International crime

An “international crime” is an act that is defined as criminal under international law. In most instances, this will be done through international agreements, but customary international law also plays a role. Normally, an act will initially be defined as a crime by an international agreement and then, after the agreement has been ratified by a large number of states and generally accepted even by those states who do not become parties, the act may be regarded as a crime under customary international law. If an act is defined as an international crime under customary international law, this creates an international legal obligation to refrain from the commission of the act. The classic example of this process is the 1907 Hague Convention No. IV Respecting the Laws and Customs of War on Land, which the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg explicitly recognized as having become customary international law, at least by 1939.

Since the most important goal of these treaties and conventions is to ensure prosecution of the accused, many of the conventions strongly state an obligation either to extradite or to submit the accused for prosecution. Under normal circumstances, it is solely up to the state where an accused is apprehended to decide whether to extradite or prosecute him. To ensure that the prosecution option is realizable, each state party is required to take such measures as may be necessary to establish its jurisdiction over the offence in cases where the alleged offender is present in its territory and it decides not to extradite him. Usually, this will require the adoption of legislation.

Match the international crimes and their definitions:

Attack directed against any civilian population	the intentional infliction of conditions of life, inter alia the deprivation of access to food and medicine, calculated to bring about the destruction of part of a population
Extermination	the exercise of any or all of the powers attaching to the right of ownership over a person and includes the exercise of such power in the course of trafficking in persons, in particular women and children
Persecution	a course of conduct involving the multiple commission of acts referred to in paragraph 1 against any civilian population, pursuant to or in furtherance of a State or organizational policy to commit such attack
Enslavement	forced displacement of the persons concerned by expulsion or other coercive acts from the area in which they are lawfully present, without grounds permitted under international law
Deportation or forcible transfer of population	the arrest, detention or abduction or persons by, or with the authorization, support or acquiescence of, a State or a political organization, followed by a refusal to acknowledge that deprivation of freedom or to give information on the fate or whereabouts of those persons, with the intention of removing them from the protection of the law for a prolonged period of time
The crime of apartheid	the intentional and severe deprivation of fundamental rights contrary to international law by reason of the identity of the group or collectivity
Enforced disappearance of persons	inhumane acts of a character similar to those referred to in paragraph 1, committed in the context of an institutionalized regime of systematic oppression and domination by one racial group over any other racial group or groups and committed with the intention of maintaining that regime

Date: 2016-01-14; view: 1241

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