Ch.15 - Dealing with gross atrocities

Question 1

What are crimes against humanity?

Answer 1

Crimes against humanity are acts committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack directed against any civilian population, such as murder, deportation, torture and rape. The ICC prosecutes the perpetrators even if the crimes were not committed in times of war.

Question 2

Define Genocide in the 1949 Convention.

Answer 2

Article II
(a) Killing members of the group;
(b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;
(c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;
(d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;
(e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.

Can occur where only one person has been killed
Can only occur where there is an intention to kill persons due to a perceived difference on a specified ground
Is to be prohibited by States within their domestic law

Question 3

State three aspects of the Four Geneva Conventions of 1949 and the two 1977 Additional Protocols.

Answer 3

1. Are reflective of customary international law
2. Represent much of the corpus of International Humanitarian Law
3. Are all very widely ratified

Question 4

What are hybrid ciminal courts?

Answer 4

Courts of mixed composition and jurisdiction, with both national and international aspects.