Crimes against humanity are specific actions deliberately committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack or individual attack directed against any civilian or identifiable part of the civilian population. The first prosecution for crimes against humanity took place at the Nuremberg court. Crimes against humanity have since been prosecuted by other international courts (eg, International Tribunals and International Criminal Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and International Criminal Tribunals) as well as in domestic prosecutions. The law of crimes against humanity is primarily developed through the evolution of customary international law. Crimes against humanity are not codified in international conventions, although at present there are international efforts to make such agreements, led by the Crimes Against Humanity Initiative.
Unlike war crimes, crimes against humanity can be committed during peace or war. They are not isolated or sporadic events, but are part of government policy (although the perpetrators do not need to identify themselves with this policy) or from widespread cruel practices that are tolerated or condoned by government or de facto authorities. War crimes, murder, massacres, dehumanization, genocide, ethnic cleansing, deportation, unethical human experimentation, extrajudicial executions including execution, weapons of mass destruction, state terrorism or terrorism sponsors, death squads, children's military use, unjust imprisonment, slavery, cannibalism, torture, rape, political oppression, racial discrimination, religious persecution and other human rights violations can reach the brink of crime against humanity if they are part of widespread or systematic practice.
Video Crimes against humanity
History of the term
The term "crime against humanity" is potentially ambiguous because of the ambiguity of the word "humanity", which can mean human (all human collectively) or humanity. The history of the term suggests that the latter sense is intended.
Abolition of slave trade
There were several bilateral agreements in 1814 that marked the multilateral treaty of the Vienna Congress's Annual Accord (1815) which used words that expressed the condemnation of slave trade using moral language. For example, the Paris Treaty (1814) between England and France includes the word "natural justice principle"; and the states of England and the United States declared in the Treaty of Ghent (1814) that the slave trade violates the "principles of humanity and justice".
The Multilateral Declaration of Power, on the Elimination of the Slave Trade, February 8, 1815 (Also forming ACT No. XV, of the Vienna Congress's final deed of the same year) is included in the first sentence of the concept of "the principle of humanity and morality universal "as a justification for ending a" disgusting trade in its continuation ".
First use
The term "crimes against humanity" was used by George Washington Williams in a pamphlet published in 1890 to describe Leopold II practices of the Belgian administration in the Congolese Free State. Under the treaty law, this term originated from the Second Hague Convention of 1899 opening and expanded in the Fourth Hague Convention of 1907 and its respective regulations, which relate to the codification of the new rules of international humanitarian law. The opening of these two conventions refers to "the law of humanity" as the expression of the articulated humanist values. This term is part of what is known as the Martens Clause.
On May 24, 1915, the Allied Bloc, Britain, France and Russia, jointly issued a statement that explicitly demanded for the first time that other governments commit "crimes against humanity". An excerpt from this joint statement reads:
Given the new crimes of the Ottoman Empire against humanity and civilization, the Allied Government announced publicly to Porte Sublim that they would be personally responsible for the crimes of all members of the Ottoman Empire, as well as those of their agents who were involved in such massacres.
At the end of the war, an international war crimes commission recommended the establishment of a court to try "violations of humanitarian law". However, the US representative objected to the reference to "humanitarian law" as inappropriate and not sufficiently developed at that time and the concept was not pursued.
Nuremberg Trial
In the aftermath of World War II, the London Charter of the International Military Tribunal was a decree establishing the laws and procedures by which post-war Nuremberg trials should be carried out. The designers of this document are faced with the problem of how to respond to the Holocaust and the serious crimes committed by the Nazi regime. The traditional understanding of war crimes does not provide a provision for crimes committed by force on its own citizens. Therefore, Article 6 of the Charter is designed to include not only traditional war crimes and crimes against peace, but also Crimes Against Humanity, defined as
Murder, extermination, slavery, deportation and other inhumane acts committed against any civilian population, before or during the war, or persecution on a political, racial or religious basis in practice or in connection with any crime within the Tribunal jurisdiction, whether or not violates the domestic law of the country where it is conducted.
