Crimes against humanity
Crimes against humanity are certain serious crimes committed as part of a large-scale attack against civilians.[1] Unlike war crimes, crimes against humanity can be committed during both peace and war and against a state's own nationals as well as foreign nationals.[1][2] Together with war crimes, genocide, and the crime of aggression, crimes against humanity are one of the core crimes of international criminal law,[3] and like other crimes against international law have no temporal or jurisdictional limitations on prosecution (where universal jurisdiction is recognized).[2]
The first prosecution for crimes against humanity took place during the Nuremberg trials against defeated leaders of Nazi Germany. Crimes against humanity have been prosecuted by other international courts (such as the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, the Special Court for Sierra Leone, the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia, and the International Criminal Court) as well as by domestic courts. The law of crimes against humanity has primarily been developed as a result of the evolution of customary international law. Crimes against humanity are not codified in an international convention, so an international effort to establish such a treaty, led by the Crimes Against Humanity Initiative, is currently underway.
According to the Rome Statute, there are eleven types of crime that can be charged as a crime against humanity when "committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack directed against any civilian population": "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...; enforced disappearance...; 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."[4]
Legal status of crimes against humanity in international law[edit]
Unlike genocide and war crimes, which have been widely recognized and prohibited in international criminal law since the establishment of the Nuremberg principles,[33][34] there has never been a comprehensive convention on crimes against humanity,[35] even though such crimes are continuously perpetrated worldwide in numerous conflicts and crises.[36][37][38] There are eleven international texts defining crimes against humanity, but they all differ slightly as to their definition of that crime and its legal elements.[39] In 2008, the Crimes Against Humanity Initiative was launched to address this gap in international law.[40]
On July 30, 2013, the United Nations International Law Commission voted to include the topic of crimes against humanity in its long-term program of work. In July 2014, the Commission moved this topic to its active programme of work[41][42] based largely on a report submitted by Sean D. Murphy (the Special Rapporteur for Crimes Against Humanity).[43]
There is some debate on the status of crimes against humanity under customary international law is. M. Cherif Bassiouni argues that crimes against humanity are part of jus cogens and as such constitute a non-derogable rule of international law.[39]
21st century[edit]
A report on the 2008–09 Gaza War by Richard Goldstone accused Israeli and Hamas forces of possibly committing a crime against humanity. The report concluded that Israel had used disproportionate force, targeted Palestinian civilians, used them as human shields, and destroyed civilian infrastructure. Hamas was found to have deliberately targeted Israeli civilians and Israeli infrastructure by mounting indiscriminate rocket attacks. Both the Israeli government and Hamas dismissed the findings of the report.[71][72][73] In an April 2011 Washington Post article Goldstone wrote the report would have been a different document if he had known in 2009 what he knew in 2011.[74]
In 2019, United Nations investigators announced that Israeli troops may have committed crimes against humanity. During the Gaza protests 189 Palestinians were killed, investigators said, 183 were shot with live ammunition, including 35 children, three health workers, and two journalists.[75][76][77] Amnesty International has accused Israel of committing the crime of apartheid against Palestinians.[28][78]
In 2022, the UN Human Rights Office assessment of human rights concerns in Xinjiang concluded that the extent of arbitrary and discriminatory detention of members of Uyghur and other predominantly Muslim groups in China, since 2017, pursuant to law and policy, in context of restrictions and deprivation more generally of fundamental rights enjoyed individually and collectively, may constitute international crimes, in particular crimes against humanity.[79][80][81]
The Myanmar military's targeting of the Rohingya Muslims in which more than 25,000 have been killed and more than 18,000 women and girls have been systematically raped have been labelled as crimes against humanity by United Nations and Amnesty International.[82][83][84] OHCHR Independent Fact-Finding Mission have found Tatmadaw of committing crimes against humanity, genocide, and ethnic cleansing.[85][86]
In the March 2024 UN factfinding mission Sara Hossain declared they found Iranian regime doing systematic egregious widespread institutionalized crimes against humanity of large scale, 551 killed in 2021-2022 Woman, Life, Freedom uprising , they also executed 834 people in 2023.[87]
In April 2024, the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) adopted a resolution calling for Israel to be held accountable for possible war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Gaza Strip, and demanding a halt to all arms sales to the country. 28 countries voted in favor, 13 abstained, and six voted against. Israel's ambassador accused the UN of anti-Israeli bias.[88][89]