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Matched Legal Cases: ['art.4', 'art. 4', 'art. 49', 'art. 50', 'art. 1', 'art. 129', 'art. 1', 'art.1', 'art. 5', 'art. 49', 'art. 3', 'art.\n37', 'art. 8', 'art. 1', 'art.\n40', 'art. 4', 'art. 15', 'art. 27', 'art. 1', 'art.\n7', 'art. 14', 'art. 10', 'art. 7']

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Punishment of Non-State Actors in Non-International Armed Conﬂict
William A. Schabas ∗
Copyright c 2002 by the authors. Fordham International Law Journal is produced by The Berke- ley Electronic Press (bepress). http://ir.lawnet.fordham.edu/ilj
Non-State actors–like State actors–are increasingly exposed to the threat of accountability and punishment for abuses of human rights. If human rights law has shown itself to be somewhat lim- ited with respect to non-State actors precisely because it is focused on the obligations of the State towards individuals within its jurisdiction, this is not the case when it comes to individual liability for international crimes. The broadening of the scope of the concept of “crimes against humanity” and war crimes in recent years, so as to include acts committed in time of non-international armed conﬂict, has been of decisive importance in this respect. As the judges at Nuremberg observed in condemning the Nazi leaders for their atrocities: “[c]rimes against international law are committed by men, not by abstract entities, and only by punishing individuals who commit such crimes can the provisions of international law be enforced.”
Over the last half a century, international law has become increasingly involved in the regulation of non-international armed conflict or, as it is known more colloquially, civil war. In its landmark ruling on jurisdiction in the Tadic case, the Appeals Chamber of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former
Yugoslavia ("ICTY")
As early as the Spanish Civil War (1936-39), State practice re- vealed a tendency to disregard the distinction between inter- national and internal wars and to apply certain general prin-
ciples of humanitarian law, at least to those internal conflicts
that constituted large-scale civil wars.
had elements of both an internal and an international armed conflict. Significantly, both the republican Government and third States refused to recognize the insurgents as belliger- ents. They nonetheless insisted that certain rules concerning international armed conflict applied. Among rules deemed applicable were the prohibition of the intentional bombing of civilians, the rule forbidding attacks on non-military objec- tives, and the rule regarding required precautions when at- tacking military objectives.'
The Appeals Chamber went on to review the evolution of State
practice with respect to the application of international law dur- ing internal conflicts - situations like the Chinese Civil War of the late 1940s. The judgment notes that such developments culminated in recognition by the International Court of Justice
minimum hu-
the origins of this phenomenon to
("ICJ"),
in the 1985
Nicaraguacase, that certain
manitarian standards apply during internal armed conflict. 2
* Professor of Human Rights Law, National University of Ireland, Galway and Di-
rector, Irish Centre for Human Rights.
1. See Prosecutor v. Tadic, Case No. IT-94-1-AR72, Decision on the Defence Motion
for Interlocutory Appeal on Jurisdiction, at para. 100 (Oct. 2, 1995), reprinted in 35 I.L.M. 32 (1995).
See id, at paras. 101-02.
FORDHAMIN-TERNA7ONALLAWJOURNAL
[Vol. 26:907
Nevertheless, as is the case in the related field of interna- tional human rights law, the traditional view is that these norms
constitute obligations imposed upon States, not individuals. It is
true that Article 29(1)
has duties to the commu-
nity," ' and the African Charter of Human and Peoples' Rights
gives some particular attention to the subject.'
however, international human rights law addresses the question of individual responsibility only in an indirect manner, holding that States are bound to ensure respect for human rights by, for example, enacting and enforcing criminal law.' This duty is usu- ally only implicit in the human rights instruments, with some no- table exceptions: Convention on the Prevention and Punish- ment of the Crime of Genocide,' the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, 7 the
Rights ("UDHR") says that "[e]veryone
3. See Universal Declaration of Human Rights, G.A. Res. 217A (I11), U.N. Doc. A/
810 (1948). Article 29(1) reads: "Everyone has duties to the community in which alone
the free and full development of his personality is possible." Id. See also American Dec- laration on the Rights and Duties of Man, 1992, arts. XXIX-XXXVII, OAS Doc. OEA/ Ser.L/V/Il.23, Doc. 21, rev. 6 (1992).
4. SeeAfrican Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights, 1981, arts. 27-29, OAU Doc.
CAB/LEG/67/3 Rev. 5 (1981).
5. See Velasquez Rodriguez v. Honduras, 4 Inter-Am. C.H.R. (Ser. C) (1988); Bat-
tista de Arellana v. Colombia Communication no. 563/1993, at paras. 8.3, 10, U.N. Doc.
CCPR/C/55/D/563/1993 (1998); Streletz, Kessler and Krenz v. Germany, (34044/96,
35532/9, 44801/98) Eur. Ct. of H.R., 2001, at para. 86.
nity of Perpetrators of Human Rights Violations
53, ESCOR Supp. (No.3) at 175,
See also Question of the
(Civil and Political), C.H.R. Res. 1998/
U.N. Doc. E/CN.4/1998/53, at para. 27
6. See Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide,
art. v, 78 U.N.T.S. 277 [hereinafter Genocide
The Contracting Parties undertake to enact, in accordance with their respec-
to give effect to the provisions of
tive Constitutions, the necessary
the present Convention, and, in particular, to provide effective penalties for persons guilty of genocide or any of the other acts enumerated in article IIl.
7. See International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimi-
nation, Jan. 4, 1969, art.4, 660 U.N.T.S. 195.
