crime against humanity

English

Pronunciation

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Noun

crime against humanity (plural crimes against humanity)

1. (now chiefly law) A very destructive and immoral act; later specifically, something causing widespread human misery or loss of life; an atrocity. [from 17th c.]

   The Holocaust was a terrible crime against humanity; it took the lives of 6 million Jews, 2 million Poles, and hundreds of thousands of Gypsies, homosexuals, Russians, and the elderly and disabled.

   • 1629, Richard Baxter, Christian Directory, IV.25:

     Be faithful to your friend that doth entrust you; remembring that perfidiousness or falseness to a friend, is a crime against humanity, and all society.

   • 1929, Siegfried Sassoon, Memoirs of a Fox-Hunting Man:

     Courage remained a virtue. And that exploitation of courage, if I may be allowed to say a thing so obvious, was the essential tragedy of the War, which, as everyone now agrees, was a crime against humanity.

   • 2015 October 27, The Guardian:

     A Spanish judge has charged five suspected former leaders of the armed Basque separatist movement ETA with crimes against humanity for attacks carried out by the group after 2004 which killed 12 people.

2. (colloquial, humorous, hyperbolic) Something objectionable.
   • 2021 July 13, Sara Fujimura, Faking Reality‎^[1], Tom Doherty Associates, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC:

     “Pineapple on pizza is a crime against humanity,” Leo's voice is flat. Which is weird, because he usually adds “Fight me” at the end of that declaration.

Translations

a large-scale persecution of, or atrocity against, a body of people

• Arabic: جَرِيمَة ضِدَّ الْإِنْسَانِيَّةَ f (jarīma(t) ḍidda l-ʔinsāniyyata)
• Armenian: հանցագործություն մարդկության հանդեպ (hancʻagorcutʻyun mardkutʻyan handep)
• Bulgarian: престъпле́ние срещу́ чове́чеството n (prestǎplénie sreštú čovéčestvoto)
• Catalan: crim de lesa humanitat m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 危害人類罪 / 危害人类罪 (zh) (wēihài rénlèi zuì), 反人類罪 / 反人类罪 (zh) (fǎnrénlèizuì), 違反人道罪 / 违反人道罪 (wéifǎnréndàozuì)

• Czech: zločin proti lidskosti m
• Danish: forbrydelse mod menneskeheden c
• Dutch: misdaad tegen de menselijkheid f (Netherlands), misdaad tegen de mensheid f (Belgium)
• Esperanto: krimo kontraŭ la homeco
• Estonian: inimsusevastane kuritegu
• Finnish: rikos ihmisyyttä vastaan (fi)
• French: crime contre l’humanité (fr) m
• Georgian: დანაშაული კაცობრიობის წინააღმდეგ (današauli ḳacobriobis c̣inaaɣmdeg)
• German: Verbrechen gegen die Menschlichkeit (de) n, Menschheitsverbrechen (de) n
• Greek: έγκλημα κατά της ανθρωπότητας n (égklima katá tis anthropótitas)
• Hebrew: פשע נגד האנושות m (pésha néged he-enoshút)
• Hindi: मानवता-विरोधी अपराध (mānavtā-virodhī aprādh)
• Hungarian: emberiesség elleni bűntett (hu)
• Icelandic: glæpur gegn mannkyni (is) m
• Indonesian: kejahatan kemanusiaan, kejahatan terhadap umat manusia
• Irish: coir in aghaidh na daonnachta f
• Italian: crimine contro l'umanità (it) m
• Japanese: 人道に対する罪 (jindō ni taisuru tsumi)
• Korean: 인도에 반한 죄 (indo'e banhan joe)
• Latvian: noziegumiem pret cilvēci m pl
• Lithuanian: nusikaltimas žmoniškumui m (use in plural is more common)
• Malay: jenayah terhadap kemanusiaan
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: forbrytelse mot menneskeheten m

• Persian: جنایت علیه بشریت (fa) (jenâyat 'aleye bašariyyat)
• Polish: zbrodnia przeciwko ludzkości (pl) f
• Portuguese: crime contra a humanidade f
• Romanian: crimă contra umanității f
• Russian: преступле́ние про́тив челове́чества n (prestuplénije prótiv čelovéčestva)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: злочин против човечности m

  Roman: zločin protiv čovečnosti m

• Slovak: zločin proti ľudskosti m
• Slovene: zločin proti človeštvu m
• Sorbian:

  Upper Sorbian: złóstnistwo přećiwo čłowjeskosći n

• Spanish: delito de lesa humanidad m, crimen de lesa humanidad (es) f
• Swedish: brott mot mänskligheten n
• Tamil: மானுடத்துக்கு எதிரான குற்றங்கள் (māṉuṭattukku etirāṉa kuṟṟaṅkaḷ)
• Thai: อาชญากรรมต่อมนุษยชาติ (àat-yaa-gam-dtɔ̀ɔ-ma-nút-sa-ya-châat)
• Turkish: insanlığa karşı suçlar
• Ukrainian: зло́чин про́ти лю́дства m (zlóčyn próty ljúdstva)
• Vietnamese: tội ác chống lại loài người

See also

• genocide
• war crime

Further reading

• crimes against humanity on Wikipedia.Wikipedia