USA Africa Dialogue Series - Are crimes against children crimes against humanity?

Are crimes against children crimes against humanity?

According to the latest Failed States Index, 6 out of the top 10 and 18 out of the top 25 "most failed states on earth" are found in Africa. This commentary is not about beating the dead hyena of the failed African "state". Nor is it about the failure of statecraft in much of Africa and the ineptitude of lame African governments and regimes to provide their citizens basic and essential services, maintain public safety, control widespread corruption and state-sponsored criminality, mitigate widespread violation of human rights and bridge the ever widening gap between the African haves and have-nots. I am concerned here about the immorality of failed African states and their lost moral compass(ion) to care for their most vulnerable and unquestionably most important members.   

First, what exactly is the African failed state? For many, it is a wistful imitation of what a real state is. The African failed state is to a real state as Coca Cola is to health food. Boycott Coca Cola in Ethiopia!). For the West and its multilateral economic and political institutions, the African failed state is an object of charity, debt peonage and aid bondage.  For Western academics, the African failed state is a case study in "state-cide" and an object of scholarly inquest. For the cynics and critics, it is the object of mockery and caricature. For those who are morally outraged, the African failed state is morally bankrupt institution justly deserving of moral condemnation and censure. For the Fund for Peace and Foreign Policy Magazine who jointly publish the Failed States Index (renamed to Fragile States Index in 2014 to be politically correct), the African failed state has earned very low scores on 12 social, economic and political indicators. Read More

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