This definition is well known in its conquest of two other categories of offenses defined in Article 6 of the Charter. The limitations of jurisdiction are explained by the American deputy head of the London Conference, Robert H. Jackson, who points out that "it has become a general principle of antiquity that the internal affairs of other governments are usually not our concerns". Thus, it is "justifiable that we interfere with or attempt to bring a levy to individuals or to a country simply because of concentration camps and deportations in pursuit of general or company plans to create an unfair war". In the International Military Tribunal for the Trial Crimes Trial of Germany declared:
Therefore, the Court can not make a general declaration that actions before 1939 were a crime against humanity in the Charter sense, but since the beginning of the war of 1939 war crimes were committed on a large scale, also crimes against humanity; and as far as the inhumane acts alleged in the Indictment, and done after the beginning of the war, is not a war crime, they are all committed in the execution, or in connection with, an aggressive war, and therefore a crime against humanity.
Tokyo Courts
The International Military Tribunal for the Far East (IMTFE), also known as the Tokyo Court, was held to try the Imperial Japanese leaders for three types of crimes: "Class A" (crimes against peace), "Class B" (War Crimes), and "Class C "(crimes against humanity), committed during the Second World War.
The legal basis for the trial was established by the Charter of the International Military Tribunal for the Far East (CIMTFE) proclaimed on January 19, 1946. The trial was held on 3 May 1946, and was postponed on 12 November 1948.
In the Tokyo Court, Crimes against Humanity (Class C) is not applied to suspects. Prosecution related Nanking Massacre is categorized as a violation of the Law of War.
Allegations of war crimes against more junior personnel are dealt with separately, in other cities throughout Far East Asia, such as the Nanjing War Crimes Court and the Khabarovsk War Crimes Tribunal.
A panel of eleven judges presides over IMTFE, each of the winning Allied powers (the United States, the Republic of China, the Soviet Union, Britain, the Netherlands, the Provisional Government of the Republic of France, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Great Britain India and the Philippines).
Maps Crimes against humanity
Type of crime against humanity
The various types of crimes that may constitute crimes against humanity differ between definitions both internationally and domestically. Isolating inhumane acts of a certain nature committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack may even be a serious violation of human rights, or - depending on the circumstances - war crimes, but not classified as a crime against humanity.
Apartheid
The systematic persecution of one racial group by another, as it happened during the South African apartheid government, was recognized as a crime against humanity by the United Nations General Assembly in 1976. The Charter of the United Nations (Art 13, 14, 15) makes the advisory action of the General Assembly to the Security Council. With regard to apartheid in particular, the UN General Assembly has not made any findings, and no court relating to apartheid for crimes against humanity has been committed.
Rape and sexual violence
Neither Nuremberg nor Tokyo Charters does not contain explicit provisions that recognize sex and gender-based crimes as war crimes or crimes against humanity, even though the Control Council Law no. 10 recognize rape as a crime against humanity. The Statute of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda both includes rape as a crime against humanity. The ICC is the first international instrument expressly to include various forms of gender-based sexual crimes - including rape, sexual slavery, forced prostitution, forced pregnancy, forced sterilization, and other forms of sexual violence - as an underlying crime. crimes against humanity and war committed in international and/or non-international armed conflict. For example, the events of Khojaly and Khatyn can be shown that the world is very cursed. International agencies are asking for ransom to avoid such incidents. There were hundreds of massacres, thousands of prisoners and wounded in these incidents.
In 2008, the UN Security Council adopted resolution 1820, noting that "rape and other forms of sexual violence may constitute war crimes, crimes against humanity or constitutive acts concerning genocide".
The legal status of crimes against humanity in international law
Unlike genocide and war crimes, which have been widely recognized and prohibited in international criminal law since the establishment of Nuremberg principles, there has never been a comprehensive convention on crimes against humanity, although such crimes are perpetually perpetrated all over the world in conflicts and crises.. There are eleven international texts that define crimes against humanity, but they differ slightly from their definition of the crime and its legal elements.
In 2008, the Crimes Against Humanity Initiative was launched by Professor Leila Nadya Sadat at the Whitney R. Harris World Law Institute to address this gap in international law. This initiative is the first joint effort to address the existing gaps in international criminal law by naming a comprehensive international convention on crimes against humanity.
On 30 July 2013, the UN International Law Commission elected to include the crime against humanity topic in its long-term work program. In July 2014, the Commission transferred this topic to its active work program largely based on reports submitted by Sean D. Murphy. Professor Sean D. Murphy, Member of the United States at the United Nations International Law Commission, has been appointed as Special Rapporteur on Crimes Against Humanity. Sean D. Murphy attended the 2008 Expert Summit held by the Crime Against Humanity Initiative prior to this appointment.
