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CYIL 7 ȍ2016Ȏ
THE UNITED NATIONS WAR CRIMES COMMISSION…
Commission), the Soviets were interested in participation in the Commission;
however, they wanted the right to be represented for all the Soviet Republics, i.e.,
the Ukrainian, Byelorussian, Moldavian, Lithuanian, Latvian, Estonian and Karelo-
Finnish Republics
19
(this Soviet idea was later partly implemented in the UN, when
the Ukrainian and Byelorussian Republics became full members of the organization).
Unfortunately, the Soviet Union never became a member of the Commission.
The final step towards the establishment of the Commission was made at
the diplomatic conference at the Foreign Office in London on 20 October 1943.
The following seventeen founding countries participated in the conference: Australia,
Belgium, Canada, China, Czechoslovakia, France, Greece, Luxembourg, the Nether-
lands, New Zealand, Norway, India, Poland, South Africa, United Kingdom, United
States and Yugoslavia. Denmark was admitted as member of the Commission in
June 1945. The chairman of the conference, Lord Simon, foresaw for the Commission
the following two primary purposes: “(1) It should investigate and record the evidence
of war crimes, identifying where possible the individuals responsible. (2) It should
report to the Governments concerned cases in which it appeared that adequate
evidence might be expected to be forthcoming.” While the preparatory investigatory
work was supposed to be done by the Commission, the eventual trials were left to
States.
20
The Commission was set up by a unanimous decision of the participating
countries that also agreed on its headquarters, chairmanship, procedure, secretariat
and expenses (in the form of agreed minutes).
21
3. The Legal Personality, Institutional Structure and Activities
of the Commission
The Commission was an international organization under international law. As
the History of the Commission points out, “[t]he minutes of the inaugural meeting do
not contain any detailed provisions regarding the Commission’s legal status. Its character
as an international organization or inter-governmental agency, however, has never been
doubted.” Given the conferred powers, secretariat, staff and budget, the authors of the
History of the Commission came to a conclusion that “[f]rom this it appears that the
Governments, when establishing the Commission, endowed it with the legal capacity
of owing property and entering into contracts” and as “it had not been incorporated
in the municipal law of any particular country”, it was “a truly international body”.
22
The History of the Commission thus relied on the doctrine of implied powers that was
restated by the International Court of Justice in case of the UN in 1949.
23
The legal
19
Ibid.
, p. 112.
20
Ibid.
, p. 113.
21
Ibid.
, p. 114-118.
22
Ibid.
, p. 127.
23
Reparation for Injuries Suffered in the Service of the United Nations, Advisory Opinion of 11 April
1949, ICJ Reports 1949, p. 174.