States Parties condemn all propaganda and all organizations which are based on ideas or theories of superiority of one race or group of persons of one
colour or ethnic origin, or which attempt to justify or promote
and discrimination in any form, and undertake to adopt immediate and posi- tive measttres designed to eradicate all incitement to, or acts of, such discrimi- nation and, to this end, with due regard to the principles embodied in the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the rights expressly set forth in
article 5 of this Convention,
(a) Shall declare an offence ptunishable by law all dissemination of ideas based
PUNISHMENT OF NON-STATE ACTORS
of the Crime of Apartheid, 8 and the Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punish-
tional humanitarian law instruments. Accordingly, Article 146 of the Geneva Convention on the Protection of Civilians requires States parties "to enact any legislation necessary to provide effec- tive penal sanctions for persons committing, or ordering to be
The duty to prosecute is also set out explicitly in interna-
any of the grave breaches
of the present Conven-
tion.""'
on racial superiority or hatred, incitement to racial discrimination, as well as all acts of violence or incitement to such acts against any race or group of
persons of another colour or ethnic origin, and also the provision of any assis- tance to racist activities, including the financing thereof;
(b) Shall declare illegal and prohibit organizations, and also organized and all
other propaganda activities, which promote and incite racial discrimination, and shall recognize participation in such organizations or activities as an of-
fence punishable by law;
(c) Shall not permit public authorities or public institutions, national or local,
to promote or incite racial discrimination.
8. See International Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime
of Apartheid, Jul. 18, 1976, art. IV, 1015 U.N.T.S. 244 [hereinafter Apartheid Conven-
(a) To adopt any legislative or other measures necessary to suppress as well as
to prevent any encouragement of the crime of apartheid and similar segrega- tionist policies or their manifestations and to punish persons guilty of that
(b) To adopt legislative, judicial
measures to prosecute,
bring to trial and punish in accordance with their jurisdiction persons respon- sible for, or accused of, the acts defined in article 11 of the present Conven- tion, whether or not such persons reside in the territory of the State in which
the acts are committed or are nationals of that State or of some other State or are stateless persons.
9. See Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treat-
ment or Punishment, June 26, 1987, art. 4, 1486 U.N.T.S. 85 [hereinafter Convention
against Torture].
1. Each State Party shall ensure that all acts of torture are offences under its criminal law. The same shall apply to an attempt to commit torture and to an act by any person which constitutes complicity or participation in torture. 2. Each State Party shall make these offences punishable by appropriate penal- ties which take into account their grave nature.
10. See Geneva Convention Relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, Oct. 21, 1950, 75 U.N.T.S. 287. See also Geneva Convention for the Ameliora- tion of the Condition of the Wounded and Sick in Armed Forces in the Field, Oct. 21, 1950. art. 49. 75 U.N.T.S. 31: Geneva Convention for the Amelioration of the Condition
I. PROSECFTION OF "INTERNATIONAL CRIMES"
By and large, the obligation to investigate and prosecute
concerns crimes
that is, its territory, and as a general crimes of violence against the person.
committed within the jurisdiction of a State,
rule, is limited to serious Arguably, many of the
norms that impose a duty to investigate and prosecute serious violent crimes against the person, are not only binding upon those States that have signed, ratified, or acceded to the relevant treaties, but are also obligations imposed by customary interna- tional law. These obligations are enhanced with respect to a somewhat narrower category of offenses that are sometimes de- scribed as "international crimes." The Rome Statute of the In- ternational Criminal Court ("Rome Statute") declares: "Recal- ling that it is the duty of every State to exercise its criminal juris-
diction over those responsible for international crimes
The concept of "international crimes" is not clarified fur- ther in the Rome Statute 12 or, for that matter, in any of the other relevant treaties. Rather, it is a customary international law con-
cept, and it implies not only a duty upon a State to prosecute those crimes that take place on the territory of that State, but crimes outside the State as well. The Rome Statute gives the In- ternational Criminal Court ("ICC" or "Court") jurisdiction to prosecute three "international crimes", namely, genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes.'" In the recent Arrest Warrant case, the ICJ referred to "crimes against humanity and war crimes" rather than to international crimes,' 4 probably be- cause there may be other "international crimes" that lack the same level of importance and do not strike at the core of funda- mental human rights. The exclusionary clauses in the 1951 Con-
of the Wounded, Sick and Shipwrecked Members of the Armed Forces at Sea, Oct. 21,
1950, art. 50, 75 U.N.T.S. 85; Geneva Convention Relative to the Treatment of Prisoners
of War (IV),
CONF.183/9, Pmbl. (1998)
12. See id.art. 1.
1950, art. 129, 75 U.N.T.S.
13. Set?
See generally W I.IAM SCIAIR\S,
INTRODUMI'ION -T0 THE ROME
for aggression, the crime itself is left undefined, and the conditions for prosecution are
ICC is not capable of
prosecuting the crime of aggression.
I.C.J.121.
(noting that while Article 5(1) contemplates possibility of prosecution
At present, and for the foreseeable future,
14. SeeCase Concerning the Arrest Warrant of I I April 2000 (Congo v. BeIg.)
20031 PUNISHMENT OF NON-STATE ACTORS
vention Relating to the Status of Refugees ("Refugee Conven- tion") seem to make a similar distinction, recognizing a category involving "a crime against peace, a war crime, or a crime against humanity," and another, almost certainly broader, category of
tons."" Drug trafficking, for example, may be an "international crime" and "contrary to the purposes and principles of the United Nations," but it is almost certainly neither a crime against humanity nor a war crime, nor can it be said to rise to the same level of gravity. 6 In other words, when the Rome Statute refers to a duty to exercise criminal jurisdiction over those responsible for international crimes, it is surely referring to crimes against humanity and war crimes, but probably not to drug trafficking.
For the purposes of this discussion, the term "international crime" will be used in this narrow sense, and on the understand- ing that it overlaps more or less precisely with the category of crimes considered by the ICJ in the Arrest Warrantcase, and that set out in article I(F) (a) of the Refugee Convention.' 7 Crimes falling within this category also include genocide and apartheid, both of which are often said to be merely specific categories of the broader concept of "crimes against humanity."18
contrary to the purposes and principles of the United Na-
15. See Convention
Relating to the Status of Refugees, Apr. 22, 1954, 189 U.N.T.S.
137 [hereinafter Refugee Convention].
See Pushpanathan v. Canada, [1998] 1 S.C.R. 982, at paras. 59-60.
See Refugee Convention,
supra n.15, art. I (F)(a).
