War Crimes Essay ⋆ Political Science Essay Examples ⋆ EssayEmpire

War crimes can be defined as violations of the laws and customs of war entailing individual criminal responsibility directly under international law. From the start of warfare to advent of contemporary humanitarian law, more than 500 cartels, codes of conduct, covenants and other texts to regulate hostilities have been recorded. Wars in the nineteenth century encouraged international attempts to address their horrific consequences. In 1863 an international committee for the relief of military wounded—renamed the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in 1876—was established. Also in 1863, the Lieber Code, the first attempt to codify the existing laws and customs of war, came into force. The following year, the 1864 Geneva Convention aimed to protect wounded and sick soldiers on land during war, and four years later the 1868 Saint Petersburg Declaration prohibited the wartime use of certain projectiles declared contrary to the laws of humanity.

The momentum of international conventions against war crimes continued into the early twentieth century. The 1899 Laws and Customs of War on Land (Hague II) and 1907 Laws and Customs of War on Land (Hague IV) made reference to laws of humanity. A Geneva Convention in 1906 also aimed to protect wounded, sick, and shipwrecked military personnel at sea during war. After World War I (1914–1918), the Treaty of Versailles accused William II of Hohenzollern, the former German emperor, of a supreme offense against international morality and the sanctity of treaties. However, William II was not put on trial as he had gone into exile in the Netherlands. The treaty referred to prosecuting those accused of violating the laws and customs of war. In 1921 some Germans were tried in Leipzig, Germany, on charges that included the poor treatment of war prisoners. The 1925 Geneva Protocol prohibited the use of asphyxiating, poisonous, or other gases and bacteriological weapons, and the 1929 Geneva Convention protected war prisoners as well as strengthening protections for medical personnel in wartime. During Italy’s conquest of Abyssinia (1935–1936), the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939), and Asian conflicts, the ICRC attempted to help victims.

World War II Crimes

At the end of World War II (1939–1945), the problem of crimes committed during the war was addressed by an international military tribunal established by France, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The tribunal defined war crimes as violations of the laws or customs of war. Such violations included murder, ill-treatment, or deportation of the civilian population of an occupied territory, murder or ill-treatment of prisoners of war or persons on the seas, killing of hostages, plunder of public or private property, and wanton destruction of cities, towns, or villages when such devastation was not justified by military necessity.

Trials were conducted in Nuremberg, Germany, from 1945 to 1946, in which sixteen Nazi leaders were found guilty of war crimes. The proceedings of the separate international military tribunal for the Far East were held in Tokyo from 1946 to 1948, wherein twenty-five Japanese war criminals were found guilty of at least one charge (such as conspiring to wage war, waging war, atrocities, and breaching laws of war). Adolf Eichmann, who headed the office administering the extermination of European Jews and other “undesirables,” was not captured until 1960.The following year he was tried in Israel and found guilty of charges that included war crimes, for which he was executed in 1962. All of these trials set the stage for a more permanent International Criminal Court.

Meanwhile, the international community saw the aftermath of World War II as a time to revise the Geneva Conventions. The first 1949 Geneva Convention protects wounded and sick soldiers on land during war. The second convention protects wounded, sick, and shipwrecked military personnel at sea during war. War prisoners and conditions of captivity are covered by the third convention, while the fourth convention protects civilians, including those in occupied territory. This marked a change from earlier conventions, which had focused on combatants. Article 3 in the conventions covers noninternational armed conflicts such as civil wars.

Post–World War II

Widely publicized and graphic war crimes continued to occur after World War II. Under the Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia (1975–1979), up to three million people are believed to have been killed. In 2001 the Cambodian National Assembly created a court to try serious crimes committed during the Khmer Rouge regime. The Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia for the Prosecution of Crimes Committed during the Period of Democratic Kampuchea (ECCC) became fully operational in 2007, and three of the five suspects named in its introductory submission were charged with war crimes. The ECCC covers such crimes as the unlawful treatment of civilians or prisoners of war, attacks on civilian targets, and destruction of educational and religious institutions.

During the 1990s, mass atrocities occurred in Croatia, Bosnia, and Herzegovina. These led to establishment of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in 1993. This was the first war crimes court created by the United Nations, and the first international war crimes tribunal formed since those in Nuremberg and Tokyo after World War II. According to the ICTY Statute, the tribunal has the power to prosecute persons violating the laws or customs of war. Such violations include using poisonous weapons or other weapons designed to cause unnecessary suffering, the wanton destruction of cities or devastation not justified by military necessity, and the plunder of public or private property. By November 2009, the tribunal had indicted 161 persons for serious violations of international humanitarian law.

The Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC) entered into force on July 1, 2002, and established the ICC. It is the first permanent international institution with jurisdiction to prosecute individuals responsible for genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes. In July 2009, 110 countries were states parties to the Rome Statute. These ranged from Japan and the United Kingdom to New Zealand. However, major powers including China, Israel, Russia and the United States were not states parties. For the purpose of this statute, war crimes means grave breaches of the 1949 Geneva Conventions, namely, any of the following acts against persons or property protected under the provisions of the relevant Geneva Convention: willful killing; torture or inhuman treatment, including biological experiments; willfully causing great suffering or serious injury to body or health; extensive destruction and appropriation of property not justified by military necessity and carried out unlawfully and wantonly; compelling a prisoner of war or other protected person to serve in the forces of a hostile power; willfully depriving a prisoner of war or other protected person of the rights of fair and regular trial; unlawful deportation or transfer or unlawful confinement; and taking of hostages. Three states parties to the statute (the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Uganda) have referred crimes on their territories to the ICC. The United Nations Security Council also has referred the situation in Darfur, Sudan.

Controversy

The wide-ranging and graphic impact of war crimes and their highly emotive nature contribute to the controversy that often surrounds them. The definition itself and interpretation of war crimes is often controversial, with much debate over what constitutes such a crime and the need for prosecution. For instance, Israel has faced demands from some senior UN officials and human rights groups for an international war crimes investigation in Gaza over allegations over the “reckless and indiscriminate” shelling of residential areas. Likewise, the United States has been accused by some of war crimes in Iraq since the 2003 U.S.-led coalition invasion.

Other issues include the failure of the international community to punish some high-profile alleged offenders. This has been highlighted by the concern expressed by the ICTY over Ratko Mladic´ as of November 2009 continuing to evade justice despite continuous calls for his arrest since indictments were issued in 1995. Charges include violations of the laws or customs of war during the Bosnia and Herzegovina conflict. There has been much debate also over the power held by tribunals, their legal authority and costs, whether they infringe on sovereignty, and the fairness of prosecutions.

Bibliography:

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Crimes of War Project, 2003, www.crimesofwar.org/index.html.
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Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia, 2010, www.eccc.gov.kh/english.
An Introduction to the Khmer Rouge Trials. 2008, www.eccc.gov.kh/ english/cabinet/publications/an_introduction_to_Khmer_Rouge_ Trials_3th.pdf.
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Yale Law School, Lillian Goldman Law Library. “Nuremberg Trial Proceedings Vol. 1: Charter of the International Military Tribunal,” The Avalon Project, 2008, http://avalon.law.yale.edu/imt/imtconst.asp.

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