My daughter failed the law school entrance exam. The hitch occurred in one single question - what are crimes against humanity. She simply mixed things up and talked about crimes against humanity. Despite the similar sound of the concepts, they have certain differences. To understand them, it is necessary to consider in detail the concept of crimes against humanity. In this article I decided to answer the following questions:
- The emergence of the concept and study of criminal acts committed against humanity;
- The role of humanitarian law in the process of forming the institution of such criminal activity;
- Definition of crimes against humanity;
- Signs of the described category of crimes.
A little history
Certain situations and norms, where there is responsibility for military armed conflict situations, have formed in the modern Criminal Code the institution of violations directed against humanity and nothing more.
At the modern international level, crimes that have caused and are capable of causing harm and damage to humanity are considered and studied. Among the main events that became the basis for the organization of this area of law are:
- Mass atrocities against civilians by the Japanese and German military.
- The growth of epicenters in which domestic and international wars occur.
- Long civil wars that claimed many lives. These are clashes that took place in Angola, Cambodia, Abkhazia, Yugoslavia and so on.
- Numerous casualties, counted among ordinary civilians, during the military conflicts that took place between Vietnam and the United States.
Currently the situation has not changed much. And now there are a considerable number of wars taking place in the world, causing massive violations of human rights and the key principles of modern humanitarian law, considered at the international level.
Term
In the Ukrainian language, two parallel translations of the term are accepted - “crimes against humanity” and “crimes against humanity”. For example, in the Ukrainian version of the “Convention on the Non-Application of Statutes for War Crimes and Crimes against Humanity” the word “humanity” is used, and in the text of the “European Convention on the Non-Application of Statutes for Crimes against Humanity and War Crimes” the word “humanity”.
From a philological point of view, both terms are correct, but have slightly different meanings. Thus, “crimes against humanity” are crimes that harm a person - health, well-being, honor. They belong to the criminal category and are punishable by law. This is murder, incitement to suicide, beatings, torture, failure to provide assistance to a person in danger, unlawful imprisonment, hostage-taking, human trafficking, exploitation of children, rape, corruption of minors. But “crimes against humanity” pose a threat not to a specific person, but to the human community, the environment, violating the rules of human coexistence. They are punished not only by the laws of a given country, but also by international law. This is propaganda of war, planning and waging war, the use of weapons of mass destruction, piracy, hooliganism on the street, desecration of a grave, cruelty to animals, environmental pollution, the creation of a criminal organization, banditry, a terrorist act.
Thus, crimes against humanity are also crimes against humanity, but not all crimes against humanity are also crimes against humanity.
Features of the formation of the concept
According to literary rules and certain legal sources, the concepts of "humanity", "humanity" and "humaneness" are somewhat related. Previously, the norms of public behavior and the specifics of crimes organized against humanity prescribed such acts that do not belong to violations against humanity.
It is for this reason that there is a need to separate the concept of “crime against humanity”.
Initially, specialists who studied the actions performed by the Germans began to work on the content of this concept. Work was carried out on Art. 6 of the official Charter of the Nuremberg Tribunal. A whole list of illegal actions carried out by the Nazis was compiled. Here are the most important of them:
- Murders;
- Extermination;
- Brutality against civilians;
- Persecution on national, racial, religious and political grounds.
After lengthy proceedings, a Diplomatic Conference was held in 1998, in which plenipotentiary representatives took part. This event was supported by UN staff.
Here the Rome status of the ICC was established. It contains a complete description of the categories of illegal acts and their clarification. Criminal actions of this kind can only be recognized as such if two rules are observed:
- The crime was committed on an extremely large scale. These are also systematic actions aimed at the ordinary person.
- Consciousness of the attack.
The role of the humanitarian legal field
Modern humanitarian law plays a fairly important role in the formation of the general institution of crimes organized and carried out against humanity. It has the following important goals:
- Establishment of special rules and mandatory standards of behavior characteristic of participants in the conflict. This is necessary in order to ensure freedom and human rights.
- Relieving the suffering of people who have become victims of confrontations.
- Protecting the population from various disasters that can be caused by wars.
