Atrocity Crimes
Holding Individuals Accountable
for War Crimes, Crimes Against
Humanity and Genocide
1
Introduction
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•
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•
Genocide
Crimes against Humanity
War Crimes
Aggression
2
Defining Atrocity Crimes:
Sources of Law
•
•
•
•
Treaties
Customary International Law
United Nations Security Council
Domestic Law and General Principles
of Law
• Jurisprudence
3
Defining Atrocity Crimes:
Legality and Elements
• Principle of Legality
– Limit on individual criminal liability
– Specific, unambiguous, not retroactive, no
application by analogy
• Elements of Crimes
– act or omission
– intent or knowledge
4
Defining Atrocity Crimes:
Distinct Bodies of Law
• International Human Rights Law
– State’s obligation towards persons within
territory
– At all times unless superseded by other
int’l law
• International Human Rights Law
– Individual’s obligation towards protected
persons and protected property
– During times of armed conflict
– Also known as “Laws of War”, “Law of
Armed Conflict”
5
War Crimes
• Crimes committed:
– in violation of
international
humanitarian law
– during armed conflict
• “Hague” law
– Means and methods of
warfare
• “Geneva” law
– Protection of persons
Displaced
child,
Chechnya,
Russia
6
International and Internal
Armed Conflict
• International armed conflict
– Grave breaches of 1949 Geneva
conventions
– Other serious violations of laws and
customs
•
Internal armed conflict
– Serious violations of Common Article 3
– Other serious violations of laws and
customs
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General Principles of War Crimes
• Perpetrator: Any person
• Distinguishing
international from internal
armed conflict
• Mental element
– Intent or knowledge
– Serious criminal negligence
Hermann Goering
• Nazi commander in WW II, close advisor to Hitler
• Convicted of war crimes
• Sentenced to death, committed suicide
• Nuremburg Tribunal, 1946
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Grave Breaches: War Crimes
•
•
•
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Willful killing
Torture or inhuman
treatment
Willfully causing great
suffering or serious
injury to body or
health
Taking of hostages
Extensive destruction
and appropriation of
property, not justified
by military necessity
•
•
•
Compelling
service in the
forces of a hostile
power
Willful deprivation
of the right to a
fair and regular
trial
Unlawful
deportation,
transfer, or
confinement
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Other Serious Violations of
International Humanitarian Law
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•
•
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Intentionally directing attacks against civilian
population
Intentionally directing attacks against civilian
objects which are not military objectives
Killing or wounding a combatant who, having
laid down his arms, has surrendered
Committing outraged upon personal dignity,
in particular humiliating and degrading
treatment
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Other Serious Violations of
International Humanitarian Law
(continued)
•
•
Conscripting or enlisting children under the
age of 15 years, or using them to participate
actively in hostilities
Other violations of humanitarian law
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Serious Violations of
Common Article 3
•
•
•
•
Violence to life and person, in particular
murder, mutilation, cruel treatment, and
torture
Committing outrages upon personal dignity,
in particular humiliating and degrading
treatment
Taking of hostages
The passing of sentences and carrying out of
executions without previous judgment
pronounced by a regularly constituted court
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Other Serious Violations
of Internal Armed Conflict
Very similar to serious
violations of laws and
customs in
international armed
conflicts
Idi Amin
• Dictator of Uganda when government
killed as many as 400,000 civilians, 1971-1979
• Died 2003 while in exile in Saudi Arabia,
evading prosecution for his conduct in Uganda
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Crimes Against Humanity
•
•
Does not have to be part of
armed conflict
Actual or constructive
knowledge that act is
committed as part of a
widespread or systematic
attack on civilian population
with knowledge of the attack
Slobodan Milesovic
• Serbian then Yugoslavian president, 1989-2000,
during wars in Croatia, Bosnia, and Kosovo
•Tried for genocide in Bosnia, other atrocities in Croatia and Kosovo
• International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia,
• Died in his jail cell, 2006.
