International Crime

International Crime which is dealt with could bring cooperation. Globalization has brought to our attention issues affecting the international community which in turn can affect national and local regions. Technology has meant that peoples lives are intertwined. The global awareness of human rights issues has meant that people are not only more aware of their rights and the rights of others, but they have become aware of how rights can be breached by governments. These breaches are now becoming international news and are of importance when we think of ourselves as global citizens.

Categories of International Crime Piracy: Traditionally, in considered a breach of the jus cogens (the norms of customary international law). Because piracy occurs outside the jurisdiction of any State, the best way of dealing with it (sanction) was to allow any affected State to bring pirates to justice. See UN Convention Of the Law of the Sea 1982: Piracy defined as: any illegal acts of violence or detention or any act of depredation committed for private ends by the crew or passengers of private ships or aircraft and directed: on the high seas against another ship or aircraft, or against persons or properties on board ship or aircraft: against a ships aircraft or properties or persons in a place outside the jurisdiction of any state. Also any act of voluntary participation in the operation of a ship or aircraft with knowledge of making it a pirate ship or aircraft Also includes any act of inciting or intentionally facilitating (enabling) an act described above. War Crimes: Are serious violations of the intl humanitarian law of armed conflict e.g. Hague Conventions of 1899 and 1907, on international warfare. These mainly define what is lawful and allowed when waging war i.e. what type of weapons are allowed or the Geneva Conventions 1949, which state what is the humane treatment of civilians, prisoners and wounded enemy soldiers. The international criminal tribunal (ICT) for the former Yugoslavia (prosecutor v. dusko tadic 1999) defined war crime as having the following characteristics. 1 must be serious infringement of an international rule; must breach a rule protecting important values and have grave consequences for the victim. 2 must violate an important principle of customary international law or a relevant treaty. 3 the violation under the relevant law must include the individual criminal responsibility. War Crimes can be carried out in domestic or international conflict. Lots of international humanitarian law is relevant to such crimes (see above) The Nuremberg charter 1945 first identified specific violations as war crimes e.g. 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 (POW) or persons on the seas, killing of hostages, plunder (look up) of private or public property, destruction of cities, towns or villages, or devastation not justified by military necessity. The four Geneva conventions outline a number of important international crimes associated with conflict e.g. willful killing, torture and inhumane treatment (biological experiments), causing great suffering or serious injury to body or health, unlawful transport of deportation, unlawful confinement, compulsion to serve in armed forces for a hostile power. Depriving people of a fair trial, taking hostages, theft and destruction of property done unlawfully and not justified by military necessity, deliberately targeting civilians or facilities causing civilian loss of lives i.e. buildings or dams, racial discrimination and cultural discrimination The ICC also makes sexual violence and forced pregnancy war crimes when they occur during armed conflict. War crimes may also occur when there is a civil armed conflict. Crimes against humanity: Are particularly heinous (evil) offences. They are attacks on human dignity and involve grave humiliation of one or more people. They must be part of systematic atrocities committed under government authority or condoned by government Examples CAH include: extermination in large scale killings or depravation of the means of life (foods water shelter), enslavement, enforced relocation of population, torture, large scale sexual violence, persecution against groups on the grounds of racial, political, ethnic, religious, gender etc that are universally regarded as discrimination. Prosecutor v Tihomir Blaskic 2000 in the ICT for former Yugoslavia. In this case the court defined CAH (crimes against humanities) as being both systematic and widespread, requiring a political objective of destroying a community, the commission of inhumane acts on a large scale, the involvement of high level political or military authorities (positions of power), the development of a plan involving using significant resources. CAH can be indirect i.e in speeches and media propaganda to try and influence such behavior or direct such as murder, rape, destruction of sites that are homes, livelihood or sacred sites Genocide: The term Genocide gained recognition in the trials that occurred after the crimes that were committed against the jewish and other minority races during WWII. Genecide was used to describe the criminal conduct of offenders, but at this stage was not a separate crime. However in 1948, the UN published the convention on genocide and parties where required to criminalize genocide and punish offenders using their domestic legal systems. Genocide is defined as the persecution (ill treatment. Look up) on national, ethnic, racial and religious groups. Specific conduct amounting to genocide is defined in the convention as killing members of a national ethnic, racial or religious group (protected groups in the convention), causing serious bodily or mental harm to any member of a group, deliberately inflicting conditions of life that are calculated and conducted to destroy the group in part or whole i.e.

concentration camps, preventing births within the group (forced contraception or abortion or killing babies or forcibly transferring children of the group to another group)