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The term is on everyone’s lips, but what does it mean? Who can be charged and by which court? An overview.
How is a war crime defined? War crimes are serious violations of international humanitarian law. International humanitarian law is primarily the Geneva Conventions and a number of other treaties. Specifically, for example, the use of prohibited weapons such as cluster bombs, as has also happened in Ukraine, the use of certain methods such as starvation or insidiousness, attacks on protected persons such as civilians, or on prohibited objects such as hospitals or nuclear power plants are war crimes .
Who Can Commit a War Crime? International humanitarian law distinguishes between two categories of people in international armed conflicts and wars: the fighting troops, the so-called combatants, and civilians. The rationale is that combat troops – and only they – are allowed to kill each other without being held personally responsible. The idea behind this is limitation through distinction. Because if only combat troops fight each other, at least the civilian population is spared. But if a soldier kills a civilian, it’s a war crime.
What is not a war crime? Not every violation of international humanitarian law is already a war crime. The severity matters. This is not always easy to determine. For example, the display of prisoners of war, as Russia accuses Ukraine of doing, is clearly a violation of international humanitarian law. It damages the dignity of those affected. But it does not reach the level of severity required for a war crime. War crimes are believed to have happened on both sides.
Who decides what a war crime is? Whether it is a war crime or not is basically governed by international humanitarian law. There is a fairly long one in the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC). Catalog of war crimes. This is based on international conventions and on the practice of the war crimes tribunals for Yugoslavia and Rwanda. These tribunals were created specifically for the crimes committed in Yugoslavia and Rwanda.
Legend:
The International Criminal Court (ICC) has already launched investigations into possible war crimes and crimes against humanity in Ukraine.
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Who documents alleged war crimes? Many actors play together here. In Ukraine, these are primarily the Ukrainian state, which has a great interest in the crimes being documented by the Russian side. But the ICC’s Evidence Collecting Mission, which is relatively small in terms of staff, and which has been sent to the war zone, is also important when it comes to documenting crimes.
Other states are also helping. Germany and the USA have announced support. In addition, there are academic actors who document human rights violations, such as documentation centers, UN organs, and the office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. And nowadays there are probably more and more private individuals and collectives who take drone shots.
The answers are based on an interview with Oliver Diggelmann, professor of international law at the University of Zurich, in the podcast newsplus.