It has been written by Maithreyi Kannan Arayapakkam, a first-year law student of Sastra Deemed University

International laws are the laws that govern inter-state relations. Generally such relations are governed by public international laws. International criminal law is a part of public international law. Unlike public international law it deals with individuals and the crimes committed by them as defined by international laws. It does not deal with states and their actions. The concept of international criminal law is relatively new and as such is not very universal or uniform. The term international criminal law refers to the war crimes committed and not the crimes committed on an international level like human trafficking,drug trade or other international crimes. It comprises mainly of genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity and crimes of aggression. There are various sources of international law like the Rome Statute which led to the formation of the International Criminal Court and the European Convention on Human Rights.

Historical Background:

The concept of international criminal law was derived from the formation of the first ad hoc formed during the period of Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan - The Nuremberg International War Tribunal and the Tokyo International War Tribunal. These were one of the first international war tribunals to be formed to put to trial the atrocities committed by the military leaders respectively.

It was after these tribunals were established that a need for a permanent mechanism arose in the United Nations Assembly. After the ad hoc tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda were formed, the International Law Commission started the proceedings to establish a permanent court in 1993. In 1998, after the passing of the Rome Statute, the International Criminal Court was established in Hague,Netherlands. It passed its first judgement in 2005.

Overview:

The International Criminal Law is mainly governed by the Rome Statute. It talks mainly of four types of crimes - genocide,war crimes,crimes against humanity and crimes of aggression. According to the Rome Statute these are widespread systematic acts committed against a civilian population with knowledge of such acts.

Genocide, in simple terms, is the act of knowingly killing large groups of people belonging to a certain nation or ethnic group to destroy the entirety of that particular nation or group. Genocide was recognised as an international crime for the first time by the United Nations General Assembly in the year of 1946. According to the Rome Statute genocide is defined as any act committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such: (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.

War crimes are the acts committed in relation to armed conflicts either nationally or on an international level, that violate international humanitarian law and that result in individual criminal responsibility. Some examples of war crimes are killing of civilians,torture,unjustified destruction and hostages. According to the Rome Statute “war crimes” mean: (a) Grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949, namely, any of the following acts against persons or property protected under the provisions of the relevant Geneva Convention: (i) Wilful killing; (ii) Torture or inhuman treatment, including biological experiments; (iii) Wilfully causing great suffering, or serious injury to body or health; (iv) Extensive destruction and appropriation of property, not justified by military necessity and carried out unlawfully and wantonly; (v) Compelling a prisoner of war or other protected person to serve in the forces of a hostile Power; (vi) Wilfully depriving a prisoner of war or other protected person of the rights of fair and regular trial; (vii) Unlawful deportation or transfer or unlawful confinement; (viii) Taking of hostages. Under the statute, use of biological,technological and chemical warfare also come under war crimes.

Generally speaking the term crimes against humanity refers to the acts committed against a large group of people that causes human suffering usually as a part of a systematic plan. Some examples of such crimes are extermination,torture,forced enslavement or transport of population. Under the Rome 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: (a) Murder; (b) Extermination; (c) Enslavement; (d) Deportation or forcible transfer of population; (e) Imprisonment or other severe deprivation of physical liberty in violation of fundamental rules of international law; (f) Torture; (g) Rape, sexual slavery, enforced prostitution, forced pregnancy, enforced sterilization, or any other form of sexual violence of comparable gravity; (h) 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; (i) Enforced disappearance of persons; (j) The crime of apartheid; (k) Other inhumane acts of a similar character intentionally causing great suffering, or serious injury to body or to mental or physical health.

A crime of aggression is a large-scale planned act disturbing the peace of a nation using military force. It means using armed forces to destroy the sovereignty,integrity or independence of a State by an external State. This particular crime is a recent addition made in the field of international criminal law and was included by amending the Rome Statute in Uganda in 2010. As per the Rome Statute, “crime of aggression” means the planning, preparation, initiation or execution, by a person in a position effectively to exercise control over or to direct the political or military action of a State, of an act of aggression which, by its character, gravity and scale, constitutes a manifest violation of the Charter of the United Nations.

These four crimes as mentioned above are the main crimes that fall under the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court.

Conclusion:

It is reasonable to state that the law of international crimes is a relatively new field and as such faces a bunch of ambiguities such as internal conflict, difficult relationships with powers like the U.S, China and Russia and not many convictions. These indicate that the law requires some changes to be made so that it can operate efficiently and effectively. However, it is a step in the right direction as it provides a central authority to govern the various crimes committed against humanity as a whole.

REFERENCES

1. INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL LAW & PRACTISE TRAINING MATERIALS, ICLS

2. legal.un.org,https://legal.un.org/icc/statute/iccq&a.html

3. Understanding the International Criminal Court, International Criminal Court, (last visited 16th July 2024), https://www.icc-cpi.int/sites/default/files/Publications/understanding-the-icc.pdf

4.Welcome to United Nations,https://www.un.org/en/genocideprevention/genocide.shtml

5. Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court,1998,Article 6

6. Welcome to United Nations,https://www.un.org/en/genocideprevention/war-crimes.shtml

7. Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court,1998,Article 8(2)

8. Welcome to United Nations, https://www.un.org/en/genocideprevention/crimes-against-humanity.shtml

9. Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court,1998,Article 7(1)

10. How the Court works,https://www.icc-cpi.int/about/how-the-court-works

11. Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court,1998,Article 8 bis (1)

12. Milena Sterio,The International Criminal Court: Current Challenges and Prospect of Future Success,52 Case Western Reserve Journal of International Law, 2020