These are particularly serious violations of IHL, endangering protected persons and/or objects, or breaching important international values, for which the individual criminal responsibility of perpetrators may be engaged. War crimes can be committed in both international and non-international armed conflicts, although the list of possible war crimes is not identical for both types of conflicts.
The Geneva Conventions and Additional Protocol I establish that certain violations of IHL are to be considered “grave breaches”, and they must be prosecuted by High Contracting Parties on the basis of the principle of universal jurisdiction. Other serious violations of IHL are established by customary international law and by international criminal law treaties. Such serious violations of IHL, together with grave breaches, constitute war crimes.
War crimes constitute one category of “international crimes”, the others being genocide and crimes against humanity.
See Breach, Violations; Individual criminal responsibility; Genocide; Crimes Against Humanity; International Criminal Court; ICTY; ICTR; International criminal law; Individual criminal responsibility;
OUTLINE
LEGAL SOURCE
Penal sanctions required for
GCI, 50 (see ICRC updated Commentary)
GCII, 51 (see ICRC updated Commentary)
Fundamental guarantees for persons accused of war crimes
GCI, 49/4 (see ICRC updated Commentary)
GCII, 50/4 (see ICRC updated Commentary)
CASES
- Australia/Afghanistan, Inquiry into the Conduct of Australian Defence Forces
- The International Criminal Court (Part A., Art. 8)
- Germany, International Criminal Code (Paras. 8-12)
- Canada, Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes Act (Section 4)
- Ghana, National Legislation Concerning the Emblem
- Belgium, Law on Universal Jurisdiction. (A., Art. 136 (c).)
- United States, War Crimes Act
- Hungary, War Crimes Resolution
- United States Military Tribunal at Nuremberg, United States v. Alfried Krupp et al.
- Netherlands, In re Pilz
- Israel, Human Rights Committee’s Report on Beit Hanoun (Paras. 49, 68 and 75)
- Case Study, Armed Conflicts in the former Yugoslavia (17, 27 and 32)
- UN, Statute of the ICTY (Part B. and Part C., Arts 2 and 3)
- ICTY, The Prosecutor v. Tadic (Part A., Paras. 79-84)
- ICTY, The Prosecutor v. Rajic (Part A., Para. 8)
- ICTY, The Prosecutor v. Blaskic (Part A., Paras. 151-158)
- Colombia, Constitutionality of IHL Implementing Legislation
- United States, Military Commissions
- Mali, Destruction of World Cultural Heritage
- Iran, Victim of Cyber warfare
- South Sudan: Medical Care Under Fire
- Health Care in Pakistan’s Tribal Areas
- Switzerland, The Immunity of General Nezzar
- Democratic Republic of Congo, Fighting with the M 23 Group
- Central African Republic, Coup d’Etat
- Somalia, the fate of Children in the conflict
- The armed conflict in Syria
- European Court of Human Rights, Kononov v. Latvia
- Israel/Palestine, Operation Protective Edge (Gaza, 13 June - 26 August 2014)
- ICTY, The Prosecutor v. Radovan Karadzic
- Libya, Report of the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (2014/15)
- Mali, Accountability for the Destruction of Cultural Heritage
- Sweden/Syria, Can Armed Groups Issue Judgments?
- UN, Security Council Resolution 2286 on Attacks on Hospitals
- Iraq, Forced displacement and deliberate destruction
- El Salvador, Supreme Court Judgment on the Unconstitutionality of the Amnesty Law
- USA, Al-Shimari v. CACI Premier Technology, Inc.
- Syria, Report by UN Commission of Inquiry (March 2017)
- Afghanistan, Bombing of a Civilian Truck
- Italy, Use of force against ambulances in Iraq
- Syria, the Battle for Aleppo
- Switzerland: Gold Looting Case
- Israel/Palestine, Accountability for the Use of Lethal Force
- ICC, Confirmation of Charges against LRA Leader
- Colombia Peace Agreement
- Spain, Universal Jurisdiction over Grave Breaches of the Geneva Conventions
- UN/Colombia, Human Rights Committee Clarifications and Concluding Observations (2016)
- International Criminal Court, Trial Judgment in the Case of the Prosecutor V. Jean-Pierre Bemba Gombo
- Iraq, The Battle for Mosul
- Germany, Aerial Drone Attack in Mir Ali/Pakistan
- Eastern Ukraine, Attacks Against and Military Use of Schools
- Eastern Ukraine, OHCHR Report on the Situation: November 2016 - February 2017
- Central African Republic/Democratic Republic of Congo/Uganda, LRA attacks
- Central African Republic, Coup d'Etat
- Iraq, Crimes by Militia Groups
- Georgia: Attacks against peacekeepers
- 32nd International Conference of the Red Cross and Red Crescent, Sexual and gender-based violence: joint action on prevention and response
- South Sudan, Activities of Oil Companies
- Afghanistan and Colombia, Conflict-Related Sexual Violence and Violence Against LGBT+ and Gender-Diverse Persons
- Colombia, Special Jurisdiction for Peace, Extrajudicial Executions in Casanare
- United Kingdom, Unlawful Killings in Afghanistan
- Switzerland, Swiss Federal Criminal Court Finds Liberian Commander Guilty of War Crimes
- Nepal, Torture and Extra-Judicial Killing of a Child in the Context of the Nepalese Conflict
- Colombia, Special Jurisdiction for Peace, Crimes against the Environment in Cauca
BIBLIOGRAPHIC RESOURCES
Suggested readings:
BOTHE Michael, “War Crimes in Non-International Armed Conflicts”, in IYHR, Vol. 24, 1994, pp. 241-252.
