A war crime is a serious violation of international humanitarian law committed during an armed conflict. Such violations are prohibited under the 1949 Geneva Conventions and the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.
Prosecution of war crimes is often difficult in a situation where an armed conflict has destroyed or damaged the country’s judicial infrastructure, and domestic courts are no longer able to prosecute. As a result, prosecution of war crimes is usually the responsibility of other institutions such as international and hybrid tribunals and the ICC.
In order to be prosecuted for a war crime, the perpetrator must have acted in the course of an armed conflict and he or she must have been aware that there was an armed conflict. The ICC’s case law, following that of the ad hoc International Criminal Tribunals, has also established a requirement for “command responsibility” – that the accused person has overall control over a military group or unit, including through the provision of funding, training, equipment or logistical support.
The ICC defines a war crime as a grave breach or a serious violation of the laws and customs of war that falls within common article 3 of the 1949 Geneva Conventions and the first 1977 Additional Protocol. Under customary international law, war crimes can be committed during both international and non-international armed conflicts.
The United States has a domestic war crimes statute, codified at 18 U.S.C. SS 2441, which covers both war crimes and other violations of federal law that occur in the course of a armed conflict.
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