There is much authority for the view that genocide is also a crime against hu-
See generally Apartheid Convention, supra n.8 (recognizing that apartheid is a
crime against humanity). See also Convention on the Nonapplicability of Statutory Limi- tations to War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity, Nov. 26, 1970, art. 1, 754 U.N.T.S.
73. See also European Convention on the Non-Applicability of Statutory Limitation to
Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes of Jan. 25, 1974, art.1 (1), Eur.T.S. No.82; Second Report on the Draft Code of Offences Against the Peace and Security of Man- kind, [1984] 2 Y.B. ON H.R. 93, at paras. 28-29; Report of the International Law Com- mission on the Work of its Forty-Eighth Session, U.N. GAOR 51st Sess., Supp No.10, at
86, U.N. Doc. A/51/10 (1996); STEFAN GLASER, DROIT INTERNATIONAL PENAL CONVEN-
TIONNEL 109
TIONAL LAW AT THE THRESHOLD OF THE 21sr CENTURY 905 (Jerzy Makarczyk ed., 1997);
Theodor Meron, InternationalCriminalisationof Internal Atrocities, 89 AM. J. INT'L L. 554,
557 (1995); Tadic, Case No. IT-94-1-AR72, at para. 140; Prosecutor v. Tadic, Case No.
IT-94-1-T, Opinion and Judgment, paras. 622, 655 (May 7, 1997) [hereinafter Tadic Opinion and Judgment 1997]; Prosecutor v. Tadic, Case No. IT-94-1-A, Judgment, at para. 251 (Jul. 15, 1999) [hereinafter TadicJudgment 1999]. See generallyReport on the Situation of Human Rights in Rwanda submitted by Mr. Ren6 Degni-Segui, Special Rap- porteur, under paragraph 20 of resolution S-3/1 of 25 May 1994, U.N. Doc. E/CN.4/
(1970; Yoram Dinstein,
Crimes Against Humanity, in THEORY OF INTERNA-
II. A UT DEDERE A UTJUDICAtE AND UNIVERSAL JURISDICTION
Recognition of a "duty to exercise criminal jurisdiction" in
the case of international
questions. At a minimum, it clearly means the obligation to prosecute crimes committed on a State's territory. But, as has already been noted, this duty exists, in any event, under various human rights treaties as well as under customary law with respect to a broad range of crimes against the person, many of which do not rise to the seriousness of "international crimes". The duty of States resulting from international human rights law to prose- cute crimes committed on their territory corresponds to another
general principle of public international law by which States ex- ercise criminal law jurisdiction over their own territory and na- tionals. M Louis Joinet has pointed out that "[o]n principle, it
should remain the rule that national courts have jurisdiction, be- cause any lasting solution must come from the [N]ation itself." 2 " However, "all too often national courts are not yet capable of handing down impartial justice or are physically unable to func-
tion". 2 ' Frequently, too, they are resistant
usually because the authorities involved in prosecution are com- plicit with the perpetrators themselves. Even if it is not necessa-
rily an element of the offence, the crimes in question - geno- cide, apartheid, torture, and so on - almost invariably imply State policy and involvement or, at the very least, tolerance. Definition of an act as an "international crime," as opposed to simply an "ordinary" crime against the person, has a number of consequences, whose objective is to facilitate prevention and punishment of the act. In the case of international crimes, there may be a duty upon States to ensure prosecution of offences committed elsewhere, should they obtain custody of a suspected offender. States guarantee that these crimes are adjudicated ei- ther by trying the accused person themselves, or by extraditing him or her to another State that is prepared to do so. This is
crimes raises a number of important
to this responsibility,
1996/7, at para. 7 (1994); Report of the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Dis- crimination, U.N. Doc. A/52/18, at para. 159 (1997).
19. See S.S. Lotus (Fr. v. Turk.), 1927 P.C.I.J. (Ser.A) No.10, at 70 (Sept. 7).
20. See Commission on Human Rights,
Questions on Impunity ofPerpetratorsof Human
Rights Violations (Civil and Political),at para. 28, available at http://www2.hri.ca/forther-
ecord1 997/documentation/subcommission/e-cn-sub2-1997-20.htm. 21. See id.
often known by the Latin expression aut dedere autjudicare(liter-
ally, "extradite or prosecute"). The principle is designed to en- sure that perpetrators of particularly serious crimes are brought to justice. This obligation is set out in Article 5(2) of the Con-
vention Against
Torture 2 2 and in
the "grave breaches" provisions
of the Geneva Conventions. 2 3' However, there is nothing similar in the Genocide Convention or the Apartheid Convention. Some writers have argued that aut dedere aut judicarefor interna- tional crimes is also a customary norm.24 In the case of international crimes, it is also said that States must recognize that crimes committed within their own jurisdic- tions - that is, on their sovereign territories - may be prose- cuted by other States on a basis known as "universal jurisdic- tion". 25 This .isobviously implicit in the obligation aut dedere aut judicare. Unlike aut dedere aut judicare, universal jurisdiction is rarely set out in international treaties. In the case of the Geno- cide Convention, for example, the drafters quite intentionally decided to exclude universal jurisdiction, and to specify that ge- nocide should be prosecuted by the State upon whose territory the crime was committed or, alternatively, by an international court. 2 " 6 In 1948, at the time the Genocide Convention was drafted, States were very nervous that another State might pur- port to have the authority to prosecute such serious violations of human rights as genocide, committed upon their own territory. This was at the beginning of the Cold War, and they feared polit- ical mischief in various forms.