BYRON Christine, War Crimes and Crimes against Humanity in the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, Manchester, Manchester University Press, 2009, 285 pp.
DUGARD John, “War Crimes in Internal Conflicts”, in IYHR, Vol. 28, 1996, pp. 91-96.
LA HAYE Eve, War Crimes in Internal Armed Conflicts, Cambridge, CUP, 2008, 424 pp.
STEWART James G., Corporate War Crimes, Prosecuting Pillage of Natural Resources, New York, Open Society Foundations, October 2010, 157 pp.
Further readings:
ANCELLE Juliette, “Les crimes de guerre dans les conflits armés non-internationaux”, in Droit pénal humanitaire, Basel, Helbing Lichtenhaln, 2009, pp. 117-143.
ARNOLD Roberta, “The Development of the Notion of War Crimes in Non-International Conflicts through the Jurisprudence of the UN Ad Hoc Tribunals”, in Humanitäres Völkerrecht, Vol. 3, 2002, pp. 134-142.
DEHN John C., “The Hamdan Case and the Application of a Municipal Offence: the Common Law Origins of ‘Murder in Violation of the Law of War’”, in Journal of International Criminal Justice, Vol. 7, No. 1, 2009, pp. 63-82.
FLORES ACUNA Tathiana, “The Rome Statute’s Sexual Related Crimes: an Appraisal under the Light of International Humanitarian Law”, in Humanitäres Völkerrecht, Vol. 19, No. 1, 2006, pp. 39-51.
GRADITZKY Thomas, “Individual Criminal Responsibility for Violations of International Humanitarian Law Committed in Non-International Conflicts”, in IRRC, No. 322, March 1998, pp. 29-56.
KRESS Claus, “War Crimes Committed in Non-International Armed Conflict and the Emerging System of International Criminal Justice”, in IYHR, Vol. 30, 2000, pp. 103-177.
LAWRENCE Jessica C. & HELLER Kevin Jon, “The First Ecocentric Environmental War Crime: the Limits of Article 8(2)(b)(iv) of the Rome Statute”, in Georgetown International Environmental Law Review, Vol. 20, No. 1, 2007, pp. 61-95.
MEINDERSMA Christa, “Violations of Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions as Violations of the Laws or Customs of War under Article 3 of the Statute of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia”,
in NetherlandsInternational Law Review, Vol. 42/3, 1995, pp. 375-397.
MERON Theodor, “War Crimes in Yugoslavia and the Development of International Law”, in AJIL, Vol. 88/1, 1994, pp. 78-87.
MERON Theodor, “International Criminalization of Internal Atrocities”, in AJIL, Vol. 89/3, 1995, pp. 554-577.
MOMTAZ Djamchid, “War Crimes in Non-International Armed Conflicts under the Statute of the International Criminal Court”, in YIHL, Vol. 2, 1999, pp. 177-192.
MERON Theodor, “War Crimes Law for the Twenty-First Century”, in International Law Studies, US Naval War College, Vol. 71, 1998, pp. 325-335.
ÖBERG Marko Divac, “The Absorption of Grave Breaches into War Crimes Law”, in IRRC, Vol. 91, No. 873, March 2009, pp. 163-183.
PETERSON Ines, “The Natural Environment in Times of Armed Conflict: a Concern for International War Crimes Law?”, in LeidenJournal of International Law, Vol. 22, Issue 2, 2009, pp. 325-343.
ROWE Peter, “Liability for ‘War Crimes’ During a Non-International Armed Conflict”, in RDMDG, Vol. 34, 1995,
pp. 149-168.
SALAHI Reem, “Israel’s War Crimes: a First Hand Account of Israel’s Attacks on Palestinian Civilians and Civilian Infrastructure”, in Rutgers Law Record, Vol. 36, 2009, pp. 201-223.
SPIEKER Heike, “The International Criminal Court and Non-International Armed Conflicts”, in LeidenJournal of International Law, Vol. 13/2, 2000, pp. 395-425.