There is some debate over what the status of crimes against humanity under international customary law. M. Cherif Bassiouni argues that crimes against humanity are part of juog cogens and thus constitute an irrevocable rule of international law.
The United Nations
The United Nations is primarily responsible for prosecuting crimes against humanity since it was hired in 1948.
After Nuremberg, there was no international tribunal with jurisdiction over crimes against humanity for nearly 50 years. However, work continues to develop the definition of crimes against humanity at the United Nations. In 1947, the International Law Commission was indicted by the General Assembly of the United Nations with the formulation of recognized principles of international law reinforced in the Nuremberg Charter and assessment, and by codifying violations of the peace and security of mankind. Finished fifty years later in 1996, the Draft Code defines crimes against humanity as various inhumane acts, namely, "murder, extermination, torture, slavery, persecution for political, racial, religious or ethnic reasons, institutionalizing discrimination, arbitrary deportation or forcible transfer of population, arbitrary imprisonment, rape, forced prostitution, and other inhumane acts committed systematically or on a large scale and triggered or directed by the Government or by any organization or group. "This definition differs from that used in Nuremberg, where criminal acts were committed "before or during the war", thereby establishing links between crimes against humanity and armed conflict.
A report on the 2008-09 Gaza War by Richard Goldstone accused Palestinian and Israeli troops of possible crimes against humanity. In 2011, Goldstone said that he no longer believed that Israeli troops had targeted civilians or committed crimes against humanity.
On 21 March 2013, at the 22nd session, the United Nations Human Rights Council established a Commission of Inquiry on Human Rights in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK). The Commission is mandated to investigate systematic, widespread and severe human rights abuses in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, with a view to ensuring full accountability, especially for offenses that may constitute crimes against humanity. The Commission deals with matters relating to crimes against humanity under definitions established by international criminal law and in the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. The 2014 report by the commission finds "the body of testimony and other information it receives establishes that crimes against humanity have been committed in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, in accordance with the policy set at the highest level of the State... Crimes against humanity require extermination, murder, slavery, imprisonment, forced abortion and other sexual violence, political, religious, racial and gender persecution, forced displacement of the population, enforced disappearance of persons and inhumane acts that consciously lead to prolonged famine The Commission further discovers that crimes against humanity is underway in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea because the policies, institutions and patterns of impunity that are in their hearts remain in place. "Moreover, the commission found that crimes against humanity were committed against starving populations, especially during the 1990s, dilak not against people from other countries who are systematically abducted or repudiated, to obtain labor and other skills for the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
Security Board
UN Security Council Resolution 1674, adopted by the UN Security Council on 28 April 2006, "reaffirms the provisions of paragraphs 138 and 139 of the 2005 World Summit Result Document on the responsibility to protect populations from genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity ". The resolution makes the Council act to protect civilians in armed conflict.
In 2008, the UN Security Council adopted resolution 1820, noting that "rape and other forms of sexual violence may constitute war crimes, crimes against humanity or constitutive acts concerning genocide".
International court and criminal court
After Nuremberg and Tokyo trials from 1945 to 1946, the next international tribunal with jurisdiction over crimes against humanity was not established for five decades. In response to the atrocities committed in the 1990s, some ad hoc courts were established with jurisdiction over crimes against humanity. The Statutes of the International Criminal Court, the International Criminal Tribunals for the Former Yugolavia and Rwanda each contain different definitions of crimes against humanity.
International Criminal Tribunal for Yugoslavia
In 1993, the UN Security Council established the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), with jurisdiction to investigate and prosecute three international crimes committed in the former Yugoslavia: genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity. Article 5 of the Statute of ICTY states that
The International Tribunal will have the power to bring to justice those responsible for the following crimes when committed in armed conflicts, both international and internal, and directed against any civilian population:
- (a) murder;
- (b) destruction;
- (c) slavery;
- (d) deportation;
- (e) imprisonment;
- (f) torture;
- (g) rape;
- (h) persecution for political, racial and religious reasons;
- (i) other inhumane acts. "
This definition of crimes against humanity revives the original 'Nuremberg' nexus with armed conflict, linking crimes against humanity to international and non-international armed conflicts. It also expands the list of criminal acts used in Nuremberg to include imprisonment, torture and rape. Cherif Bassiouni argues that this definition is necessary because the conflict in the former Yugoslavia is regarded as a conflict both international and non-international. Therefore, the definition of a customized crime against humanity is required to provide the jurisdiction of the court for this crime.
