Protecting the Majority of Humanity: Toward an Integrated Approach to Crimes against Present and Future Generations

In the wake of the World Health Organization’s report showing that violence against women and girls is a global health problem of epidemic proportions, the publication of Riane Eisler’s chapter Protecting the Majority of Humanity: Toward an Integrated Approach to Crimes against Present and Future Generations in the new Cambridge University book Sustainable Development, International Criminal Justice, and Treaty Implementation edited by Sebastien Jodoin and Marie-Claire Cordonier Seggeris both timely and practical. Continuing her work of placing the rights, problems, and aspirations of the majority of humanity — women and children — on the international agenda as integral to a sustainable and just future for all, Eisler proposes that the international legal foundations of the Rome Statute and R2P (Right to Protect) can, and should, be used to end traditions of violence that not only take the lives of millions of women and children but also have very adverse impacts on economic and social health.