Recently, in individual opinions issued as part of the judg- ment in the Arrest Warrant case of February 14, 2002, several judges of the ICC recognized that the exercise of universal juris- diction in the case of international crimes (i.e., crimes against humanity and war crimes) was consistent with customary interna-
22. See Convention against Torture, suffa n.9, art. 5(2).
23. See Fourth Geneva Convention, supra n.10, art. 49.
24. M.CHERIF BASSIOUNI & EDWARD M. WISE, AUT DEDERE AuTiJUDICARE,
THE Duirv
EXTRADITE OR
3-5 (1995)
25. See Colleen Enache-Brown & Ari Fried, Universal Crime, Jurisdictionand Duty:
The Obligation of Aut Dedere Aut Judicare in InternationalLaw, 43 McGILL L.J. 613, 621
(1998) (defining universal jurisdiction as principle that assumes that every State has
that States universally
interest in exercising jurisdiction condemn).
to combat egregious offenses
26. See Genocide Convention, supra n.6, art. VI. See alsoWILLIAM A. SC:IIABAS, GENO-
LAw 46 (2000).
tional law. 27
However, since several judges disagreed, it cannot
2002, an application was filed before the ICC that requires it to
address the matter and, perhaps, resolve
resolved. 2 "
it definitively. 29
The law has developed considerably over the past decade or so with respect to whether or not acts committed during non- international armed conflict are punishable as "international
crimes". Two specific questions need to be considered: the meaning of the term "non-international armed" conflict, and the acts punishable as international crimes when they are committed during non-international armed conflict.
A. Non-InternationalArmed Conflict and the Other Categories
non-interna-
tional armed conflict exists because States have historically been more willing to accept obligations about the conduct of war and the treatment of victims, especially non-combatants, when the
conflict is international in nature. International humanitarian law was originally concerned with reciprocal commitments be-
tween sovereign States."' At the time of the Spanish Civil War in the late 1930s, it did not really admit any particular role for in- ternational law in the case of internal conflict." Since that time, international humanitarian law has developed more or less in parallel with the related field of international human rights law, which, from its very beginning, has addressed individuals rights
vis-d-vis the States that have jurisdiction
over them, rather
27. See Case Concerning Arrest Warrant of 11 April 2000 (D.R.C. v. BeIg.), 2002
I.C.J. 121, at para. 59 (Feb. 15) [hereinafter Arrest Warrant Case] (Joint Separate Opin-
ion of Judges Higgins, Kooijmans and Buergenthal; Dissenting Opinion of judge Van Den Wyngaert).
28. See id. Separate Opinion of President Gilbert Guillaume; Individual Opinion of
Francisco Rezek; and Declaration of Raymond Ranjeva.
Court of Justice, The Republic of the Congo
seises the International Court ofJustice ("ICJ") of a dispute with France (Dec. 9, 2002), available at http://www.nieuwsbank.nl.en/2002/12/11/r004.htm (stating that proceed- ings in the case are conditional upon France consenting to jurisdiction of the Court, pursuant to Article 36 of Statute of the International Court ofJustice). See also Statute of the International Court of Justice, 1978 I.C.J. Acts & Docs. 5, availableat http://www. icj-cij.org/icjwww/ibasicdocuments/Basetxt/istatute.htm.
29. See Press Release, International
30. See HENRYJ. STEINER & PHILIP ALSTON, INTERNATIONAL
RIGHIS IN CON-
TEXT 56 (2d ed. 2000)
(identifying inherently international character of humanitarian
31. This is not to say that rules of humanitarian
law did not apply to non-interna-
tional armed conflict. See Tadic, Case No. IT-94-1-AR72 at para. 33.
20031 PUNISHMENT OF NON-STATE
in the context of reciprocity that prevails generally in public in- ternational law. 3 2 From the standpoint of positive law, the starting point is common Article 3 to the 1949 Geneva Conventions, a provision that constitutes a kind of summary codification of norms applica- ble in what is described as "armed conflict not of an interna- tional character. 3' 1 3 The minimum standards applicable in such conflicts were further developed and supplemented in Addi- tional Protocol II to the Geneva Conventions ("Additional Proto-
col"), adopted in 1977."
tional Protocol attempts to define the concept of "non-interna- tional armed conflict," applying it to armed conflicts that take place between a State's armed forces and dissident armed forces or other organized armed groups, "which, under responsible command, exercise such control over a part of its territory as to enable them to carry out sustained and concerted military opera- tions and to implement this Protocol." 5 It adds: "This Protocol shall not apply to situations of internal disturbances and ten- sions, such as riots, isolated and sporadic acts of violence and other acts of a similar nature, as not being armed conflicts."" The Rome Statute, adopted on July 17, 1998, defines non-inter- national armed conflicts slightly differently, as "armed conflicts that take place in the territory of a State when there is protracted armed conflict between governmental authorities and organized armed groups or between such groups." 37
Unlike common Article 3, the Addi-
The definition of non-international armed conflict is intri- cately bound up with the existence of organized non-State armed groups. These are the "non-State actors" in the title of this Article. Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions, at least explicitly, imposes no such requirement, but the other two instruments insist, for their application, upon the presence of "non-State actors" with a certain level of organizational capacity.
& ALSTON,
supra n.30, at 57
human rights law and international law).
33. See Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of
War, supra n.l 0, art. 3.
34. See Protocol Additional
to the 1949 Geneva Conventions and Relating to The
of Victims of Non-international
(Protocol I1), entered into
force Dec. 7, 1978, 1125 U.N.T.S. 609 [hereinafter AP 11].
35. See id. art.l.
36. See id. art.
37. See Rome Statute, sulna n.l,
art. 8(2)(f).
The requirements in the Additional Protocol are somewhat higher than those of the Rome Statute, in that in the former
case, the non-State actor must actually control territory.
be "State-like," even if it lacks all of a sovereign State's attributes,
and does not enjoy recognition by other States, or membership
in international organizations."
tional armed conflict, the definition hinges upon the intensity of the conflict, rather than upon the level of organization or terri-
torial control of its non-State participants. There is a common denominator of humane conduct appli- cable to both international and non-international armed con- flicts, as well as to circumstances that do not even rise to the threshold of non-international armed conflict - the "situations of internal disturbances and tensions, such as riots, isolated and
sporadic acts of violence and other acts of a similar nature" re-
Such norms
ferred to in Article 1 of the Additional Protocol."
