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Definitions of Atrocity Crimes |
Genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes are legally defined in the Rome Statue of the International Criminal Court. Ethnic cleansing does not have an officially accepted legal definition, though its meaning is also discussed below.
Definition of Genocide
The Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, drafted in 1948, defines the term ‘Genocide.’ Article II of the Convention states:
In the present Convention, genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:
- Killing members of the group;
- Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;
- Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;
- Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;
- Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.
This definition is also used in the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.
Definition of Crimes Against Humanity
The definition of “crimes against humanity” has evolved over the past century, and overlaps to some extent with other atrocity crimes. The International Criminal Court (ICC) defined crimes against humanity for ICC proceedings. Article 7 of the Rome Statute of the ICC reads:
For the purpose of this Statute, ‘crime against humanity’ means any of the following acts when committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack directed against any civilian population, with knowledge of the attack:
- Murder;
- Extermination;
- Enslavement;
- Deportation or forcible transfer of population;
- Imprisonment or other severe deprivation of physical liberty in violation of fundamental rules of international law;
- Torture;
- Rape, sexual slavery, enforced prostitution, forced pregnancy, enforced sterilization, or any other form of sexual violence of comparable gravity;
- Persecution against any identifiable group or collectivity on political, racial, national, ethnic, cultural, religious, gender as defined in paragraph 3, or other grounds that are universally recognized as impermissible under international law, in connection with any act referred to in this paragraph or any crime within the jurisdiction of the Court;
- Enforced disappearance of persons;
- The crime of apartheid;
- Other inhumane acts of a similar character intentionally causing great suffering, or serious injury to body or to mental or physical health.
Definition of War Crimes
War crimes are defined in the statute that established the International Criminal Court. They include: - Grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions, such as:
- Willful killing, or causing great suffering or serious injury to body or health
- Torture or inhumane treatment
- Unlawful wanton destruction or appropriation of property
- Forcing a prisoner of war to serve in the forces of a hostile power
- Depriving a prisoner of war of a fair trial
- Unlawful deportation, confinement or transfer
- Taking hostages
- The following acts as part of an international conflict:
- Directing attacks against civilians
- Directing attacks against humanitarian workers or UN peacekeepers
- Killing a surrendered combatant
- Misusing a flag of truce
- Settlement of occupied territory
- Deportation of inhabitants of occupied territory
- Using poison weapons
- Using civilians as shields
- Using child soldiers
- The following acts as part of a non-international conflict:
- Murder, cruel or degrading treatment and torture
- Directing attacks against civilians, humanitarian workers or UN peacekeepers
- Taking hostages
- Summary execution
- Pillage
- Rape, sexual slavery, forced prostitution or forced pregnancy
Definition of Ethnic Cleansing
Unlike the crimes defined above in the Rome Statute, there is no formal legal definition of “ethnic cleansing,” though its scope is within the definitions of war crimes and crimes against humanity.
According to Gareth Evans’ Responsibility to Protect: Ending Mass Atrocity Crimes Once and For All, ethnic cleansing can include “outright killing, expulsion, acts of terror designed to encourage flight, and rape when perpetrated either as another form of terrorism or as a deliberate attempt to change the ethnic composition of the group in question.”
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