2023 Laws of Puerto Rico › TITLE THIRTY-THREE - Penal Code (§§ 1 — 4939) › Subtitle 5 - Penal Code of 2004—Special Provisions (§§ 4733 — 4939) › PART V - Crimes Against Humanity (§§ 4933 — 4934) › Chapter 310 - Crimes Against Human Rights (§§ 4933 — 4934) › § 4934 - Crimes against humanity

(1) A crime against humanity is any of the following acts when committed as part of a general or systematic attack against a civilian population:
(a) Murder.
(b) Extermination.
(c) Slavery.
(d) Forced deportation or transfer of population.
(e) Imprisonment or other serious deprivation of physical freedom breaching the fundamental rules of international law.
(f) Torture.
(g) Rape, sexual slavery, forced prostitution, forced pregnancy, forced sterilization or other sexual abuse of comparable seriousness.
(h) Persecution of a group or community with its own identity based on political, racial, national, ethnic, cultural, religious, gender or other motives universally recognized as unacceptable pursuant to international law.
(i) Forced disappearance of persons.
(j) Apartheid.
(k) Other inhuman acts of similar nature that intentionally cause great strive or seriously attempt against bodily integrity or mental or physical health.
Any person who commits crimes against humanity in the modalities set forth in clauses (a), (b), (g) (in the modality of rape) and (i) of this subsection shall incur a first degree felony. Any person who commits crimes against humanity pursuant to the remaining modalities shall incur a second degree felony.
(2) For purposes of this section, the following terms or phrases shall have the following meanings:
(a) Extermination. — Means the intentional imposition of living conditions, deprivation of access to food or medication, among others, geared toward causing the destruction of part of the population.
(b) Slavery. — Means the exercise of the attributes of right of ownership over a person or group of persons, including the exercise of said attributes in the trafficking of persons, particularly women and children.
(c) Forced deportation or transfer of population. — Means the deployment of the persons affected, by means of explosion or other coactive acts, from the zone in which they are legally present, without motives authorized by international law.
(d) Torture. — Means to intentionally inflict pain or serious suffering, whether physical or mental, upon a person the accused has in custody or control; however, the suffering derived solely from unlawful sanctions or those which are the normal or random consequence of such sanctions shall not be deemed to be torture.
(e) Forced pregnancy. — Means the unlawful confinement of a woman which has been forcefully impregnated with the intent of modifying the ethnic composition of a population or to commit other serious violations against international law. In no way shall it be construed that this definition affects the rules of law pertaining to pregnancy.
(f) Persecution. — Means the intentional and serious deprivation of fundamental rights against international law for reasons of the identity of the group or community.
(g) Apartheid. — Means the conduct which implies the commission of a number of acts against a civilian population pursuant to a state or organizational policy to commit such acts or to promote such policy committed within the context of an institutionalized regime of systematic oppression and dominance over one or more racial groups, all with the intention of maintaining such a regime.
(h) Forced disappearance of persons. — Means the capture, detention or kidnapping of persons by a state or a political or paramilitary organization with its authorization, support or acquiescence, followed by the refusal to report on the deprivation of freedom or to give information regarding the fate or whereabouts of such persons with the intention of leaving same out of the protection of the law for a extended term.
(i) Gender. — Means both sexes, male and female, in the context of society.
History —June 18, 2004, No. 149, § 306, eff. May 1, 2005.