A war crime is a violation of the laws and habits of war.

The war crimes are defined by international agreements and in particular in the Statut of Rome (59 subparagraphs of article 8), governing competences of the International penal court (CPI), like serious violations of the Geneva Conventions. This includes the cases or one of the parts in conflict is voluntarily caught of them with objectives (as well human as material) not-soldiers. An objective not-soldier includes/understands the civilians, the prisoners of war and the casualties.

In 1945, the Lawsuit of Nuremberg, charged after the Second world war to judge the criminals and organizations Nazis, defined the war crime thus:

Assassination, ill treatments or deportation for forced labors, or any other goal, of the civil populations in the occupied territories, assassination or ill treatments of the prisoners of war or the people at sea, execution of the hostages, plunderings of public or deprived goods, destruction without reason of the cities and the villages, or devastation that do not justify the military requirements.

Although this definition is neither the first, nor the best (it is fuzzy, a posteriori and ad hoc ), it has a considerable importance insofar as it is the last which the United States recognized (which does not recognize the CPI).

International courts

The war crimes have an important significance in the Human rights, because it is a field where the States could be intended to create international courts. There exist, or were some to date, 6:

All these courts are, or, were charged with considering the people responsible for crimes and not the States or the organizations. The legitimacy of some of these courts, in particular CPI, are called in question by certain States or government.

The July 19th 2005, British justice accused three soldiers for war crime, following exactions made on Iraqi prisoners between the 13 and on September 15th, 2003 with Al Basra. It is the first time that a national jurisdiction uses against its own nationals the charge of war crime such as it is defined by CPI. The lawsuit should begin in April 2006, and to be led by a British martial court, the CPI is indeed qualified only in the event of failure or of unwillingness of the States.

Difference between war crime, stratagem and perfidy

There is distinction between war crime and Stratagem.

To shoot at a parachutist other than from an airborne troop, or to attack the enemy whereas one came to present to him with a white flag - or that it presents itself with a white flag - is a war crime. On the other hand the fact that members of the German army covered uniforms combined to give to the convoys false indications (in order to allow the escape of the remainder of their detachment) - operation which had not involved not died of man and was not either to do it - was regarded only as stratagem , as well as the lures placed by the Allies around Dover (several thousands of tanks) to persuade Hitler of the imminence of an unloading in the Pas-de-Calais or which the Bombardement of Abbeville carried out to make accept this scenario.

The right of the armed conflicts does not prohibit the trick or the disappointment. It is licit to seek to induce the enemy in error, for example by using lures which it will unnecessarily tackle or while seeking to make him accept an offensive elsewhere and at another time that to which it will take place really. On the other hand, to shelter wrongfully behind the right of the armed conflicts is described as perfidy and constitutes a war crime. To make accept a rendering to attack then or shelter combatants behind the emblem of the the Red Cross are perfidies.

Examples of war crimes

  • Plus of 200.000 Chinese is exterminated by the Armée imperial Japanese woman at the time of the Massacre with Nankin.

  • a unit S massacred on several occasions prisoners of war and civilians Belgian at the time of the Bataille of the Ardennes (Massacre of Malmedy).

  • RAF carried out three air raids after the first raid on the Cape Arcona and the Thielbek beating each one then a white house, the May 3rd 1945 |date= September 30th, 2007 .

  • In 1945, the general de Gaulle lance and coordinates the army under the command of the Général Duval in a violent repression against the Algerian population with Setif. The French Army, with the support of civil militia which it arms and exerts a repression which will take considerable proportions and will last of the weeks making more thousands with ten thousands of died according to the sources.

  • The October 12th 1953, the Unit 101 of the Israeli army, founded by Ariel Sharon, shaves the Jordanian village of Kibiah (or Qibya), following the Palestinian incursions in Israel. Sixty-nine people (mainly of the women and the children) will be carried out|date= September 30th, 2007 .

DEBATEs on the war crimes

See too

External bonds

  • Official site of the International penal court

  • Official site of the International Court of Justice
  • '' concept of war crimes: historical and political context, legal definition and repression in international law '' of Monique Chemillier-Gendreau (with format pdf)
  • Trial Watch: primarily offer to broad with the public an easy access to the multiple procedures which were held - and are still held - in front of international or national jurisdictions, for crimes known as international (: war crimes or humanity, genocide, torture, crime of aggression).

Simple: War crime

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