War crimes are serious violations of the laws and customs of war, also known as International Humanitarian Law (IHL), that give rise to individual criminal responsibility. They are defined in various international treaties and agreements, most notably the Geneva Conventions of 1949 and their Additional Protocols, as well as the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC).
Examples of war crimes include
- Willful killing
- Torture, or inhumane treatment, including biological experiments
- Willfully causing great suffering or serious injury to body or health
- Intentionally directing attacks against the civilian population or against individual civilians not taking direct part in hostilities
- Intentionally directing attacks against civilian objects, such as hospitals, schools, or places of worship
- Intentionally using starvation of civilians as a method of warfare by depriving them of objects indispensable to their survival, including willfully impeding relief supplies
- Intentionally directing attacks against personnel, installations, material, units or vehicles involved in a humanitarian assistance or peacekeeping mission
- Intentionally launching an attack in the knowledge that such attack will cause incidental loss of life or injury to civilians or damage to civilian objects which would be clearly excessive in relation to the concrete and direct overall military advantage anticipated
- Attacking or bombarding, by whatever means, towns, villages, dwellings or buildings which are undefended and which are not military objectives
- Extensive destruction and appropriation of property, not justified by military necessity and carried out unlawfully and wantonly
- Intentionally launching an attack in the knowledge that such attack will cause widespread, long-term and severe damage to the natural environment which would be clearly excessive in relation to the concrete and direct overall military advantage anticipated
- Forcibly recruiting and using child soldiers
- Rape, sexual slavery, and other forms of sexual violence
- Violence to life and person, in particular murder of all kinds, mutilation, cruel treatment, and torture
- Compelling a prisoner of war or other protected person to serve in the forces of a hostile Power
- Willfully depriving a prisoner of war or other protected person of the rights of a fair and regular trial
- Using human shields
- Collective punishment (collective penalties), reprisals and all measures of intimidation or of terrorism
- Pillaging or plunder
- Unlawful deportation or transfer or unlawful confinement
- Taking of hostages
- Outrages upon personal dignity, in particular humiliating and degrading treatment
- Other grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions
- Other serious violations of the laws and customs applicable in international armed conflict as defined in the Rome Statute
This list is not exhaustive, and other serious violations of International Humanitarian Law also constitute war crimes. The ICC, international criminal tribunals, and national courts can prosecute individuals for these crimes.
War crimes should not be confused with crimes against humanity.
- While crimes against humanity can only be committed against civilians, most war crimes can be committed against both civilians and enemy combatants.
- A crime against humanity must be committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack against a civilian population; there is no such requirement for a war crime.
- Another essential difference is that war crimes can only be committed during armed conflict, while crimes against humanity can be committed at any time, both in peace and war, and against a state's own nationals as well as foreign nationals.