- Identification of unacceptable methods of organizing and conducting military manipulations.
The humanitarian area of law in such a case acts as a source of classification of illegal military operations. Here, violations directed solely against humanity and based on certain principles and standards of internationally established law are considered and studied.
Responsibility for organizing and implementing actions against humanity is based on concepts and classification categories developed specifically by humanitarian law.
These are effective tools for protecting modern civilians!
The process of studying and classifying violations organized against humanity cannot be done without the foundations of criminal law. It is required for the effective formation of the optimal level of human responsibility for encroachments on legal relations established and regulated by modern humanitarian law. This goal is achieved due to such important factors as:
- Determination and fixation of the structure of regulations relating to violations of the law of a military nature.
- Recording illegal operations aimed solely against humanity.
The listed actions should relate to various armed military clashes taking place both at the international and domestic levels.
General concept and definition
Based on everything said above, it is possible to understand and accurately determine what the described category of criminal acts is.
Crimes against humanity are a series of actions dangerous to society!
Such manipulations will be considered directed against humanity if they infringe on:
- Personality.
- Universal human rights and freedom of modern man.
- Other rights and freedoms protected by modern humanitarian international law.
Acts, the organization and execution of which are directed against humanity, must be characterized as systematic and large-scale. They should be aimed both at the country as a whole and at the ordinary person. The period of violation of the law is also not important. Time can be either war or peace.
The main signs of criminal acts
There are six main features that distinguish crimes against humanity:
- Occur regardless of the time and situation on the territory of the state and in society, regardless of the fact whether it is a period of peace or war. What matters here is the connection with other persons and their illegal acts. A special exception is the persecution of one particular group, which from a criminal point of view is identified by certain characteristics.
- Illegal acts must be aimed at harming the welfare of civilians. The criminal and the victim can be either persons of the same state or simply people with common characteristics. It doesn't really matter for qualifications.
- Systematic and large-scale. The first concept refers to a variety of actions performed that have a violent side. As for large-scale, this concept means a large number of victims.
- The subject of the committed or planned violation understands and is fully aware that the attacks he carries out on citizens are exclusively systematic and large-scale. In other words, a person must understand the general situation of the crime being committed.
- The perpetrator committed inhumane acts while carrying out the attack. A direct sign of inhumanity is the direction of actions against a person’s personality and his freedom.
- Violations of the law and criminal acts are committed as acts of long-term persecution. As a rule, we are talking about racial, political, national, religious, cultural and gender persecution. These actions are unacceptable throughout the world.
Crimes against humanity are systematic. To ensure this, a fairly high degree of organization is required. It is based on such important points as:
- Methodical.
- Having a definite plan.
- Certain company and country policies.
In other words, the bulk of attacks are carried out to implement a specific policy developed by a company or country. It is not necessary to have something global in mind here; it is enough to simply carry out preparations before the attack. The expression of such a policy is permitted in two main respects:
- The state or company actively encourages or encourages the implementation of the planned attack;
- Development and creation of certain conditions for performing such actions.
Such companies can be entities such as certain government bodies, institutions and organizations, various armed forces and formations, as well as political movements and parties.
Main types of crimes against humanity
Such violations of the law are characterized by the fact that their actions are quite global in nature and are directly aimed at ensuring a high level of human security.
Crimes against peace and humanity in the Russian Federation are regulated by Chapter 34 of the Russian Criminal Code.
This chapter contains 7 articles, each of which characterizes violations of the law in this provision. In total, there are 4 types of crimes against people in the category:
- Criminal violation of the peace provision – Articles 353-356. It talks about such phenomena as aggressive wars, the use of mechanical and chemical means prohibited by law, as well as methods of warfare.
- Violations of the law that relate to non-compliance with the general human principle of life and goodness are Articles 357 and 358. This includes phenomena such as ecocide and manifestations of genocide.
- Various criminal changes in the formation and regulation of military conflict - Article 359. Here we are talking about mercenarism.
- A threat to the life and safety of those people who, at the time of committing crimes, are under the protection of official international associations - Article 360. This article deals with attacks on persons or institutions enjoying special international protection, for example, Russian embassies.