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Crimes Against Humanity
(continued)
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Murder
Extermination
Enslavement
Deportation or
forcible transfer
of population
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Imprisonment or other
unlawful severe
deprivation of physical
liberty
Torture
Rape, sexual slavery,
enforced prostitution,
forced pregnancy,
enforced sterilization, or
other forms of severe
sexual violence
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Crimes Against Humanity
(continued)
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•
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Persecution against any identifiable
group or collectively on political,
racial, national, ethnic, cultural,
religious, gender, or other
impermissible grounds
Enforced disappearance of persons
Apartheid
Other inhumane acts of a similar
character causing great suffering, or
serious injury to body or to mental or
physical health
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Genocide
Specific intent crime
• Accused must
intend to destroy, in
whole or part, a
listed group
or…
• Accused must have
clear knowledge he
was participating in
genocide
Unearthing bodies in Iraq
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Genocide
(continued)
Any of the following acts committed with intent
to destroy, in whole or part, a national, ethnical,
racial, or religious group, as such:
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•
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Killing members of the group
Causing serious bodily or mental harm to
members of the group
Deliberately inflicting on the group
conditions of life calculated to bring about
its physical destruction in whole or in part
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Genocide
(continued)
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•
Imposing measures
intended to prevent
births within the
group
Forcibly transferring
children of the
group to another
group
Genocide site, Rwanda
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Aggression
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•
The Rome Statute of
the International
Criminal Court
included aggression
as an atrocity crime
The Kampala
Conference, 2010
passed an
amendment defining
aggression
The International Criminal Court
at The Hague
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Jean-Paul Akayesu
• Mayor of Taba township in Rwanda during 1994 genocide
• Convicted of genocide and crimes against humanity, first-ever
conviction for genocide, life sentence
• International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, 1998
Pol Pot
• Led Khmer Rouge government in Cambodia that
killed an estimated 2 million civilians, 1975-1979
• Died 1998 of old age,
evading prosecution for his role in genocide
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Other International Crimes
• Direct and public incitement of
genocide
• Torture
• Piracy
• Slavery
• International drug trafficking
• International terrorism
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Defenses to Atrocity Crimes
• Military necessity – NO
• Mistake of fact – Maybe, possible
mitigation
• Mistake of law – NO
• Duress – Maybe, possible mitigation
• Reprisal – NO
• Superior orders – Maybe, possible
mitigation
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Command Responsibility
• Criminal responsibility for conduct of
subordinates
• Knowledge
– Ordered or knowingly permitted conduct
– Knew or should have known of conduct
• Act or omission
– Had capability to prevent
– Failed to prevent
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Enforcement
Domestic Enforcement
• State obligation
– Holds individuals
accountable under
domestic law
– State must be willing
and able
– What about use of
non-judicial means?
ICTY courtroom, The Hague
• Jurisdiction
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Enforcement
(continued)
• International tribunals formed for
a particular purpose
– United Nations Security Council
authority
– Limited in scope, jurisdiction, time
– International Criminal Tribunal for the
Former Yugoslavia
– International Criminal Tribunal for
Rwanda
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Enforcement
(continued)
• The International Criminal
Court
–
–
–
–
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First permanent international
criminal court
Atrocity crimes, Investigation
Complementarity, Admissibility
Penalties
Situations: Uganda, the
Democratic Republic of the
Congo, the Central African
Republic, Sudan, and Kenya.
The ICC Logo
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Enforcement
(continued)
Hybrid Tribunals
• International assistance to domestic
courts
– Training
– Judges and other personnel
– Oversight
• Apply domestic and international law
– Sierra Leone
– Kosovo
– Cambodia
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International Cooperation
•
Treaty obligations
– State to state
– International organizations
• Investigations
• Extradition and other
rendition
Augusto Pinochet
• Dictator of Chile when government killed, tortured,
and abducted civilians, 1979-1990
• Accused of torture and other crimes
by Spanish and Chilean judges
• Landmark United Kingdom extradition case, 1999-2000
• Chilean court dismissed charges due to his
poor health and mental competence, 2002; died, 2006
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Alternatives to Criminal Trials
• Truth and reconciliation
• Alternatives to punishment
• Reparation
• Amnesty
A destroyed village in Sudan
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Summary and Conclusion
• International crime is limited but
becoming increasingly well-defined
• The international community is expanding
ways to hold individuals accountable for
atrocity crimes
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