Contextual Elements. Crimes against humanity consist of underlying acts listed in article 7 of the Rome Statute committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack against a civilian population pursuant to or in furtherance of a state or organizational policy.307 No link to armed conflict is required to prove a crime against humanity, meaning that this category of offence could potentially be 304 See Xxxxx (2002), p.500. 305 See Rome Statute, article 6. 306 See The Hostages Trial (Xxxxxxx Xxxx and Others), 8 Law Reports of Trials of War Criminals 66, 66-69 (1948) (“Hostages Trial”). Note that in the context of article 8(2)(b)(iv), these circumstances would potentially preclude responsibility prior to getting to the issue of duress, as the required foresight of excessiveness would not be met. 307 Rome Statute, article 7. The underlying acts are: (a) Murder; (b) Extermination; (c) Enslavement; (d) Deportation or forcible transfer of population; (e) Imprisonment or other severe deprivation of physical liberty in violation of fundamental rules of international law; (f) Torture; (g) Rape, sexual slavery, enforced prostitution, forced pregnancy, enforced sterilization, or any other form of sexual violence of comparable gravity; (h) Persecution against any identifiable group or collectivity on political, racial, national, ethnic, cultural, religious, gender as defined in paragraph 3, or other grounds that are universally recognized as impermissible under international law, in connection with any act referred to in this paragraph or any crime within the jurisdiction of the Court; (i) Enforced disappearance of persons; (j) The crime of apartheid; (k) Other inhumane acts of a similar character intentionally causing great suffering, or serious injury to body or to mental or physical health. used to repress serious environmental harm committed during war or peace.308 Prosecuting environmental harm under this framework would first and foremost require the demonstration of an attack on a civilian population. The environmental harm could either constitute the attack in and of itself,309 or occur as part of an attack committed through other means, such as the typical anthropocentric violence seen in previous crimes against humanity cases under international law.310 The anthropocentric focus of crimes against humanity is evident from the reference to humanity in the name itself. For present purposes, it is important that the reference to environmental harm in order to show an attack on a ci...
Contextual Elements. In keeping with the name, war crimes are offences committed during times of armed conflict. These offences generally focus on acts targeting or harming persons and acts against property, and largely reflect the prohibitions set out in the Geneva Conventions of 1949, the Additional Protocols of 1977, and The Hague Regulations of 1899 and 1907. Under the Rome Statute of 351 See Rome Statute, article 7(1)(c) and 7(2)(c). 352 See Rome Statute, article 7(1)(e), 7(1)(f), and 7(1)(g). 353 See, e.g., Xxxxxx Xxxxxx Warrant and Second Bashir Arrest Warrant; Prosecutor v. Xxxx Xxxxxx Xxxxx Xx Xxxxxx, Case No.ICC-02/05-01-09, Case Information Sheet, 6 April 2017, ICC-PIDS-CIS-SUD-02-005/17_Eng (noting that Xx-Xxxxxx is charged with Five counts of crimes against humanity: murder (article 7(1)(a)); extermination (article 7(1)(b)); forcible transfer (article 7(1)(d)); torture (article 7(1)(f)); and rape (article 7(1)(g)); Two counts of war crimes: intentionally directing attacks against a civilian population as such or against individual civilians not taking part in hostilities (article 8(2)(e)(i)); and pillaging (article 8(2)(e)(v)); and Three counts of genocide: genocide by killing (article 6-a), genocide by causing serious bodily or mental harm (article 6-b) and genocide by deliberately inflicting on each target group conditions of life calculated to bring about the group’s physical destruction (article 6-c)). the ICC, war crimes are divided into those committed during international armed conflicts and those committed during non-international armed conflicts.354
Contextual Elements a. Widespread or Systematic
