War crimes, crimes against humanity, crime of aggression, even genocide, as US President Joe Biden said on Tuesday, April 12, a term whose use divides the international community. More than a month and a half after the start of the war in Ukraine, accusations of abuse are piling up against the Russian army. These incriminations refer to four concepts at the heart of the competences of the International Criminal Court (ICC), which opened an investigation on March 3. These concepts were born in the aftermath of the Second World War, at the same time as the establishment of the International Tribunal of Nuremberg which judged Nazi crimes. To fully understand what these terms cover, franceinfo reviews their definitions.
War crime
War crimes are defined as serious violations of international law, committed against civilians or combatants, during an armed conflict, according to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. Intentional homicide, torture, inhuman treatment, destruction and appropriation of property, illegal detention, deportation, hostage taking… The numerous offenses constituting war crimes take up more than five pages in article 8 of the Rome Statutethe treaty that created the International Criminal Court in 1998.
“All indiscriminate attacks against civilian populations, which must be protected, are war crimes”summarizes the lawyer Clémence Bectarte, who represents the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and the French coalition at the ICC. “Civilian properties, such as schools or hospitals, should not be attacked or bombed. As well as deliberately starving civilians, failing to send aid or forcing the population to flee: these tend to be war crimes.”she adds.
The use of generally prohibited gases or weapons which may cause “unnecessary suffering” Where “hit indiscriminately” as cluster bombs is also considered a war crime. In times of war, the fate of prisoners is also scrutinized. They “must be treated well”, after Clémence Bectarte. Otherwise, it may be a war crime.
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Crime against humanity
This crime is defined as “murder, extermination, enslavement, deportation and any other inhumane act committed against any civilian population, before or during war, or persecution on racial or religious grounds”, according to article 6 of the statutes of the International Tribunal of Nuremberg. This concept was later codified in Article 7 of the Rome Statute.
“Crimes against humanity are crimes committed as part of a systematic or widespread attack against a civilian population.”
Clémence Bectarte, lawyerat franceinfo
The lawyer gives an example “rape or acts of torture”or murder, extermination, persecution and any other inhumane acts, provided they are “carried out as part of an attack”. “To talk about crimes against humanity, you need a series of criminal acts. Crimes against humanity are defined as a kind of plan, or policy, which consists in attacking civilian populations”explains the lawyer.
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Genocide
The term genocide was used, from a legal point of view, for the first time, during the Nuremberg trials to designate the extermination of the Jews. Then the crime of genocide was created in 1948, by a UN convention, and its definition has not changed since. It designates certain acts (mainly murders) committed in “the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group”.
This narrow definition therefore excludes many scenarios. “A genocide cannot target a political or cultural group”explains Yann Jurovics, lecturer in public law at the University of Paris-Saclay, who collaborated with the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) and that for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY). Furthermore, it is necessary to prove “a policy which aims to destroy the group as such, simply because it exists”. The genocides whose recognition makes consensus can be counted on the fingers of one hand, he recalls.
“The simple test, to determine if it is a genocide, is to ask oneself if the victim has a choice. A Tutsi, for example, could not choose not to be Tutsi anymore.”
Yann Jurovics, professor of public lawat franceinfo
Thus, according to him, the crime of genocide does not correspond to the Ukrainian context, because the Russian discourse does not aim “a biological group”but supporters of a political idea (whether real or not).
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Crime of aggression
It is the most recent of the four crimes on which the International Penal Court can investigate – the 123 member countries of the jurisdiction have added it to its competences andn December 2017. The crime of aggression amounts to recognizing the attack on the sovereignty of one country by another. That is to say “the planning, preparation, initiation or execution by a person effectively in a position to control or direct the political or military action of a State, of an act of aggression” which violates the United Nations Charter.
The crime of aggression punishes “the crossing of an international border by a state in a military way. This is what happened. It is not even denied by the Russian government”, comments on franceinfo Jean-Maurice Ripert, vice-president of the French Association for the United Nations and former French ambassador to Russia. With regard to the conflict triggered by Vladimir Putin, “the aggression seems constituted”abounds Rachel Lindon, lawyer at the ICC, questioned on France Inter, the aggression being “obviously to have entered Ukraine”.