World Without Genocide

The International Court of Justice, ICJ, has had a sharp rise in genocide cases.

The recent major cases:
Bosnia v Serbia, 2007
Gambia v Myanmar, 2020
Ukraine v Russia, 2022
South Africa v Israel, 2024
Sudan v. UAE, 2024
Nicaragua v Germany, 2024
Genocide is over and over and over again.

World Without Genocide began in 2006 to raise awareness about genocide in Sudan’s Darfur region. That year we gave 34 talks – at universities, faith organizations, Rotary clubs, libraries. Darfur is still a place of tragedy - thousands more dead, displaced, starved, tortured. We failed them.

I’ve seen true wonders in the world: Petra in Jordan, the Great Wall of China, Angkor Wat in Cambodia, other UNESCO heritage sites. But these miracles are endangered by the climate crisis. Stone and wood are eroding, while funding and conservation tools can’t keep up. We’re losing unique treasures.

Of 1.1 billion people living in poverty globally, 80% are exposed to climate hazards of heat, flooding, drought, or air pollution, says the UN. Poverty is linked with planetary pressures and instability. To address global poverty, we must confront the climate risks endangering 900 million people.

Banking giant BNP Paribas found liable for genocidal atrocities against Black Africans in Sudan, 2002-2008. $20 million awarded to 3 plaintiffs. More than 20,000 Sudanese in the US can seek billions more. Historic human rights victory - global banks are responsible for facilitating regime violence.

S African President Cyril Ramaphosa said the Gaza ceasefire would not affect his country’s genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice. South Africa filed the case in 2023.

The ICJ has ordered Israel to prevent genocide and allow aid into Gaza.

Gov. Gavin Newsom announced on Oct. 10 that California, with Massachusetts, are the first US states to join the International Union for Conservation of Nature. While Trump wages war on science and engages in climate denialism, California commits to protect the planet locally and globally.

The International Criminal Court found Ali Muhammad Ali Abd-Al-Rahman, aka Ali Kushayb, Janjaweed leader, guilty of 27 counts of crimes against humanity and war crimes in Darfur for murder, torture, rape, and persecution.

Sentencing will be imposed and victim reparations will be determined soon.

Trump’s speech to those generals was incited violence against fellow Americans and no more constitutional rights. Trump has militarized municipal and state police and has co-opted the courts, like Hitler in the 1930s: the path to a police state with unrestrained power for an authoritarian leader.

Since January, Trump has cut science funding: $1 billion-National Science Foundation, $4.5 billion-National Institute of Health, thousands of scientist and staff jobs at the CDC, EPA, and NOAA.
Next year will be worse: NSF budget slashed by 57%, NIH by 39%, NASA 24%. We will be dumber and sicker.

ICE Detention Trends | Vera Institute of Justice

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is detaining more people than ever – under a veil of secrecy. ICE website acknowledges using just 163 detention facilities but people were being detained in 436 facilities as of June. See detailed information here:
www.vera.org/ice-detentio...

Today is Indigenous Peoples Day. In Trump’s first 100 days, he slashed millions of dollars for Indigenous peoples’ environmental work, cut jobs in the Indian Health Services and the Bureau of Indian Affairs. More than $350 million is out for schools, health, and housing. He’s making war on Indians.

This is Banned Books Week. Buy and read a banned book. Support activities at your local library. See the interactive map of ‘banned book hotspots’ in the US. Reading is resistance!

bannedbooksweek.org/interactive-...

Coffee and wine – favorite drinks of billions of people. But experts tell us that the climate crisis will likely destroy 70% of the world’s coffee production by 2050. And the wine industry is already being affected by hotter summers, with weaker flavors and unpredictable concentrations of alcohol.

Two years ago, Hamas attacked Israelis at a music festival, killing 1,200 people and abducting 250 others. The Israeli military invaded Gaza in retaliation, creating a humanitarian catastrophe. We mourn the loss of lives, devastation of social and natural environments, and widespread antisemitism.