At the low end of non-interna-
of summary executions and tor-
ture, and they are as much a part of international humanitarian
law, as they are of the international human rights law. They are the non-derogable norms of the major human rights treaties. 4 1'
They are also norms of customary
sometimes described as peremptory or jus cogens norms. 42
law, 4 '
B. Individual Responsibility in Non-InternationalArmed Conflict
What, then, is the significance
tween non-international armed conflict and riots or sporadic acts of violence, as it concerns the kind of atrocity that is prohib- ited under all three legal regimes? Probably the most important
38. See AP II, supra n.34, art. 1.
39. See id. art.
40. See International
Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, 1976, art. 4(2), 999
U.N.T.S. 171 [hereinafter ICCPR]. See also Convention for the Protection of Human
Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, 1955, art. 15(1), 213 U.N.T.S. 221 [hereinafter Eu- ropean Convention on Human Rights]; American Convention on Human Rights, 1979,
art. 27, 1144 U.N.T.S.
See also General Comment No. 24, Issues relating to
reservations made upon ratification or accession to the Convenant or the Optional Pro-
tocols thereto, or in relation to declarations under this article 41 of the Covenant, Human Rights Committee, U.N. Doc. CCPR/C/21/Rev. I/Add.6, at para. 8 (1964).
See also General Comment No. 29, States of emergency
(Article 4), U.N. Doc. CCPR/C/21/Rev.1/Add.1 1, at para. 11 (2001).
41. See ICCPR, sup/ra n.40.
42. See ICCPR, supra n.40.
issue, at least historically, has concerned the punishment of such acts as "international crimes." The rapid growth and expansion of international criminal law in the past decade or so, of which the centerpieces are the ICC together with the Rome Statute, may tend to obscure the relatively underdeveloped status of this body of law for most of the second half of the twentieth century.
That certain violations of international humanitarian law might incur individual criminal liability was first established at Nuremberg, in 1946." 3 These "violations of the laws and customs of war" reflected prohibitions in the 1907 Convention (IV) Re- specting the Laws and Customs of War By Land ("Hague Con- vention"), 44 but were also considered to form part of customary international law. Because the entire concept of legal regulation of non-international armed conflict was in its infancy, it was not considered that there could be international criminal liability for violations of humanitarian law in non-international armed conflict. In 1949, when the Geneva Conventions were adopted, certain rules concerning international criminal liability were codified. This is the "grave breach" regime, as it is known in the Conventions, and as has already been mentioned, it establishes
obligations upon States to prosecute or extradite
judicare) in the case of certain particularly serious violations. Be-
cause it was generally believed that common Article 3 was the
only provision in those instruments that governed non-interna- tional armed conflict, the prevailing view was that the grave
words, there were no "international crimes" in non-international
armed conflicts. Proposals to extend the grave breach system to
breach system simply did not apply in such cases. 4 5 In
43. See generally Judicial Decisions: International Tribunal (Nuremberg), Judgment and
Sentences, Oct.
1, 1946, 41 AM.J. IN'L L. 172 (1947)
[hereinafterJudicialDecisions].
Respecting the Laws and Customs of War by Land, Oct.
U.K.T.S. 9, Annex.
But see Tadic, Case No. IT-94-1-AR72 Separate Opinion of Judge Abi-Saab on
the Defense Motion for Interlocutory Appeal on Jurisdiction, at para. 100 (Oct. 2, 1995) (stating that customary international law had extended application of grave breaches system to non-international armed conflict). See also Prosecutor v. Delalic, Case No. IT-96-21-T, Judgment, at para. 202 (Nov. 16, 1998). See generally Prosecutor v. Kordic & Cerkez, Case No. IT-95-14/2-PT, Decision on Joint Defence Motion to Dismiss the Amended Indictment for Lack of Jurisdiction based on the Limited Jurisdictional Reach of Articles 2 and 3 (Mar. 2, 1999); Prosecutor v. Aleksovksi, Case No. IT-94-14/I- T, Opinion dissidente du juge Rodrigues, President de la chambre de premiere in- stance, at paras. 44-49 (Jun 25, 1999).
non-international armed conflict were rejected by those who ne- gotiated the Additional Protocol. This did not mean that non-State actors, and the individuals composing them, escaped punishment. Usually, States con- tended that rebel groups are mere "outlaws" or "bandits," and as such, their conduct is governed by ordinary criminal law. Many
countries in the throes of civil disturbance or conflict have their jails packed with criminals claiming to be "political prisoners." Typically, non-State actors would escape individual criminal re- sponsibility when they were victorious, or when they were able to obtain amnesty in return for a peace agreement. In both situa- tions, the result has been impunity. There is a long tradition of this, and still no shortage of contemporary examples, such as the Belfast Agreement of 1998"' and the Peace Agreement between the government of Sierra Leone and the Revolutionary United Front ("RUF") of Sierra Leone of 1999 ("Lom6 Peace Agree- ment") ," that brought an end to the conflict in Sierra Leone. The recognition that acts committed by non-State actors - as well as, of course, by the States themselves and those acting on their behalf - during non-international armed conflict consti- tute international crimes has, despite amnesty in a peace agree-
ment or some form of inability or unwillingness
subjected such acts to prosecution by the courts of other States. This has been done under the principle of universal jurisdiction or the jurisdiction of an international criminal court. But well into the 1990s, it was widely believed that there was simply no individual criminal liability - as a matter of interna- tional law - during non-international armed conflict. When the matter was litigated before the Appeals Chamber of the ICTY, in 1995, most specialists supported this view. Judge Haopei Li re- ferred to a number of authorities on this, including Professor Theodor Meron, 48 the Commission of Experts appointed by the Security Council (the "Bassiouni Commission"), 49 and the Inter-
46. See Agreement Reached in Multi-Party Negotiations, Apr. 10, 1998, Ir.-UK,
available at http://www.nio.gov'uk/issues/agreelinks/agreement.htm.
47. See Peace Agreement between the Government of Sierra Leone and the Revo-
lutionary United Front of Sierra Leone (Jul. 7, 1999), available at http://www.sierra- leone.org/lomeaccord.html.