International Criminal Court for Rwanda
The UN Security Council established the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda in 1994 following the Rwandan Genocide. Under the ICTR Statute, the relationship between crimes against humanity and any armed conflict is imposed. Instead, the requirement is added that inhumane acts must be part of "systematic or widespread attacks against any civilian population on a national, political, ethnic, racial or religious basis." In contrast to the conflict in the former Yugoslavia, the conflict in Rwanda is considered non-international, so crimes against humanity are unlikely to apply if armed conflicts are maintained.
Special Court for Sierra Leone
Extraordinary_Chambers_in_the_Courts_of_Cambodia_.28ECCC.29 "> Extraordinary Chambers in Cambodian Court (ECCC)
International Criminal Court
In 2002, the International Criminal Court (ICC) was established in The Hague (The Netherlands) and the Rome Statute arranged for the ICC to have jurisdiction over genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes. The definition of what constitutes "crimes against humanity" for the ICC process has significantly expanded from its original legal definition or used by the United Nations. In essence, the Rome Statute uses the same definition of crimes against humanity that the ICTR Statute does, minus the requirement that it be committed 'on a national, political, ethnic, racial or religious basis'. In addition, the Statute of Rome definition offers the most extensive list of certain criminal acts that may constitute crimes against humanity to date.
Article 7 of the treaty states that:
For the purposes of this Statute, "crimes against humanity" means the following acts when committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack directed against any civilian population, with knowledge of the attack:
- (a) Murder;
- (b) Extermination;
- (c) Slavery;
- (d) Deportation or forcible transfer of population;
- (e) Prisons or other severe deprivation of physical liberties in violation of the fundamental rules of international law;
- (f) Torture;
- (g) Rape, sexual slavery, forced prostitution, forced pregnancy, forced sterilization, or other forms of sexual violence with comparable gravity;
- (h) Persecution of an identifiable group or collectivity on the political, racial, national, ethnic, cultural, religious, gender as defined in paragraph 3, or any other reason universally acknowledged as being not permitted under international law, act as referred to in this paragraph or any crime in the jurisdiction of the Court;
- (i) Forcible disappearance of persons;
- (j) The crime of apartheid;
- (k) Other inhumane acts of a similar character that intentionally cause great suffering, or serious injury to the body or mental or physical health;
Statute of Explanation The Rome Statute states that crimes against humanity
is a very naive offense because it is a serious attack on human dignity or the great humiliation or degradation of one or more human beings. They are not isolated or sporadic events, but are part of government policy (although the perpetrators do not need to identify themselves with this policy) or from widespread cruel practices that are tolerated or condoned by government or de facto authorities. However, murder, extermination, torture, rape, political, racial or religious persecution and other inhumane acts reach the threshold of crimes against humanity only if they are part of widespread or systematic practice. Isolating the inhumane acts of this nature may be a gross violation of human rights, or dependent on circumstances, war crimes, but may fail to level the stigma attached to the category of crime under discussion. On the other hand, a person may be guilty of a crime against humanity even if he commits one or two of the above-mentioned offenses, or engages in a single offense against only a few civilians, provided the offense is part of a consistent behavior pattern by some (for example, because they are involved in armed action on the same side or because they are parties to the general plan or for the same reason.) As a result, when one or more individuals are not accused of planning or implementing inhumane policies, commit certain atrocities or cruel acts, to determine whether the required threshold is fulfilled. One should use the following test: one should look at this cruelty or act in its context and verify whether they can be considered part of the overall policy or consistent pattern of non- or whether they are cruel and isolated or sporadic crimes.
