International criminal law Flashcards
Origins of International Criminal Law
After WWII, the Allies (mainly the US, UK, France, and USSR) needed to decide how to punish Nazi and Japanese leaders.
US wanted trials to be fair and legal.
UK and USSR wanted more punishment, like executions without trials.
The US pushed for legal trials, and two main tribunals (courts) were set up:
Nuremberg Tribunal (for Nazi leaders)
Tokyo Tribunal (for Japanese leaders)
What Happened at Nuremberg?
The Nuremberg Trials (1945-1946) were held to judge Nazi leaders for crimes they committed during WWII.
The IMT Charter (1945) defined three main crimes:
Crimes Against the Peace: Starting an unjust war (like Nazi Germany invading other countries).
War Crimes: Violating the rules of war, like killing prisoners or attacking civilians without reason.
Crimes Against Humanity: Horrible acts like murder, enslavement, or persecution against civilians based on race, religion, or politics.
Results:
24 Nazi leaders were put on trial.
12 were sentenced to death, 3 were let go, and others got prison sentences.
Crimes Against Humanity
Definition: Crimes like murder, slavery, and persecution against civilians, usually done by government forces or organizations.
When do these crimes happen?
They can happen during a war or in peacetime.
They need to be widespread (affecting many people) or systematic (planned and organized).
Important Point:
Unlike genocide (killing a specific group like the Holocaust), crimes against humanity don’t have to target just one group. They can affect many civilians from different backgrounds.
Eichmann Trial (1961)
Adolf Eichmann was a high-ranking Nazi official responsible for organizing the Holocaust, He was in charge of all things related to the “Final Solution,” which was the Nazi plan to eliminate the Jewish people.
What happened?: After WWII, Eichmann escaped to Argentina, but in 1960, Israeli forces captured him and brought him to Israel to stand trial for his crimes.
What was he charged with?: He was charged with:
Genocide (the killing of Jews and causing harm to them).
Crimes against humanity (the atrocities committed during the Holocaust).
Defense: Eichmann tried to argue that he was just following orders, but the court decided he was not only following orders—he believed in the Nazi cause and was a key player in the genocide.
Outcome: Eichmann was convicted and executed by hanging in 1962.
nternational Criminal Tribunal for Yugoslavia (ICTY) - 1993
Why was the ICTY created?:
In the 1990s, there was a horrible war in the former Yugoslavia (a country in Europe) where people were targeted based on their ethnicity. Thousands of innocent people, especially Bosnian Muslims, were killed, and there were acts of ethnic cleansing (forcing people out of their homes and killing them).
What happened?: The UN decided to create a special court, the International Criminal Tribunal for Yugoslavia (ICTY), to hold people responsible for the terrible crimes committed during the war.
The ICTY was set up to punish those responsible for war crimes like genocide, killing civilians, and ethnic cleansing.
Mladic and Milosevic
Ratko Mladić: Mladić was a commander in the Bosnian Serb Army.
He was found guilty of genocide (killing large numbers of Bosnian Muslims), war crimes, and crimes against humanity. He was sentenced to life in prison in 2017.
Slobodan Milošević: Milošević was the president of Serbia and accused of being responsible for starting the war and crimes like genocide. He faced 66 counts for genocide and crimes against humanity. However, he died in his prison cell in 2006 before the court could reach a verdict, and some believed he may have committed suicide to avoid the trial.
Slobodan Praljak
Praljak was the Chief of Staff of the Croatian Defence Council during the Bosnian War. He was accused of failing to stop crimes committed by his army, which included mass killings of Bosnian Muslims.
What happened?: In 2017, after the court convicted him of crimes against humanity and other charges, Praljak dramatically committed suicide in the courtroom during the trial. His case drew a lot of attention because of this shocking act.
Rwanda Genocide (1994)
In 1994, a brutal genocide took place in Rwanda. Around 800,000 people (mostly from the Tutsi ethnic group) were killed by Hutu extremists in just four months. It was one of the fastest genocides in history.
What did the UN do?: After the genocide, the UN set up another court, called the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), to prosecute the people responsible for the killings.
Rwanda genocide 1994 was one of the most brutal and fast genocide in modern history. It is where the Hutus killed almost a million (800,000) Tutsi people in the spam of 100 days, ( April-July) including raping women and then killing them in their home. They would do this by carrying machetes and clubs. This all started when the Hutu president plane was shot down and this made the Hutus suspect that it was the Tutsi. The un took a while to intervene for a couple of reasons.
