CYIL Vol. 6, 2015

ČESTMÍR ČEPELKA CYIL 6 ȍ2015Ȏ following a procedural vote of 11 in favour to 2 against (China, Russian Federation), with 2 abstentions (Chad, Nigeria), puts the situation on the body’s agenda. 62 Also responsible for crimes against humatity are Islamist terrorist movements having in the countries concerned a part of local territory under proper control. 63 3. War crimes – International humanitarian law The absolute majority of international humanitarian laws are peremptory rules. They had developed from the Nuremberg Trial, which had used the term war crimes. 64 This antecedent arrangement is focused on Regulations concerning the Laws and Customs of War on Land (1907). 65 Currently, the codification of contemporary international humanitarian law is expressed in the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (1998). 66 The now already stabilized customary general rules are reproduced in its Article 8. 67 But initially these rules were contained in treaties. This includes The Hague Convention (IV) respecting the Laws and Customs of War on Land (1907), 68 Geneva Protocol prohibiting the use of chemical and biological weapons (1925), 69 Geneva Conventions on the Protection of Victims of War (1949), 70 and finally Protocols thereof (1977). 71 The Rome Statute ICC constitutes the codification of already stabilized customary general peremptory rules on international humanitarian law; thus the Rome Statute is 62 See SC/11720. 63 See notes 45, 46 and 47 above. 64 See note 50 above. Article 6 (b) – “WAR CRIMES: namely, violations of the laws or customs of war. Such violations shall include, but not be limited to, murder, ill-treatment or deportation to slave labor or for any other purpose of civilian population of or in occupied territory, murder or ill-treatment of prisoners of war or persons on the seas, killing of hostages, plunder of public or private property, wanton destruction of cities, towns or villages, or devastation not justified by military necessity.” 65 Convention (IV) respecting the Laws and Customs of War on Land and its annex: Regulations concerning the Laws and Customs of War on Land. The Hague, 18 October 1907. In: Schindler D., Toman J, The Laws of Armed Conflicts, Leiden, Boston: Martinus Nihjoff Publisher, 1988, p. 69. Authentic French text: Convention (IV) concernant les lois et coutumes de la guerre sur terre et son Annexe: Règlement concernant les lois et coutumes de la guerre sur terre. La Haye, 18 octobre 1907. In: Deuxième Conférence internationale de la Paix , La Haye, 15 juin – 18 octobre 1907, Actes et Documents, La Haye, 1907, Vol. I, p. 626. 66 See note 48 above. 67 For details see: Henckaerts J, M., Doswald-Beck L. (eds.), Customary International Humanitarian Law, 2 Volumes (Vol. I: Rules, Vol. II: Practice). Cambridge: University Press & ICRC, 2005. 68 See note 65 above. 69 Protocol for the Prohibition of the Use inWar of Asphyxiating, Poisonous or Other Gases, and of Bacteriological Methods of Warfare (Geneva, 1925), LNTS, vol. 94, p. 65. 70 Especially Convention (III) relative to the Treatment of Prisoners ofWar. Geneva, 12 August 1949. UNTS, vol. 75, p. 135 and Convention (IV) on the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, 12 August 1949, UNTS, vol. 75, p. 287. 71 Numerous rules of Additional Protocol I and II to the 1949 Geneva Conventions (1977), UNTS, vol. 1125, No. 17512-17513.

128