To fall under the Rome Statute, the crimes against humanity defined in Article 7.1 shall be "part of a widespread or systematic attack directed against any civilian population". Article 7.2.a states "For the purpose of paragraph 1:" Attacks directed against any civilian population means a behavioral program involving some of the action commissions referred to in paragraph 1 to the civilian population, in accordance with or in the progress of a State or the organization's policy to carry out such attacks that. "This means that individual crimes themselves, or even some such crimes, will not fall under the Rome Statute unless they are the result of State policy or organizational policy, as confirmed by Luis Moreno Ocampo in an open letter publicizing his conclusions about allegations of crime which was carried out during the invasion of Iraq in March 2003 which may fall under the ICC In the section entitled "The Accusation of Genocide and Crimes Against Humanity" he stated that "the available information does not provide a reasonable indicator of the elements necessary for crimes against humanity, "ie 'widespread or systematic attacks directed against every civilian.' pulasi '".
The ICC can only prosecute crimes against humanity in situations where it has jurisdiction. The ICC has only jurisdiction over the crimes contained in its laws - genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity - which have been committed in the territory of a party to the Rome Statute, when a non-party state refers to the situation in the country for a trial or when the UN Security Council refer the case to the ICC. In 2005 the UN referred to the situation of the ICC in Darfur. The referral generated an indictment to Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir for genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes in 2008. When the ICC President reported to the United Nations his progress in handling crimes against humanity, Judge Phillipe Kirsch said: "The courts have no power to arrest these people, it is the responsibility of the state and other actors, without arrest, there will be no trial.
European Council
The Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe on 30 April 2002 issued a recommendation to member states, on the protection of women against violence. In the "Additional actions on violence in conflict and post-conflict situations", state in paragraph 69 that member states should: "punish rape, sexual slavery, forced pregnancy, enforced sterilization or other forms of sexual violence from comparable gravity as a violation intolerable human rights, as crimes against humanity and, when committed in the context of armed conflict, as war crimes; "
In Memorandum A description of this recommendation when considering paragraph 69:
Reference should be made to the Statute of International Criminal Tribunal adopted in Rome in July 1998. Article 7 of the Statute defines rape, sexual slavery, forced prostitution, forced pregnancy, forced sterilization or other forms of comparable gravity sexual violence, such as crimes against humanity. Furthermore, Article 8 of the Statute defines rape, sexual slavery, forced prostitution, forced pregnancy, forced sterilization or other forms of sexual violence as serious violations of the Geneva Conventions and as war crimes.
The Holodomor has been recognized as a crime against humanity by the European Parliament.
See also
- The Charter of the United Nations
- Crimes against humanity under the communist regime
- Crimes Against Humanity Initiative
- Historical revisionism (negasionism)
- Honor killing
- Human Rights
- The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights
- Mass Cruelty Crime
- Vienna Declaration and Action Program
- War crime
References
Further reading
- Christopher R. Browning, "Two Different Ways in Seeking Nazi Killing" (Philippe Sands review, East West Street: About the Origins of "Genocide" and "Crimes Against Humanity" , Knopf, 425 pp., $ 32.50, and Christian Gerlach, Extermination of European Jews , Cambridge University Press, 508 pp., $ 29.99 [paper]), The New York Review Books , vol. LXIII, no. 18 (November 24, 2016), p. 56-58. Discusses Hersch Lauterpacht's legal concept of "crimes against humanity", in contrast to Rafael Lemkin's legal concept of "genocide". All genocide is a crime against humanity, but not all crimes against humanity are genocide; genocide requires a higher standard of proof, because they require intentions to destroy certain groups.
- Macleod, Christopher (2010). "Going to the Philosophical Account of Crimes Against Humanity". European Journal of International Law . 21 (2): 281-302. doi: 10.1093/ejil/chq031.
- Sadat, Leila Nadya (2013). "Crimes Against Humanity in Modern Times" (PDF) . American Journal of International Law . 107 (2): 334-377. doi: 10.5305/amerjintelaw.107.2.0334 . Retrieved December 11 2013 .
- Schabas, William A. (2000). Genocide in International Law: Crime Crime . New York: Cambridge University Press. ISBN: 0-521-78262-7.
External links
- The War Crimes Project
- The Rules of Law in the Armed Conflict Project
- What is Crimes Against Humanity? - online video
- Genocide & amp; Crimes Against Humanity - learning resources, highlighting Myanmar, Bosnia, Congo, and Darfur cases
- Crimes Against Humanity - Bibliography on the topic of the International Law Commission & amp; International Law Seminar (UNOG Library)
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