Crime against humanity in the context of "Deportation of the Acadians"

Universal jurisdiction is a legal principle that allows states or international organizations to claim criminal jurisdiction over an accused person, regardless of where the alleged crime was committed and irrespective of the accused's nationality, country of residence, or any other connection to the prosecuting entity. Crimes prosecuted under universal jurisdiction are considered crimes against all, too serious to tolerate jurisdictional arbitrage. The concept of universal jurisdiction is therefore closely linked to the idea that some international norms are erga omnes, or owed to the entire world community, as well as to the concept of jus cogens—that certain international law obligations are binding on all states.

According to Amnesty International, a proponent of universal jurisdiction, certain crimes pose such a serious threat to the international community as a whole that states have a logical and moral duty to prosecute individuals responsible; therefore, no place should be a safe house for those who have committed genocide, crimes against humanity, extrajudicial executions, war crimes, torture, or forced disappearances.

Human trafficking is the act of recruiting, transporting, transferring, harboring, or receiving individuals through force, fraud, or coercion for the purpose of exploiting them for profit. This exploitation may include forced labor, sexual slavery, or other forms of commercial sexual exploitation. It is considered a serious violation of human rights and a form of modern slavery, a crime against humanity. Human trafficking is different from adult voluntary sex work, in that it is not consensual and can involve minors. It is believed that human trafficking has become more common over the past two and a half decades. Efforts to combat human trafficking involve international laws, national policies, and non-governmental organizations.

Human trafficking can occur both within a single country or across national borders. It is distinct from people smuggling, which involves the consent of the individual being smuggled and typically ends upon arrival at the destination. In contrast, human trafficking involves exploitation and a lack of consent, often through force, fraud, or coercion.Human trafficking is widely condemned as a violation of human rights by international agreements such as the United Nations Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons. Despite this condemnation, legal protections and enforcement vary significantly across countries. Globally, millions of individuals, including women, men, and children, are estimated to be victims of human trafficking, enduring forced labor, sexual exploitation, and other forms of abuse.

Baháʼís are persecuted in various countries, especially in Iran, where the Baháʼí Faith originated and where a large Baháʼí population still lives. The persecution stems from the traditional Islamic perspective that Baháʼí teachings are inconsistent with Islamic beliefs, including the finality of Muhammad's prophethood, and the placement of Baháʼís outside the Islamic religion. Thus, Baháʼís are seen as apostates from Islam.

The United Nations, European Union, rights groups including Amnesty International and the Human Rights Watch (HRW) and scholarship have documented how the Baháʼí community in Iran has been subjected to the denial of civil rights, false imprisonment, torture, unjustified executions and the confiscation and destruction of property. According to HRW, the Iranian government’s long-term, systematic campaign against the Bahá’ís rises to the level of the crime against humanity of persecution. Baháʼís have also been significantly persecuted in Egypt.

Starvation of a civilian population is a war crime, a crime against humanity, and/or an act of genocide according to modern international criminal law. Starvation has not always been illegal according to international law; the starvation of civilians during the siege of Leningrad was ruled to be not criminal by a United States military court, and the 1949 Geneva Convention, though imposing limits, "accepted the legality of starvation as a weapon of war in principle". Historically, the development of laws against starvation has been hampered by the Western powers who wish to use blockades against their enemies; however, it was banned in 1977 by Protocol I and Protocol II to the Geneva Conventions and criminalized by the Rome Statute. Prosecutions for starvation have been rare.

Extermination is a crime against humanity that consists of "the act of killing on a large scale". To be convicted of this crime, someone must play a role in a sufficiently-large scale killing of civilians, including those carried out by "the intentional infliction of conditions of life... calculated to bring about the destruction of part of a population". It was first prosecuted at the International Military Tribunal in Nuremberg, and was included in the enumerated crimes against humanity in the Rome Statute.

Order Police battalions were battalion-sized militarised units of Nazi Germany's Ordnungspolizei which existed during World War II from 1939 to 1945. They were subordinated to the Schutzstaffel and deployed in areas of German-occupied Europe, specifically the Army Group Rear Area Commands and territories under civilian administration. Alongside the Einsatzgruppen, Waffen-SS and Wehrmacht, these units were involved in perpetrating the Holocaust and were responsible for large-scale crimes against humanity against civilian populations under German occupation.