Crime against humanity and Law

What is Crime against humanity and Law? Is it dealt under the international Criminal Court? How is UN Security Council responsible?

Crimes Against Humanity

The term crimes against humanity has come to mean anything atrocious committed on a large scale. This is not, however, the original meaning nor the technical one. The term originated in the 1907 Hague Convention preamble, which codified the customary law of armed conflict. This codification was based on existing State practices that derived from those values and principles deemed to constitute the “laws of humanity,” as reflected throughout history in different cultures.

As defined by the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court Explanatory Memorandum, "are particularly odious offences in that they constitute a serious attack on human dignity or grave humiliation or a degradation of one or more human beings. They are not isolated or sporadic events, but are part either of a government policy (although the perpetrators need not identify themselves with this policy) or of a wide practice of atrocities tolerated or condoned by a government or a de-facto authority. Murder; extermination; torture; rape and political, racial, or religious persecution and other inhumane acts reach the threshold of crimes against humanity only if they are part of a widespread or systematic practice.

In our society, there exist many crimes against humanity. A crime against humanity is a term in international law that refers to acts of a persecution or any large scale atrocities against a body of people, as being the criminal offence above all others. The Rome Statue Explanatory Memorandum states that crimes against humanity “are particularly odious offences in that they constitute a serious attack on human dignity or grave humiliation or a degradation of one or more human beings. They are not isolated or sporadic events, but are part either of a government policy (although the perpetrators need not identify themselves with this policy) or of a wide practice of atrocities tolerated or condoned by a government or a de facto authority. However, murder extermination, torture, rape, political, racial, or religious persecution and other inhumane acts reach the threshold of crimes against humanity only if they are part of a widespread or systematic practice. Isolated inhumane acts of this nature may constitute grave infringements of human rights, or depending on the circumstances, war crimes, but may fall short of meriting the stigma attaching to the category of crimes under discussion.”

The war crimes are also crimes against humanity. It takes the life of many a people. Under the Nuremberg Principles, the supreme international crime is that of commencing a war of aggression because it is the crime from which all war crimes follow. The definition of such a


crime is planning, preparing, initiating, or waging a war of aggression, or a war in violation of international treaties, agreements, or assurances.
International Criminal Court

The crimes against humanity dealt under the International Criminal Court. In 2002, the International Criminal Court (ICC) was established in The Hague (Netherlands) and the Rome Statue provides for the ICC to have jurisdiction over genocide, crime against humanity and war crimes. Article 7 of the treaty stated

that: For the purpose of this Statute, “crime against humanity” means any of the following acts when committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack directed against any civilian population, with knowledge of the attack:

• Murder

• Extermination

• Enslavement

• Deportation or forcible transfer of population;

• Imprisonment or other severe deprivation of physical liberty in violation of fundamental rules of international law;

• Torture;


• Rape, sexual slavery, enforced prostitution, forced pregnancy, enforced sterilization, or any other form of sexual violence of comparable gravity;

• 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;

• Enforced disappearance of persons;

• The crime of apartheid

• Other inhumane acts of a similar character intentionally causing great suffering, or serious injury to body or to mental or physical health.

Crimes against humanity are particularly odious offences in that they constitute a serious attack on human dignity or grave humiliation or a degradation of one or more human beings. They are not isolated or sporadic events, but are part either of a government policy (although the perpetrators need not identify themselves with this policy) or of a wide practice of atrocities tolerated or condoned by a government or a de facto authority. However, murder, extermination, torture, rape, political, racial, or religious persecution and other inhumane acts reach the threshold of crimes against humanity only if they are part of a widespread or systematic practice. Isolated inhumane acts of this nature may


constitute grave infringement of human rights, or depending on the circumstances, war crimes but may fall short of meriting the stigma attaching to the category of crimes under discussion. On the other hand, and individual may be guilty of crime against humanity even if he perpetrates one or two of the offences mentioned above, or engages in one such offence against only a few civilians, provided those offences are part of a consistent pattern of a misbehavior by a number of persons linked to that offender (for example, because they engage in armed action on the same side of because they are parties to a common plan or for any similar reason.) Consequently when one or more individuals are not accused of planning or carrying out a policy of inhumanity, but simply of perpetrating specific atrocities or vicious acts, in order to determine whether the necessary threshold is met one should use the following test: one ought to look at these

atrocities or acts in their context and verify whether they may be regarded as part of an overall policy or a consistent pattern of a inhumanity , or whether they instead constitute isolated or sporadic acts of cruelty and wickedness.

Responsibility of UN Security Council

UN Security Council Resolution 1674, adopted by the United Nations Security Council on 28 April 2006, “ reaffirms the provisions of paragraphs 138 and 139 of the 2005 World Summit Outcome Document regarding the responsibility to protect populations from genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity”. The resolution commits the Council to action to protect civilians in armed conflict.


A recognizable body of international criminal law does exist. However, the precise parameters of this body of law are often unclear, perhaps due to rapid and complex developments of our global society. International Criminal Law can be categorized according to whether the conduct in question is international, constituting an offense against the world community, or whether the act transnational, affecting the interests of more than one state. International criminal law is an autonomous branch of law which deals with international crimes and the courts and tribunals set up to adjudicate cases in which persons have incurred international criminal responsibility.