Crimes against humanity

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The concept of crimes against humanity is a part of international customary law, and is not currently recognized by a dedicated international treaty.[1] The concept was first used in 1915 by the Allied forces of World War I (then France, Great Britain, and Russia) with regards to the mass killings of Armenians within the Ottoman Empire.[1]

The 1998 Rome Statute establishing the International Criminal Court represents the current consensus on what characterizes crimes against humanity.[1][2] The statute defines crimes against humanity as consisting of three parts: a physical element, a contextual element, and a mental element.[1][2] The physical element consists of any of:[1][2]

1. Murder
2. Extermination
3. Enslavement
4. Deportation or forcible transfer of population
5. Imprisonment
6. Torture
7. Grave forms of sexual violence
8. Persecution[note 1]
9. Enforced disappearance of persons
10. The crime of apartheid
11. Other inhumane acts

The contextual element is "when committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack directed against any civilian population."[1][2] The mental element is "with knowledge of the attack."[1][2] Unlike war crimes, crimes against humanity do not need to be linked to an armed conflict.[1]

The first prosecutions of crimes against humanity were made in 1945 during the Nuremberg trials following the culmination of World War II.[1] Other prosecutions have been made in connection with:

* Wars in the former-Yugoslavia[1]
* Rwandan Genocide[1]
* Civil war in Sierra Leone[3]
* Khmer Rouge[4]

The ICC has also issued arrest warrants for Vladimir Putin, in connection to the illegal Russian invasion of Ukraine,[5], and Ismail Haniyeh and Benjamin Netanyahu for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed during the 2023-2024 Gaza War.[6]

## See also[edit]

* Ethnic cleansing
* Genocide
* War crimes

## References[edit]

1. ↑ 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 Crimes Against Humanity United Nations Office on Genocide Prevention and the Responsibility to Protect
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (1998)
3. ↑ See the Wikipedia article on Special Court for Sierra Leone.
4. ↑ See the Wikipedia article on Khmer Rouge Tribunal.
5. ↑ "Situation in Ukraine: ICC judges issue arrest warrants against Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin and Maria Alekseyevna Lvova-Belova". International Criminal Court. March 17, 2023.
6. ↑ "What to Know About the I.C.C. Prosecutor's Request for Warrants for Israeli and Hamas Leaders". New York Times. May 20, 2024. `{{cite web}}`: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: `|publisher=` (help)

## Notes[edit]

1. ↑ This means real persecution, not the fantasies of whackjobs with a victimhood fetish.