War Crimes

Committed in the context of international armed conflicts, criminal acts that violate international norms regarding the conduct of war. The doctrine of jus militaire (a just war) and the rise of humanism in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, respectively, started forming an ethic that limited the means and conduct of war.

Further efforts in the 19th century, such as the first Geneva Convention and the Lieber Code (which regulated the U.S. Army laws of war), helped to [Page 803]humanize conflict. The Hague Peace Conferences, held near the turn of the 20th century, also helped to diminish the evils of war and began to regulate the new and frightening technology that was created in the last half of the 19th century—technology that permitted total war. The conventions, ideas, and norms that came from these sources helped constitute an idea of war crimes.

Varying Definitions of War Crimes

Definitions of war crimes vary. A common definition, however, and that used by the International Criminal Court, is based on the idea that war crimes are intentional acts that violate the rules for the conduct of war, or the Geneva Accords of 1949. These accords protect noncombatants in belligerent countries in times of war—both civilians and soldiers who have been removed from combat (because of illness, injury, capture, and so on). Many past definitions of war crimes (and the Geneva Accords themselves) focused on international armed conflicts, but because many modern wars are interethnic, intrastate wars, these definitions are changing.

Not all illegal or immoral acts committed in time of war are war crimes. To fit into that category, acts must meet certain criteria. They must be acts that violate the Geneva Accords' provisions in the context of an armed conflict. The perpetrator must know that the victim has protected status in the conflict. The crime must be committed as part of the war effort, with the perpetrator acting on the part of a belligerent party, with the consent or agreement of an individual who is acting in an official capacity.

An Intention to Harm

War crimes require an intention to harm, but can be committed directly or indirectly. Many statutes regarding war crimes agree that those who order (or persons of authority who tacitly support) such crimes are as guilty as those who actually carry out the prohibited acts. Thus, military personnel as well as civilians—members of government, judges, prosecutors, doctors and nurses, executioners, and businessmen—can be equally guilty of crimes under the appropriate circumstances.

War crimes include deliberate killing, torture, and inhuman treatment caused by omission or commission of certain acts. They also include using improper weapons, violating norms about conducting warfare, and committing postwar crimes against civilians (such as armed robbery or looting). Deliberate killing includes murder, massacre, and direct killings of criminal suspects without trial. Courts have also recognized indirect methods of causing death—withholding adequate food or medical treatment from prisoners of war, and forced marches—as war crimes.

Torture is defined as a belligerent act, deliberately inflicting significant mental or physical pain on a noncombatant. Activity legally categorized as torture would have been perpetrated to extract information or confessions; to punish, humiliate, coerce, or intimidate a victim, or for reasons based on discrimination. Specific activities that have been recognized by international conventions as physical torture include beatings during questioning, rape and sexual aggression, burns, electric shock, sleep deprivation, prolonged denial of food, and denial of appropriate medical treatment. Mental torture includes threats of execution of the victim or the victim's relatives, threats of exposure to others' torture, isolation, sensory deprivation, and simulated executions and burials.

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