War crime
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
"During the early stages of the Iraq War, members of the United States Army and the CIA, under the direct orders of the then Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld, committed a series of human rights violations and war crimes, known as the Abu Ghraib torture and prisoner abuse."--Sholem Stein |
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A war crime is an act that constitutes a serious violation of the laws of war that gives rise to individual criminal responsibility. Examples of crimes include intentionally killing civilians or prisoners, torturing, destroying civilian property, taking hostages, performing a perfidy, raping, using child soldiers, pillaging, declaring that no quarter will be given, and seriously violating the principles of distinction, proportionality, and military necessity.
The concept of war crimes emerged at the turn of the twentieth century when the body of customary international law applicable to warfare between sovereign states was codified. Such codification occurred at the national level, such as with the publication of the Lieber Code in the United States, and at the international level with the adoption of the treaties during the Hague Conventions of 1899 and 1907. Moreover, trials in national courts during this period further helped clarify the law. Following the end of World War II, major developments in the law occurred. Numerous trials of Axis war criminals established the Nuremberg principles, such as the notion that war crimes constituted crimes defined by international law. Additionally, the Geneva Conventions in 1949 defined new war crimes and established that states could exercise universal jurisdiction over such crimes.<ref name="Cassese"/> In the late 20th century and early 21st century, following the creation of several international courts, additional categories of war crimes applicable to armed conflicts other than those between states, such as civil wars, were defined.
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See also
Country listings
- List of war crimes
- 1971 Bangladesh atrocities
- Allied war crimes during World War II
- British war crimes
- German war crimes
- International Military Tribunal for the Far East
- Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant war crimes findings
- Italian war crimes
- Japanese war crimes
- Saudi Arabian-led intervention in Yemen
- Korean War crimes
- Soviet war crimes
- United States Senate Committee on the Philippines
- United States war crimes
Legal issues
- American Service-Members' Protection Act
- Command responsibility
- Law of war
- Rule of Law in Armed Conflicts Project (RULAC)
- Russell Tribunal
- Special Court for Sierra Leone
- The International Criminal Court and the 2003 invasion of Iraq
- War Crimes Law (Belgium)
- War Crimes Act of 1996 – incorporation of War Crimes into United States law
- Universal jurisdiction
Miscellaneous
- Chronicles of Terror
- Civilian internee
- Commando order
- Commissar order
- Crimes against humanity
- Crime against peace
- Crime of aggression
- Doctors' Trial
- Forensic archaeology
- Human shield
- International Criminal Court investigations
- Katyn massacre
- List of denaturalized former citizens of the United States, including those denaturalized for concealing involvement in war crimes to obtain that country's citizenship
- Looting
- Mass Atrocity crimes
- Mass killing
- Military use of children
- Nazi human experimentation
- NKVD prisoner massacres
- No quarter
- Nuremberg Principles
- Perfidy
- Razakars (Pakistan)
- Satellite Sentinel Project
- Srebrenica massacre
- State terrorism
- Terror bombing
- Transitional justice
- Unlawful combatant
- Wartime sexual violence
- Winter Soldier Investigation