War crimes
War crimes refer to serious violations of international humanitarian law that occur during armed conflicts, encompassing acts committed against both combatants and civilians. Defined by a framework of humanitarian principles and treaties, these laws aim to mitigate suffering and establish standards for acceptable conduct in warfare. The foundational agreements, such as the Geneva Conventions, outline protections for the wounded, prisoners of war, and civilians, and prohibit actions like torture and indiscriminate violence.
Internationally, both individuals and states can be held accountable for war crimes through courts such as the International Criminal Court (ICC) or special tribunals set up for specific conflicts. Historical precedents include the Nuremberg Trials after World War II, which set significant legal standards for prosecuting war crimes. More recent investigations by the ICC address alleged crimes in ongoing conflicts, such as those in Yemen and Ukraine, highlighting the continuous global effort to enforce these laws.
Oversight of war crimes is maintained by various international and non-governmental organizations, including the International Red Cross, which monitors compliance with humanitarian law. These organizations play a crucial role in documenting violations and advocating for accountability, aiming to protect human rights amidst the devastation of war.
War crimes
SIGNIFICANCE: Since the mid-nineteenth century, the world has moved steadily to impose greater international control over the conduct of war and to call to account individual persons and states that violate human rights.
Wars are, by their nature, international conflicts, and the behaviors that constitute war crimes are largely defined by international humanitarian laws. These laws are made up of humanitarian principles and international treaties aimed at minimizing the suffering of combatants and noncombatants during international or noninternational armed conflicts. They are designed to protect persons and property that are affected by conflicts and to limit the rights of belligerent states to use whatever weapons and methods to forward their interests that they choose.
Taken collectively, these international rules limit the means and extent of permissible violence in armed conflicts. In the modern world, all actors involved in military conflicts are bound by international law. Accordingly, when actors violate these rules, their actions may be deemed war crimes and may be subject to penalties imposed by either domestic or international courts.
International Conventions
In response to the immense human suffering and devastation caused by wars throughout history, international laws of war have been developed to define and regulate acceptable behaviors during wartime. The first attempt to regulate acts during war was made at the Diplomatic Conference of Geneva in 1864. It resulted in the first treaty to establish international humanitarian law, also known as the rules of war: The Geneva Convention for the Amelioration of the Condition of the Wounded in Armies in the Field.
Later conferences extended the laws of war to other categories, including principles for war at sea (Hague Convention of 1899) and for treatment of prisoners including their status (Geneva Conventions of 1907), the Hague Rules of Aerial Warfare of 1923, the Geneva Convention of 1929, and the International Military Tribunals of German War Criminals, which laid down the Nuremberg Principles of 1945. After Nazi war criminals were tried at Nuremberg at the end of World War II, the United Nations took the first step to combine previously established rules of war into four separate conventions. It also added provisions for the protection of civilians during armed combat in the Geneva Conventions of 1949.
The first of the four 1949 Geneva Conventions provided for the care of the wounded and sick combatants to eliminate torture, murder, and biological experiments. The second convention covered wounded, captured, and sick combatants at sea. The third convention covered the humane treatment of prisoners of war, requiring that they be provided with adequate housing, food, clothing, and medical care and not be subjected to torture, medical experiments, acts of violence, or insults and public curiosity. The fourth convention was written to protect civilians. It requires all parties in military conflicts to distinguish between civilians and combatants and direct their operations only against military targets. Under that convention, civilians must be permitted to conduct their lives as normally as possible during wartime and to be protected against murder, pillage, torture, reprisals, indiscriminate harm, indiscriminate destruction of property, and being taken hostage. Combatants must also respect the honor, family rights, and religious freedoms of civilians. Military forces occupying captured territories are required to ensure the safe passage of food and medical supplies and establish safety zones for the wounded, sick, elderly, children, expectant mothers, and mothers of young children. Protocols added to the 1949 and 1977 conventions added more protections guaranteed to civilians in international conflicts and extended protections to civilians in noninternational conflicts, such as civil wars.
