5:33 p.m .: War crime, against humanity or genocide?
We review the three definitions.
“War crimes” are defined as serious violations of international law committed against civilians or combatants during an armed conflict. War crimes include: homicide, torture, hostage taking, use of child soldiers, unlawful deportations, intentional attacks against civilians, rape, looting or intentional attacks against humanitarian aid or peacekeeping missions. The use of gas, or generally prohibited weapons that can cause “unnecessary suffering” or “indiscriminate strikes” such as cluster munitions, are also considered war crimes.
The crime against humanity is defined as “murder, extermination, enslavement, deportation and any other inhumane act committed against any civilian population, before or during war, or persecution on racial or religious grounds”, according to the Article 6 of the Statutes of the International Tribunal at Nuremberg.
The Genocide is described by the United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide as a “crime committed with intent to destroy, or in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group”.