2023-10-14 11:49:00
What are war crimes?
The 1998 Rome Statute, the founding treaty of the International Criminal Court (ICC), defines the terms “war crimes” and “crimes once morest humanity”. A war crime is a serious violation of international law once morest civilians and combatants during an armed conflict, a serious violation of the 1949 Geneva Conventions, which created a legal framework for war following the Nuremberg Nazi trials. The statute lists more than 50 offenses as war crimes, including murder, torture, rape and hostage-taking.
Is Hamas’ attack a war crime?
“As far as Hamas is concerned, the matter is pretty clear,” says Ben Saul, an international law expert at the University of Sydney. “The deliberate murder of civilians is a war crime.”
And Israel’s reaction?
“On the Israeli side, the clearest violation is the complete closure, which prevents food, fuel, water and energy from entering the Gaza Strip,” says lawyer Saul. “Starvation is a war crime.” International law also stipulates that the parties to the conflict must pass on humanitarian aid to civilians in need without hindrance. Both Hamas and Israel are “bombing each other indiscriminately,” which is also a war crime.
Do violations of humanitarian law have consequences?
Legally, one might think of proceedings before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague. There, one state can sue another for violations of international law if both warring parties have submitted to the court. But Israel has not submitted, and Palestine is not even recognized as a state. Punishment might only happen politically through a UN Security Council resolution. It’s a question of principle: “The problem with the Gaza Strip is that half of the international lawyers say it is occupied, the other half say it is not,” says Saul. “If it is occupied, it is an international conflict. According to the Rome Statute, the entire list of war crimes applies.”
Author
Heidi Riepl
Foreign policy editor, Weltspiegel
Heidi Riepl
1697340586
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