1. They didn’t realise the seriousness of the situation.
2. Lack of military response. Even after it became clear that mass killings were happening, the international community did not send reinforcements or take decisive action to stop the violence.
3. The un took too long to consider this a genocide, and by the time they labelled it as a genocide, it was too late and it had already been months.
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rosecutor v Akayesu (1998)
Akayesu was the mayor of a town called Taba in Rwanda during the genocide. He was accused of encouraging and organizing the killings and rape of refugees who were hiding from the killers in his town.
What happened?: The court found Akayesu guilty of genocide, crimes against humanity, and other crimes. He was the first person to be convicted of using rape as a form of genocide, which was a huge step in international law.
Outcome: He was sentenced to life in prison. He served his sentence in Mali, a country in Africa.
What is the ICC?
The International Criminal Court is a court that tries individuals for the most serious crimes affecting the international community, like genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity. It was created because of the success of earlier courts like the ICTY and it was established to have a permanent court that could handle such cases.
The Rome Statute is the treaty that created the ICC, and it was adopted in 1998. The ICC became operational in 2002.
The ICC currently has 124 countries that are members (or “parties”). However, some countries like the U.S., Russia, China, and others are either not members or signed but have not fully agreed to join.
What crimes does the ICC handle?
The ICC focuses on the worst crimes that harm people globally. These include:
Genocide: Killing or harming a group of people based on race, religion, or nationality.
Crimes Against Humanity: Large-scale acts like murder, slavery, or torture against civilians.
War Crimes: Violations during wars, like killing civilians or mistreating prisoners of war.
Aggression: A country attacking another country without justification (this was added in 2018, after being debated for a long time).
How does the ICC work?
The ICC only works if certain conditions are met:
Jurisdiction: The court can only handle cases if:
The country where the crime happened agrees to the ICC’s authority.
The country of the person accused agrees to the ICC’s jurisdiction.
The ICC can also investigate cases on its own, but it needs approval from its judges.
Referral Methods: The court can start an investigation in three ways:
By a country that is part of the ICC (a member state).
By the UN Security Council, like in cases involving major conflicts.
By the Prosecutor, the person in charge of bringing cases, acting on their own authority (but only if the judges agree there’s enough evidence)
Aggression (a unique crime)
Aggression is when a country attacks another country without a proper reason. Although it was important at the Nuremberg Trials (after WWII), it wasn’t added to the ICC’s official list of crimes until 2018.
The definition is very specific: it includes actions like planning or directing an illegal attack on another country.
The ICC can only try crimes of aggression between member states of the court (those that signed the agreement), which makes it harder to prosecute certain countries like Russia or the United States if they don’t join.
Can a country leave the ICC?
Yes, a country can choose to leave the ICC. Some countries like Burundi, Philippines, and South Africa have chosen to leave.
But, if a country withdraws, it doesn’t mean it can commit crimes without consequences. The ICC could still investigate crimes that happened while that country was a member.
What is the ICC?
The International Criminal Court (ICC) tries people accused of serious crimes like war crimes and genocide. It’s meant to stop people from getting away with these crimes.
Problems with the ICC:
Few Convictions: The ICC has spent over 1.5 billion Euros and only convicted 5 people.
Focus on Africa: Most of the ICC’s cases are from Africa, which some see as unfair.
No Action on Western Crimes: The ICC hasn’t pursued cases in places like Afghanistan or Iraq.
investigations:
The ICC is looking into 16 cases in total, including Ukraine, Afghanistan, and Venezuela.For Ukraine, the ICC issued arrest warrants for Putin and another Russian official for kidnapping Ukrainian children. But the ICC can’t prosecute Russia for aggression (invading another country) because Russia isn’t a member.
Female Defendants in International Criminal Law
There have been few female defendants in international courts, but some examples include:
Dr. Herta Oberheuser: A Nazi doctor convicted after World War II.
Pauline Nyiramasuhuko: A Rwandan woman sentenced for her role in the 1994 genocide.
Simone Gbagbo: The wife of an ex-president of Ivory Coast, charged with international crimes but later acquitted.
Maria Lvova-Belova: A Russian official accused of organizing the kidnapping of Ukrainian children.
