Individual act constituting a violation of the laws of war
For other uses, see War crime (disambiguation).
Not to be confused with Crimes against humanity.
A U.S. soldier observing victims of the Malmedy massacre (17 December 1944), where 84 U.S. prisoners of war were murdered by the Waffen-SS in Belgium
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A war crime is a violation of the laws of war that gives rise to individual criminal responsibility for actions by combatants in action, such as intentionally killing civilians or intentionally killing prisoners of war, torture, taking hostages, unnecessarily destroying civilian property, deception by perfidy, wartime sexual violence, pillaging, and for any individual that is part of the command structure who orders any attempt to committing mass killings including genocide or ethnic cleansing, the granting of no quarter despite surrender, the conscription of children in the military and flouting the legal distinctions of proportionality and military necessity.[1]
The formal concept of war crimes emerged from the codification of the customary international law that applied to warfare between sovereign states, such as the Lieber Code (1863) of the Union Army in the American Civil War and the Hague Conventions of 1899 and 1907 for international war.[1] In the aftermath of the Second World War, the war-crime trials of the leaders of the Axis powers established the Nuremberg principles of law, such as that international criminal law defines what is a war crime. In 1949, the Geneva Conventions legally defined new war crimes and established that states could exercise universal jurisdiction over war criminals.[1] In the late 20th century and early 21st century, international courts extrapolated and defined additional categories of war crimes applicable to a civil war.[1]
^ abcdCassese, Antonio (2013). Cassese's International Criminal Law (3rd ed.). Oxford University Press. pp. 63–66. ISBN 978-0-19-969492-1. Archived from the original on April 29, 2016. Retrieved October 5, 2015.
A warcrime is a violation of the laws of war that gives rise to individual criminal responsibility for actions by combatants in action, such as intentionally...
This is a list of warcrimes committed during World War II. The Axis powers (Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, and Imperial Japan) were some of the most systematic...
numerous warcrimes and crimes against humanity across various Asian-Pacific nations, notably during the Second Sino-Japanese and Pacific Wars. These incidents...
Israeli warcrimes are the violations of international criminal law, including warcrimes, crimes against humanity and the crime of genocide, which the...
summarizes the warcrimes that have violated the laws and customs of war since the Hague Conventions of 1899 and 1907. Since many warcrimes are not prosecuted...
Geneva Conventions. The United States prosecutes offenders through the WarCrimes Act of 1996 as well as through articles in the Uniform Code of Military...
Russian warcrimes are violations of international criminal law including warcrimes, crimes against humanity and the crime of genocide which the official...
Numerous warcrimes were committed by all sides during the Kosovo War, which lasted from 28 February 1998 until 11 June 1999. According to Human Rights...
and the Tokyo WarCrimes Tribunal, was a military trial convened on 29 April 1946 to try leaders of the Empire of Japan for their crimes against peace...
During World War II, the Allies committed legally proven warcrimes and violations of the laws of war against either civilians or military personnel of...
condoned a substantial number of warcrimes, first in the Herero and Namaqua genocide and then in the First and Second World Wars. The most notable of these...
Hamas warcrimes are the violations of international criminal law, including warcrimes and crimes against humanity, which the Islamist Nationalist organization...
From 1919 to 1991, a multitude of warcrimes and crimes against humanity were carried out by the Soviet Union and its armed forces. They include acts...
British warcrimes are acts committed by the armed forces of the United Kingdom that have violated the laws and customs of war since the Hague Conventions...
During World War II, the German Wehrmacht (combined armed forces - Heer, Kriegsmarine, and Luftwaffe) committed systematic warcrimes, including massacres...
Ukraine in 2022, the Russian military and authorities have committed warcrimes, such as deliberate attacks against civilian targets (including strikes...
Turkish warcrimes are violations of international criminal law (including warcrimes, crimes against humanity and the crime of genocide) which the official...
Rangers as border sentries. A large number of warcrimes took place during the Vietnam War. Warcrimes were committed by both sides during the conflict...
all American prisoners of war in Korea died as a result of warcrimes". Although the Chinese rarely executed prisoners of war like their North Korean counterparts...
Warcrimes in Afghanistan covers the period of conflict from 1979 to the present. Starting with the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979, 40 years of...
World War I (1914–1918), belligerents from both the Allied Powers and Central Powers violated international criminal law, committing numerous warcrimes. This...
Italian warcrimes have mainly been associated with Fascist Italy in the Pacification of Libya, the Second Italo-Ethiopian War, the Spanish Civil War, and...
followed the prosecution in declaring the crime of plotting and waging aggressive war "the supreme international crime" because "it contains within itself the...
and Japan were occupied, and warcrime tribunals were conducted against German and Japanese leaders. The causes of the war are debated; contributing factors...
The Khabarovsk warcrimes trials were the Soviet hearings of twelve Japanese Kwantung Army officers and medical staff charged with the manufacture and...
Warcrimes in the Syrian civil war have been numerous and serious. A United Nations report published in August 2014 stated that "the conduct of the warring...
In ordinary language, a crime is an unlawful act punishable by a state or other authority. The term crime does not, in modern criminal law, have any simple...
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