48. See Theodor Meron, War Crimes in Yugoslavia and the Development of International
Law, 88 AM.J. INT'L L. 78, 80 (1994).
49. See Final Report of 27 May
1994 of the Commission of Experts established Pur-
suant to Security Council
780, at 13, U.N. Doc. S/1994/674
national Committee of the Red Cross ("ICRC").5 The landmark ruling of the Appeals Chamber established that violations of the laws or customs of war could be committed in non-international, as well as international, armed conflict. 5 The approach of the Appeals Chamber was subsequently confirmed in the Rome Stat-
ute, which establishes subject-matter jurisdiction of the ICC over war crimes committed in non-international, as well as interna- tional armed conflicts. 2 Nevertheless, the lists of punishable acts are somewhat different depending upon the nature of the conflict, so it cannot be said that the distinction has lost all legal significance. The fact that atrocities committed by non-State actors dur- ing non-international armed conflict are also punishable as of- fenses falling under the general rubric of crimes against human- ity should not be lost sight of. But until recently, the question of whether or not crimes against humanity were punishable if com- mitted during non-international armed conflict or in peacetime,
subject to contention. The original definition of
humanity," established at the London Confer-
ence for the purposes of the Nuremberg Trials of the major war criminals, confined the concept to acts committed in association with international armed conflict. The Nuremberg Tribunal re- fused to convict the Nazis for acts committed prior to the out- break of the Second World War, in September 1939.53 Since Nuremberg, certain types of crimes against humanity
were recognized, by international treaty, as being international crimes even when committed in peacetime and therefore, aforti- ori, during non-international armed conflict. The first of them was genocide, defined as the "intentional destruction of a na-
tional, racial, ethnic or religious group."
Genocide Convention specifies that it is a crime under interna-
tional law "whether committed in time of peace or in time of war"." Although not spelled out, it is clearly understood that
50. See Tadic, Case No. IT-94-1-AR72,
Separate Opinion ofJudge
Li on the Defence
Motion for Interlocutor)
Appeal on Jurisdiction, at para. 9 (Oct. 2, 1995).
See Tadic, Case No.
IT-94-l-AR72,
See Rome Statute, supra n.l,
See JudicialDecisions, supra n.35.
See Genocide Convention,
supra n.6, art. 1. Article
The Contracting Parties confirm that genocide, whether committed in time of peace or in time of war, is a crime under international law which they under- take to prevent and to punish.
the Apartheid Convention and the Torture Convention both have a similar scope. Thus, as a matter of treaty law, applicable to States that have bound themselves to the relevant instruments, it has been possible to punish certain types of crime against hu- manity - genocide, apartheid, torture - even when committed in peacetime or during non-international armed conflict. Many would argue that these norms form part of customary interna- tional law as well, and therefore, apply even to States that have not ratified or acceded to the relevant treaties. But in any event, until quite recently, persons charged with most of the acts punishable as crimes against humanity, could continue to refer to the Nuremberg precedents and argue that such offences were only punishable when committed during in- ternational armed conflict. To that extent, they were more or less similar in scope to war crimes. Here, too, a decisive change in the law was operated by the TadicJurisdictionDecision of the Appeals Chamber of the ICTY. It held that "[i] t is by now a set- tled rule of customary international law that crimes against hu- manity do not require a connection to international armed con- flict. Indeed, as the Prosecutor points out, customary interna- tional law may not require a connection between crimes against humanity and any conflict at all." 5 Like the conclusion that war crimes could be committed in non-int&rnational armed conflict,
this finding was
also endorsed in the Rome Statute. 5 "
See Tadic, Case No. IT-94-1-AR72, at para. 141.
See Rome Statute,
supra n. 11, art.
7(1). Article 7(l)
following acts when
or systematic attack
as part of a widespread
Mtrder;
Imprisonment or other severe deprivation of physical liberty in violation
of fundamental rules of international law; Torture;
Persecution against any identifiable group or collectivity on political, ra- cial, national, ethnic, cultural, religious, gender as defined in paragraph 3, or other grounds that are universally recognized as impermissible under international law, in connection with any act referred to in this paragraph or any crime within the jurisdiction of the Court;
The recent non-international armed conflict in Sierra Le- one provides an excellent example of the importance of recog- nizing that acts committed in non-international armed conflict
by non-State actors are punishable as "international crimes."
ticle IX of the Lom6 Peace Agreement between the RUF and the
government of Sierra Leone, granted a full amnesty and pardon to the participants in the conflict that had raged from March of
[t]o consolidate the peace and promote the cause of national reconciliation, the Government of Sierra Leone shall ensure that no official or judicial action is taken against any member of the RUF, ex-AFRC [Armed Forces Revolutionary Council], ex-SLA [Sierra Leone Army] or CDF [Civil Defence Forces], in respect of anything done by them in pursuit of their objec- tives as members of those organizations since March 1991 up to the time of the signing of the present Agreement. In addi- tion, legislative and other measures necessary to guarantee immunity to former combatants, exiles and other persons, currently outside the country for reasons related to the armed conflict shall be adopted, ensuring the full exercise of
view to their reintegra-
tion within a framework of
their civil and political rights,
full legality. 5 7
Although a "moral guarantor" of the agreement, the United Nations ("U.N.") attached a note to the document declaring that it could not recognize amnesty for serious international crimes, although it had made no similar objection in 1996 when an ear- lier peace agreement had been negotiated. 5 " In January 2002, an international body, the Special Court for Sierra Leone, was established by the U.N. and the government of Sierra Leone to prosecute certain international crimes committed during the
armed conflict. 59 Article
10 of its Statute declares: "An amnesty
(i) Enforced disappearance
57. See Peace Agreement between the Government of Sierra Leone and the Revo- lutionary United Front of Sierra Leone, art IX (Jul. 7, 1999). See generally Karen Gal- lagher, No justice, No Peace: The Legalities and Realities of Amnesty in Sierra Leone, 23 T.
JEFFERSON L. REV.
149 (2000).