On Sep. 29–30, 1941, Nazis murdered 33,771 Jews in 2 days in Babyn Yar, a ravine in Kyiv, Ukraine. In 2 years, 100,000 people, Jews, Roma, and Ukrainians, were murdered there. It is the 84th anniversary of Babyn Yar massacre. Names of 1,033 newly identified victims have been revealed, remembered.

Michigan has declared October as Transgender Empowerment Month, “celebrating LGBTQ+ individuals during this month and recognizing the important work that must be done across intersections to create a more equitable state for all identities.” Congratulations to Michigan for this crucial affirmation!

If the government won’t let us say certain words, then– what, those things don’t exist? The latest: The Energy Dept. just added climate change, emissions, and green to its long list of no-no words. If you don’t say ‘climate crisis,’ it won’t happen. Maybe they’ll Jimmy Kimmel us…

Spanish PM Sanchez announced measures for stopping the “genocide in Gaza.”
-Ban on exporting weapons to Israel
-Prohibition on ships, planes supplying Israeli forces from Spanish ports, airspaces.
-Ban on imports from illegal Israeli West Bank settlements.
-Increase in aid to Palestinian Authority.

We never know how many people perish in mass atrocities; they are often buried in remote mass graves. In Iran in 1979, thousands of people were shot or hanged during the Islamic Revolution. Many were buried in a Tehran cemetery. Last week the government paved the area, turning it into a parking lot.

Are you eating more sugar? Ice cream, frozen desserts, and cold sodas are great in summer heat, says CNN. Sugar consumption in US households increased by 100 million pounds, spiking as temps neared 86, raising the risk of diabetes, obesity, heart disease. The climate crisis is bad for your health.

Trump wants women out of the work force. How to do it? Incentivize having babies, staying home. Hitler had the Lebensborn project, T’s ‘Manhattan Project for the Nuclear Family’ the same: financial incentives; cultural campaigns; restrict access to abortion, contraception; stigmatize childlessness.

Texas legislators are crazy. Trans people are banned from using ANY public bathroom. First violation: $25,000 fine. 2nd one: $125,000. Texas leaders need somebody to hate – and it’s trans people. There are so few trans people – and they are so feared. We are sorry, saddened, frightened for them.

California and 4 nonprofits are suing Exxon over deception about plastic recycling and pollution. There are now three dozen lawsuits by state and local governments since 2017 against oil companies alleging that the companies covered up what they knew about global warming to protect profits.

The climate TRIPLED HEAT DEATHS IN EUROPE this summer. Global warming was responsible for around 65% of the deaths across 12 cities, including London, Paris, Madrid, Barcelona, and Rome, during 10 days of a “heat dome” from June 23 to July 2. There were 2,300 estimated heat deaths.

Last week a judge blocked the Trump policy that bans the use of an “X” marker used by many nonbinary people on passports as well as changing gender markers to reflect gender identity. The policy was “based on irrational prejudice towards transgender Americans,” violated the Constitution.

Israel is turning #Gaza into a rubble-strewn graveyard. Meanwhile, Trump halted all visas for Palestinians who want to come for medical treatment, university studies, visits to friends or relatives, business travel, and for Palestinian officials to attend the UN General Assembly in NY this month.

14 countries now criminalize ecocide, the wanton and widespread destruction of the environment, and want polluters to pay to mitigate and prevent damage. But Trump wants the EPA to make TAXPAYERS pay for ‘forever chemicals,’ not the polluters. WE didn’t cause the damage, the big oil companies did!

Trump shut down the federal website on climate and fired its staff. Now, experts have a new org and a new site: climate.us, to offer climate-related services and advice to governments. Trump can’t control everything. WE CAN STAND UP and find non-governmental ways to support information and truth.

Trans people are to Trump like Jews were to Hitler: people to vilify, dehumanize, deprive of their civil and human rights. Trans people are 0.6% of the US population. Jews in Germany, 1933: also 0.6% of the population. Autocrats rally people against a vulnerable minority. Stand up against hate.