Summary: Lecture 4

Read the summary and the most important questions on Lecture 4

• 4 Lecture 4

• 4.1 Crimes against Humanity

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• What constitutes Crimes against Humanity?

  1. An act as defined in art. 7 Rome Statute
  2. That act is committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack directed against any civilian population
  3. With knowledge of the attack
  
  There is no requirement that the individual is a ringleader or architect of the broader campaign. 

• Why was the crime against humanity created by the drafters of the London charter?

  Because war crimes did not include crimes committed by governments against their own civilians. In the statutes of the ICTY and the ICTR, a list of acts was included which were to be seen as Crimes against Humanity.

• What sources can be used for the definition of Crimes Against Humanity?

  - national jurisprudence
  - international jurisprudence
  - the ICC elements of crime
  - instruments of other tribunals such as the SCSL.

• War crimes and crimes against humanity can and do frequently overlap. What are the main differences between the two crimes?

  1. CAH may occur even in the absence of an armed conflict
  2. CAH require a context of widespread or systematic commission. War crimes do not, a single isolated incident can constitute a war crime.
  3. War crimes was originally based on reciprocal promises between parties to a conflict. The law of CAH protects victims regardless of their nationality or affiliation.
  4. CAH concerns actions primarily against civilian populations. War crimes law regulates even on the battlefield and against military objectives.

• What aspects are not required for crimes against humanity?

  - no nexus to an armed conflict.
  - crimes against humanity to not require a discriminatory animus (no discrimination on the grounds of national, ethnic or religious grounds is required).

• Describe two ways in which "systematic" can be defined

  ICTR Akayesu:
  a systematic attack requires:
  1. Thoroughly organized
  2. Following a regular pattern
  3. On the basis of a common policy
  4. Involving substantial public or private resources. 
  
  ICTY Blaskic
  a systematic attack requires:
  1. A plan or objective
  2. Large-scale or continuous commission of linked crimes
  3. Significant resources
  4. Implication of high-level authorities

• What are the major differences between killing (art. 7 (1)(a) Rome Statute) and extermination (art. 7 (1)(b) Rome Statute?

  - Both involve killing but extermination connotes killing on a large scale )mass killing).
  - Extermination expressly included indirect means of causing death, for instance the deprivation of food. 

• Genocide and extermination have significant overlaps, such as killing or inflicting conditions of life calculated to bring about the destruction of part of a population. What is the major difference?

  For genocide, the 'special intent to destroy a group as such' is required. Moreover, genocide can only be committed where there is an intent to target one type of groups (national, ethnical, racial or religious).

• What is the difference between deportation and forcible transfer?

  Deportation is regarded as displacing across a border. Forcible transfer is regarded as internal displacement (ICTY Stakic)

• What two components consists rape of? (rape can be identified as a crime against humanity and a war crime)

  1. The conduct element: physical invasion of sexual nature (elements of crime)
  2. The present of coercive circumstances or the absence of consent.