58. See Peace Agreement between the Government of the Republic of Sierra Leone
and the Revolutionary United Front of Sierra Leone, art. 14 (Nov. 30, 1996).
59. See Agreement between
the United Nations and the Government of Sierra Le-
granted to any person falling within the jurisdiction of the Spe- cial Court in respect of the crimes referred to in articles 2 to 4 of the present Statute shall not be a bar to prosecution." 6 "' Moreo- ver, the amnesty in the Lom6 Agreement is also no obstacle to prosecution by courts of other States acting pursuant to univer- sal jurisdiction. It is now beyond any doubt that war crimes and crimes against humanity are punishable as crimes of international law when committed in non-international armed conflict. Non-State actors, who may be members of guerrilla movements, armed bands, and even provisional governments, are subject to prose- cution on this basis. Where, for whatever reason, trials are not possible or desirable before the courts of the territory where the crimes have taken place, justice systems of other States may as- sume their responsibilities and prosecute on the basis of univer- sal jurisdiction. Amnesty or some other measure of impunity ap- plicable in the State where the crime has taken place, is no obsta- cle or bar to trial elsewhere. These developments in the law - most of them quite recent - mean that perpetrators of serious violations of human rights during non-international armed con- flicts, including non-State actors, are far less likely to escape jus- tice than they were in the past.
III. DEFINING THE CRIMES: THE CASE OF SEPTEMBER 11, 2001
The principles concerning the punishment of non-State ac- tors for offenses committed during non-international armed conflict, apply to the extent that the acts committed fall within the definitions of "crimes against humanity" and "war crimes." This is an area where there is much room for debate. Both cate-
one on the Establishment of a Special Court for Sierra Leone, U.N. Doc. S/2002/246 (Jan. 16, 2002).
& A.S. Muller, The Special Court Jbr Sierra Leone:
Id. art. 10.
See also S. Beresford
An Initial Comment, 14 LEIDEN INT'L L.J. 635, 639 (2001).
Special Court for Sierra Leone: Some Preliminary Comments, 11 EuR. J. INT'L L. 857
Robert Cryer, A "SpecialCourt"for Sierra Leone,
Suzannah Linton, Cambodia, East Timor and Sierra Leone: Experiments in International ]us- tice, 12 CRIM. L. FORUM 185 (2001); Avril McDonald, Sierra Leone's Shoestfing Special Court, 84 INT'L REV. RED CROSS 121, 125 (2002); Melron C. Nicol-Wilson, Accountability for Human Rights Abuses: The United Nations'Special Court for Sierra Leone, [2001 ] AuSTL. INT'L
L:J. 159, 163; Celina Schocken, The Special Court for Sierra Leone: Overview and Recommen- dations, 20 BERKELEYJ. INT'L L. 436, 450 (2002).
See generally Micaela Frulli,
50 INT'i. & COMP. L. Q. 435, 437 (2001);
gories of crimes have been defined by treaty law, the current benchmark being the provisions of the Rome Statute. In the case of crimes against humanity in particular, it is the threshold requiring that the acts be part of a "widespread or systematic attack directed against any civilian population" that poses much of the difficulty in interpretation and application. For the pur- poses of illustration, and because it is a matter of considerable interest at the present time, this Article examines, in detail, the terrorist acts committed on September 11, 2001. Most of the available evidence suggests the conclusion that the perpetrators are best described as "non-State actors," even if they may have received some support and encouragement from the existing
government of Afghanistan. The existence of an armed conflict is also a matter of some debate, but certainly few would argue that this was a case of internationalarmed conflict, in the sense of a war between two sovereign States. In the weeks that followed September 11, 2001, many recog- nized authorities in the field of international law described the attacks as a "crime against humanity." The U.N. High Commis- sioner for Human Rights ("UNHCR"), Mary Robinson, used this characterization, 6 ' as did the London barrister, Geoffrey Robert- son,62 and the French legal academic, Alain Pellet." In the aca- demic literature, M. Cherif Bassiouni used the term "crimes against humanity," but without real explanation, 64 while Antonio Cassese was somewhat more circumspect, observing cautiously that "it may happen that [S]tates gradually come to share this
."" Mark Drumbl discussed the matter with-
out taking any real position, 6 6 implying that it was perhaps so obvious as to require no discussion, as did Nico Schrijver.( 7
61. Press Release, U.N. High Commissioner of Human Rights, Statement by the
High Commissioner for Human Rights to Informal One-Day Meeting of Commission
on Human Rights (Sept. 25, 2001).
62. Geoffrey Robertson,
America Could Settle This Score Without Spilling Blood Across
Afghanistan, TIMES (U.K.),
Sept. 18, 2001, at
63. Alain Pellet, Non ce' nest pas la guerre!, LE MONDE, Sept. 21, 2001, at 12.
64. See M. Cherif Bassiouni, Legal Control of InternationalTerrorism: A Policy-Oriented
Assessment, 43 HARVARD INT'L
See Antonio Cassese,
Also Disputing Some Crucial Legal Categories of
InternationalLar, 12 EUR.J. INT'L L. 993, 995 (2001).
66. See generally Mark A. Drumbl, Judging the 11 September Terrorist Attack, 24 HuM.
RTs. Q. 323 (2002).
