Definition of
Nazi Secret Police rounding up Polish
intelligentsia at
Palmiry near
Warsaw in 1940 for mass execution (
AB-Aktion) War crimes are serious violations of the rules of customary and treaty law concerning
international humanitarian law, criminal offenses for which there is individual responsibility. Colloquial definitions of
war crime include violations of established protections of the
laws of war, but also include failures to adhere to norms of procedure and rules of battle, such as attacking those displaying a peaceful
flag of truce, or using that same flag as a ruse to mount an attack on enemy troops. The use of
chemical and
biological weapons in warfare are also prohibited by
numerous chemical arms control agreements and the
Biological Weapons Convention. Wearing enemy uniforms or civilian clothes to infiltrate enemy lines for
espionage or
sabotage missions is a legitimate ruse of war, though fighting in combat or assassinating individuals behind enemy lines while so disguised is not, as it constitutes unlawful perfidy. Attacking
enemy troops while they are being deployed by way of a parachute is not a war crime. Protocol I, Article 42 of the
Geneva Conventions explicitly forbids
attacking parachutists who eject from disabled aircraft and surrendering parachutists once landed. Article 30 of the 1907
Hague Convention IV – The Laws and Customs of War on Land explicitly forbids belligerents to punish enemy spies without previous trial. The rule of war, also known as the
law of armed conflict, permits belligerents to engage in combat. A war crime occurs when superfluous injury or unnecessary suffering is inflicted upon an enemy. War crimes are significant in international humanitarian law because it is an area where international tribunals such as the
Nuremberg Trials and
Tokyo Trials have been convened. Recent examples are the
International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia and the
International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, which were established by the
Security Council acting under Chapter VIII of the
UN Charter. Under the
Nuremberg Principles,
war crimes are different from
crimes against peace. Crimes against peace include planning, preparing, initiating, or waging a
war of aggression, or a war in violation of international treaties, agreements, or assurances. Because the definition of a state of "war" may be debated, the term "war crime" itself has seen different usage under different systems of international and military law. It has some degree of application outside of what some may consider being a state of "war", but in areas where conflicts persist enough to constitute social instability. War crimes also include such acts as mistreatment of
prisoners of war or
civilians. War crimes are sometimes part of instances of
mass murder and
genocide, though these crimes are more broadly covered under
international humanitarian law described as
crimes against humanity. In 2008, the
U.N. Security Council adopted
Resolution 1820, which noted that "
rape and other forms of sexual violence can constitute war crimes, crimes against humanity or a constitutive act with respect to genocide". In 2016, the
International Criminal Court convicted someone of sexual violence for the first time; specifically, they added rape to a war crimes conviction of Congo Vice President Jean-Pierre Bemba Gombo. War crimes also included deliberate attacks on citizens and
property of
neutral states, such as the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. As the attack on Pearl Harbor happened while the U.S. and Japan were at peace and without a just cause for self-defense, the attack was declared by the
Tokyo Trials to go beyond justification of
military necessity and therefore constituted a war crime. The legalities of war have sometimes been accused of containing favoritism toward the winners ("
victor's justice"), as some controversies have not been ruled as war crimes. Some examples include the Allies' destruction of Axis cities during
World War II, such as the
firebombing of Dresden, the
Operation Meetinghouse raid on Tokyo (the most destructive single bombing raid in history), and the
atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. In regard to the
strategic bombing during World War II, there was no international treaty or instrument protecting a civilian population specifically from attack by aircraft; therefore, the aerial attacks on civilians were not officially war crimes. The Allies at the trials in
Nuremberg and
Tokyo never prosecuted the Germans, including
Luftwaffe commander-in-chief
Hermann Göring, for the bombing raids on
Warsaw,
Rotterdam, and British cities during
the Blitz, as well as the
indiscriminate attacks on Allied cities with
V-1 flying bombs and
V-2 rockets. The Japanese also did not face prosecution for the aerial attacks on crowded Chinese cities. Controversy arose when the Allies re-designated German
prisoners of war (under the protection of the
1929 Geneva Convention on Prisoners of War) as
Disarmed Enemy Forces (allegedly unprotected by the 1929 Geneva Convention on Prisoners of War), many of which were then used for forced labor such as clearing
minefields. By December 1945, six months after the war had ended, it was estimated by French authorities that 2,000 German prisoners were still being killed or maimed each month in mine-clearing accidents.
United Nations The
United Nations defines war crimes as described in Article 8 of the
Rome Statute, the treaty that established the
International Criminal Court.
Rome Statute Article 8 of the
Rome Statute of the
International Criminal Court defines war crimes as: • Grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions of August 12, 1949, namely, any of the following acts against persons or property protected under the provisions of the relevant Geneva Convention: • : • Other serious violations of the laws and customs applicable in international armed conflict, within the established framework of international law… • In the case of an armed conflict not of an international character, serious violations of article 3 common to the four Geneva Conventions of August 12, 1949… • Other serious violations of the laws and customs applicable in armed conflicts not of an international character, within the established framework of international law…
Other definitions Nuremberg Trials Article 6(b) of the Charter of the
Nuremberg Tribunal defines war crimes as: • War crimes: Violations of the laws or customs of war which include, but are not limited to, murder, ill-treatment or deportation to slave-labour or for any other purpose of civilian population of or in occupied territory, murder or ill-treatment of prisoners of war, of persons on the seas, killing of hostages, plunder of public or private property, wanton destruction of cities, towns, or villages, or devastation not justified by military necessity.
Geneva Convention (IV) Relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War The four Geneva Conventions of 1949 contain a set of grave breaches that states must prosecute. "These grave breaches are the clearest treaty-based formulation of war crimes." Article 147 defines grave breaches as:Grave breaches to which the preceding Article relates shall be those involving any of the following acts, if committed against persons or property protected by the present Convention: wilful killing, torture or inhuman treatment, including biological experiments, wilfully causing great suffering or serious injury to body or health, unlawful deportation or transfer or unlawful confinement of a protected person, compelling a protected person to serve in the force of a hostile Power, or wilfully depriving a protected person of the rights of fair and regular trial prescribed in the present Convention, taking of hostages and extensive destruction and appropriation of property, not justified by military necessity and carried out unlawfully and wantonly. == Legality of civilian casualties ==