War Crimes Act of 1996 The War Crimes Act of 1996 was passed with overwhelming majorities by the United States Congress and signed into law by President Bill Clinton . The law defines a war crime to include a " grave breach of the Geneva Conventions " , specifically noting that " grave breach " should have the meaning defined in any convention ( related to the laws of war ) to which the U . S . is a party . The definition of " grave breach " in some of the Geneva Conventions have text that extend additional protections , but all the Conventions share the following text in common : " . . . committed against persons or property protected by the Convention : willful killing , torture or inhuman treatment , including biological experiments , willfully causing great suffering or serious injury to body or health . " The law applies if either the victim or the perpetrator is a national of the United States or a member of the U . S . armed forces . The penalty may be life imprisonment or death . The death penalty is only invoked if the conduct resulted in the death of one or more victims . Legislative history . The law criminalized breaches of the Geneva Conventions so that the United States could prosecute war criminals , specifically North Vietnam ese soldiers who tortured U . S . soldiers during the Vietnam War . The Department of Defense " fully support [ ed ] the purposes of the bill , " recommending that it be expanded to include a longer list of war crimes . Because the United States generally followed the Conventions , the military recommended making breaches by U . S . soldiers war crimes as well " because doing so set a high standard for others to follow . " The bill passed by unanimous consent in the Senate and by a voice vote in the House , showing that it was entirely uncontroversial at the time . Ten years later , the United States Supreme Court ruled in " Hamdan v . Rumsfeld " that Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions applied to the War on Terrorism , with the unstated implication that any interrogation techniques that violated Common Article 3 constituted War Crimes . The possibility that American officials and soldiers could be prosecuted for war crimes for committing the " outrages upon personal dignity , in particular humiliating and degrading treatment " prohibited by the Conventions led to a series of proposals to make such actions legal in certain circumstances , which resulted in the Military Commissions Act of 2006 . Potential application . White House officials were concerned that they and other U . S . officials could be prosecuted under the War Crimes Act for the U . S . treatment of detainees after 9 / 11 for violations of the Geneva Conventions . In a January 2002 memorandum to the president , then - White House Counsel Alberto Gonzales authored a controversial memo that explored whether Article III of the Geneva Convention applied to Al Qaeda and Taliban fighters captured in Afghanistan and held in detention facilities around the world , including Camp X - Ray in Guantanamo Bay , Cuba . The memo made several arguments both for and against providing Article III protection to Al Qaeda and Taliban fighters . He concluded that Article III was outdated and ill - suited for dealing with captured Al Qaeda and Taliban fighters . He described as " quaint " the provisions that require providing captured Al Qaeda and Taliban fighters " commissary privileges , scrip , athletic uniforms , and scientific instruments " . He also argued that existing military regulations and instructions from the President were more than adequate to ensure that the principles of the Geneva Convention would be applied . He also argued that undefined language in the Geneva Convention , such as " outrages upon personal dignity " and " inhuman treatment " , could make officials and military leaders subject to the War Crimes Act of 1996 if mistreatment was discovered . The adoption of the Military Commissions Act of 2006 , defined in Section 6 of the act grave abuses of Common Article 3 to only include torture , cruel or inhumane treatment , murder , mutilation or maiming , intentionally causing serious bodily harm , rape , sexual assault or abuse , and the taking of hostages , thereby limiting the scope of the original law .