See N.J. Schrijver, Responding to International Terrorism: Moving
Internationallaw for 'EnduringFreedom'?,48 NETH. INT'L L. REV. 271, 282
Among non-governmental organizations ("NGOs"), Human Rights Watch ("HRW") used the term "crimes against human- ity,""' although the International Commission of Jurists ("ICJ") was more hesitant and equivocal." Justification for the use of the term "crimes against human-
ity" to describe the terrorist acts of September
11th hinges on
what is essentially a literal reading of the definition
against humanity" that appears in Article 7(1) of the Rome Stat-
11 It is of
course true that in a literal sense, the September l1th attacks were "widespread" and "systematic," and the victims were "civil- ians." But then, this can be said of the conduct of practically any serial killer. There is no significant judicial precedent to support such an interpretation, despite the growing body of case law giving meaning to the concept of "crimes against humanity" in a con- temporary setting. Moreover, those who advocate describing ter- rorist acts as "crimes against humanity" must deal with the un- comfortable fact that terrorism was quite explicitly excluded from the subject-matter jurisdiction of the ICC. The Rome Stat- ute provides that the Court will have jurisdiction over genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and aggression, but it does not cover terrorism. The Final Act of the U.N. Diplomatic Con- ference of Plenipotentaries on the Establishment of an Interna- tional Criminal Court ("Final Act"), adopted at the same time as the Rome Statute, notes that "terrorist acts, by whomever and wherever perpetrated, and whatever their forms, methods and motives, are serious crimes of concern to the international com- munity" - language that implies that they ought to be included in the Rome Statute."' The Final Act then goes on to regret the
fact that no definition
of terrorism could be agreed upon, ad-
ding that the situation may well change when the Rome Statute
of "crimes
ute, namely murder "committed as part of a widespread or
tematic attack directed against any civilian population".
68. See Human
Human Rights News, September 11: One Year On:
Message to the Human Rights Community (Sep.
press/2002/09/septl
9, 2002), availableat http:!/www.hrw.org/
69. See Roderico Andreu-Gueran, TJrrorisme et droits de I'homme, [2002] REv. INT'L
COMM'N OF JURISTS 31, 35.
See also U.N. Doc. A/CONF. 183/C.I /L.27.
Rome Statute, supra n. 11, art. 7(1).
See Final Act of the United Nations Diplomatic Conference of Plenipotentaries
on the Establishment of an International Criminal Court, Res. E, U.N. Doc. A/
CONF.183/10 (Jul. 17, 1998) [hererinafter Final Act].
statement at the Rome Conference,
that terrorist crimes "were not covered by the Statute." 73
The exclusion of terrorism from the Rome Statute is per- haps not as serious an obstacle as it may seem, however. Al- though "terrorism" is a concept that has eluded definition, there can be no doubt that acts that may terrorize civilian populations in order to achieve political objectives may also, in specific cir- cumstances, constitute crimes against humanity, or war crimes, or for that matter, genocide. There is undoubtedly an overlap. But this does not mean that terrorist acts are, by definition, crimes against humanity merely because they may appear to be
after its entry into force. 7 2 In its final
Turkey lamented
"widespread" or "systematic" attacks on civilian victims.
something profoundly unsatisfying about legal constructions that are rooted in literalism and that have no precedent among
Progressive jurists tend to eschew literal in-
terpretation in favor of a purposive or teleological approach, aimed at the true intent of the drafters of the legislation, rather than some unpredictable technical result that may fly in the face of what the provision was meant to say. The problem with the literal approach to crimes against hu- manity that is proposed by some jurists, is that while it may catch the events of September 11th, it leaves the concept with indeter- minate parameters and virtually impossible to distinguish from other "terrorist" acts of lesser magnitude, such as the release of sarin gas in the Tokyo subway, the bombings in the Paris metro, IRA bomb attacks in the City of London or at Canary Wharf," or the destruction of the federal office building in Oklahoma City by a few right wing eccentrics.
Until recently, it was generally agreed that crimes against humanity required a "State policy" component, and this would probably have been enough to exclude the events of September 11 th from the ambit of "crimes against humanity." This was how "crimes against humanity" were originally conceived of when the
See TiE INTERNATIONAL. CRIMINAl.
COURT, THE MAKING OF THE ROME STATUTE,
NEGoTrlATIONS,
RESUI'S 629 (Roy Lee ed., 2000).
74. See Dovydas Vitkauskas, The Role of Secu ity hltelligence Service in a Democracy, North
Atlantic Treaty Organization: Democratic lostitlution Fellowships Programme 15 (June 15, 1999), available at http://www.nato.int/acad/fellow/97-99/vitkaLskas (providing list of prominent terrorist attacks in 1990s).
term was first coined for the Nuremberg trial of the major war
1994, in one of the major national
prosecutions for crimes against humanity, R. v. Finta, the major-
ity of the Supreme Court of Canada relied upon expert witness M. Cherif Bassiouni, who had testified that "'[S] tate action or policy' was a pre-requisite legal element of crimes against hu-
manity," 75 a view
the dissenters. 7 6 But the law was already changing, and in 1997, a Trial Chamber of the ICTY held that "crimes against humanity" re- quired "a governmental, organizational or group policy" rather than the narrower '[S]tate policy.' 77 The Trial Chamber relied upon the views of the International Law Commission, which had greatly broadened the scope of crimes against humanity when it
gave them an essentially negative definition, stating that this was
isolated or random acts. ' 78 But
driven by "the desire to exclude
focusing on this negative aspect can lead to absurd results, such
as the inclusion
Trial Chamber limited the scope of "crimes against humanity by invoking the "policy" requirement, which, it must be said, had never been part of the literal definition of "crimes against hu- manity." At the very least, this expansion of the definition made it applicable to certain "non-State actors."
that seemed to be common ground even for
ICTY in Tadic, was qualification of acts of "ethnic cleansing" car-
ried out in furtherance of the Bosnian Serb entity that ruled over parts of Bosnia and Herzegovina from April 1992. According to the Trial Chamber:
An additional issue concerns the nature of the entity behind the policy. The traditional conception was, in fact, not only that a policy must be present but that the policy must be that of a State, as was the case in Nazi Germany. The prevailing
opinion was, as explained by one commentator, that crimes against humanity, as crimes of a collective nature, require a State policy "because their commission requires the use of the State's institutions, personnel and resources in order to com-
See also M.
CRIMES AGAINST HUMANrIY 243-81 (2d rev. ed., 1999).
See Tactic Opinion and J.dgement
1997, supra n. 18, at para. 645.
See id. at para. 648.
mit, or refrain from preventing the commission of, the speci- fied crimes described in Article 6(c) [of the Nuremberg Charter]." While this may have been the case during the Sec- ond World War, and thus the jurisprudence followed by courts adjudicating charges of crimes against humanity based on event<