In 1998, international humanitarian law was again expanded by the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC). The International Criminal Court utilizes customary law, human rights law, and the Geneva Conventions to define what constitutes war crimes. However, there is no single unified convention or text for the laws of war.
The rules of war constitute a significant body of law aimed at constraining excessive violence and harm during conflicts. The essential body of law that defines war crimes has been expanded throughout history at specific historical contingencies. The rules of war also include two other components for regulating armed conflict behaviors that are crimes against peace and crimes against humanity. Although these crimes include war crimes, they encompass broader principles.
Legal Actions for War Crimes
Individual offenders who violate the rules of war may be criminally charged for “grave breaches” of the Geneva Conventions and their protocols and for other violations of the laws and customs of war. Nation-states can also be charged with war crimes and brought to justice. Charges leveled against one state by another are heard through the International Court of Justice (ICC) at The Hague or through the establishment of a special international military tribunal. Examples of international tribunals include the Nuremberg Trials after World War II, the International Military Tribunals that followed the genocide in Rwanda, and the Former Yugoslavia International Military Tribunals. In 2017, the United Nations Human Rights Council began investigating possible war crimes in the war in Yemen.
During the early 2020s, the ICC also investigated possible war crimes in Ukraine following the Russian invasion of 2022; in March 2023, the ICC issues an arrest warrant for Russian president Vladimir Putin and one of his advisors for war crimes, leading to sharp criticism of the court from the Russian government. The ICC also generated controversy in May 2024 amid the ongoing war in Gaza between Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas when it issued arrest warrants for Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel's prime minister, and Yahya Sinwar, the leader of Hamas, over their actions during the war. Multiple foreign governments and international agencies had accused the Israeli military, under Netanyahu's direction, of carrying out war crimes in Gaza, including widespread killing and displacement of civilians, and Hamas's October 2023 attacks on Israel, which included the killing, kidnapping, and sexual assault of civilians, had been labeled a terrorist attack by many foreign governments and international agencies.
In some cases, countries take it upon themselves to create courts and other bodies intended to deal with war crimes; sometimes, international organizations such as the UN assist countries in establishing these domestic courts. For example, in 1997, decades after the communist Khmer Rouge government carried out a genocide in Cambodia, the Cambodian government worked with the UN to organize a tribunal to investigate the crimes of this regime. The Khmer Rouge Tribunal, also known as the Cambodia Tribunal, dissolved in 2022 after convicting several individuals of violations including genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes. In May 2024, the government of Liberia, which had endured two brutal civil wars that killed an estimated 250,000 people between 1989 and 2003, passed a law establishing a war crimes court to investigate and prosecute war crimes carried out during the civil wars.
There are several ways that perpetrators of war crimes can be punished. Individuals accused of such crimes can be tried and punished by the states in which they are citizens. In the United States, offenders can be prosecuted for war crimes under the federal War Crimes Act of 1996. The US Congress enacted this legislation to permit the United States to exercise its sovereignty by prosecuting its own citizens for breaches of international law. In 1997, the Expanded War Crimes Act amended and redefined the circumstances that were necessary for state prosecution and recognition of international law. Trials for war crimes can be conducted in both civilian and military courts.
International Monitoring Organizations
The primary oversight agency of war crimes is the International Red Cross, a nongovernmental humanitarian organization based in Geneva, Switzerland, that is considered the official guardian of international humanitarian law. When the Red Cross detects abuses, it notifies the offending states or organizations. If its notifications fail to bring relief, it publicly announces its grievances. The Red Cross is not empowered to take action itself but acts merely as a guardian.
Other nongovernmental organizations that monitor armed conflicts include Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch. Governmental organizations that may track war crimes include the United Nations Commission for Human Rights and the Coalition for a Criminal Court. These organizations oversee a larger body of international law that includes international human rights and international humanitarian law.
International human rights are principles articulated to help guide the behavior of states toward their own citizenry. Simply stated, human rights are stated expectations of inherent rights all persons should receive as human beings. Nonetheless, these nongovernmental organizations often document and publicly disclose war crime offenses as a component of human rights violations to bring this information to the general public as well as officials of nation-states.
Bibliography
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