F. International Criminal Court. The ICC has jurisdictior, over the following
crimes:
1. Genocide. "For the purpose of this Statute, "genocide" means ... acts
committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial
or religious group.. ." There does not appear to be a need to tie the crime of
genocide with an armed conflict in order for the ICC to have jurisdiction.
This is consistent with the Genocide convention.- Crimes against Humanity. "For the purpose of this Statute, "crimes against
humanity" means... acts when committed as part of a widespread or
systematic attack directed against any civilian population, with knowledge of
the attack.. ." This includes acts such as murder, extermination, enslavement,
deportation or forcible transfer, imprisonment or severe depravation of
physical liberty, torture, rape, sexual slavery, enforced prostitution, forced
pregnancy, enforced sterilization, persecution against any identifiable group
based on political, racial, national ethnic, cultural, religious, gender.. .,
enforced disappearance, apartheid, and other inhumane acts.
a. Although arguably customary international law no longer requires it,
traditionally, there had to be a link between crimes against humanity and
an armed conflict, however, the ICC Statute does not specifically require
such a nexus.b. However, jurisdiction exits only where the "attacks" are "widespread or
systematic." This language suggests that there must be something akin to
an armed conflict or at least a large-scale governmental abuse.- War Crimes. For the purposes of the ICC, war crimes means:
a. In the case of an International Armed Conflict:(1)Grave Breaches of the Geneva Conventions.(2) Serious violations of the Laws and Customs of War applicable in
international armed conflict. The statute lists what it considers to be
serious violations.b. In the case of an Internal Armed Conflict:(1)Violations of Common Article 3.