What Are War Crimes?

What are war crimes? Can Vladimir Putin be prosecuted for them? Bloomberg's Hugo Miller explains.

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What are war crimes?

The definition used by the International Criminal Court in the Hague is extensive. It includes willful killing, torture, rape, forced prostitution, corporal punishment, hostage taking, unlawful deportation, using starvation as a weapon and shooting combatants who’ve surrendered, among many other acts. War crimes can also include using banned weapons such as chemical and biological arms, deliberately attacking civilians and non-military targets, targeting hospitals and other places where the sick and wounded are gathered, looting and carrying out attacks that will cause severe damage to the environment. Russia’s invasion could also be considered a so-called crime of aggression.

What’s a crime of aggression?

Essentially, it’s an attack by one country on another where there’s no justification of self-defense, according to former ICC President Chile Eboe-Osuji. The court defines it as the planning, preparation and execution by a state military or political leader “of an act of aggression which, by its character, gravity and scale, constitutes a manifest violation of the Charter of the United Nations.” An act of aggression means “the use of armed force by a state against the sovereignty, territorial integrity or political independence of another State” and can include invasion, occupation and annexation by the use of force, as well as the blockade of ports. The crime applies only to the highest ranking leaders who “exercise control over” or “direct the political or military action of a state.” The ICC adopted aggression as the fourth crime under its jurisdiction as of 2018, after war crimes, genocide, and crimes against humanity.

How are war crimes prosecuted?

The ICC was born out of an international treaty called the Rome Statute in 2002 as the first permanent, independent arena for holding people accountable for acts of mass inhumanity. It started with 60 countries and its membership has more that doubled since then. Notable countries that have not ratified the treaty are the U.S., China, Russia and India. (The U.S. says putting its citizens under the court’s jurisdiction would violate their constitutional rights.) The ICC can pursue war crimes cases when alleged offenses were committed by a citizen of a member state, or in the territory of a member state or a non-member state that’s accepted the court’s jurisdiction, or when allegations are referred to the court’s prosecutor by the United Nations Security Council.

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