts of genocide are not characterized as legal punishments, that's quite irrelevant.
GA Resolution #344 'Minimum Standard of Living Act' (which requires member nations to guarantee a minimum standard of living to their peoples: trying to criminalise dependence on the nation by people who really can't support themselves seems a pretty clear violation of this)
First, acts of genocide are not always prosecuted under the guise of enforcing laws that prohibit things such as being poor or unemployed.
Second, MSLA guarantees a minimum standard of living. It does not prohibit member states from requiring, say, all adult inhabitants to be employed or find employment within a certain time frame.
Third, clause 4.c reads "Exempts each member state from guaranteeing a minimum standard of living to individuals who refuse to make a good faith attempt to support themselves without government assistance, or to engage in government-mandated job training, temporary employment or community service, without a legitimate reason, such as a disability that would prevent them from doing so;"
This is one of MSLAs weak points, as it does not guarantee a minimum standard of living to the chronically unemployed, or those not seeking employment.
GA Resolution #375 'Crime and Punishment' (particularly clause 4, which forbids the use of execution as a penalty for nonviolent crimes).
Irrelevant if the victims of genocide are not considered convicted criminals.