Crimes against Humanity

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20.12.2024 - The Hindu

Adoption of treaty

December 4, 2024, the UN General Assembly (UNGA) adopted a resolution approving the text of a proposed treaty governing the prevention and punishment of crimes against humanity (CAH treaty).

Provisions of treaty

  • Includes starvation of civilian populations, gender apartheid, forced pregnancy, the use of nuclear weapons, terrorism, exploitation of natural resources, and crimes against indigenous populations.

After a considerable delay…

This took place five years after the International Law Commission submitted the draft text of the CAH treaty to the Sixth Committee of UNGA.

Other international treaties

For genocide - Genocide convention, 1948 For war crimes - Geneva convention, 1949 For CAH - Rome statute

Crimes included under Rome statute - ICC - International Criminal Court

  • murder, extermination, enslavement, deportation, torture, imprisonment, and rape
  • committed as part of a ‘widespread or systematic attack directed against any civilian population, with knowledge of the attack’.

Short history about CAH

  • first codified in 1945 London Charter, establishing Nuremberg tribunal to investigate and prosecute crime committed in connection wth second world war
  • It was later introduced in the International Criminal tribunal for Yugoslavia and Rwanda

Reasons for justifying CAH treaty, a need of the hour

  • The jurisdiction of the ICC - International Criminal Court covers only a limited number of states
  • It addresses only individual criminal responsibility**
  • 2019, Gambia filed a case before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) against Myanmar for alleged violations of the Genocide Convention against the ethnic Rohingya population.

Bharat's perspective

  • @ Bharat not a part of Rome statute
  • Has argued that crimes committed only during armed conflicts and not those committed during peacetime should be considered CAH.
  • Does not favour the inclusion of ‘enforced disappearance’ as an act
  • Advocates for the inclusion of terrorism as an act of CAH
  • Currently, Bharat doesn't have a domestic legislation prohibiting international crimes
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