Prosecution of war crimes

The defence of superior orders is not new. However, within Australia, its statutory codification is lamentably underexplored. The 2018 Amendments to Part IIIAAA of the Defence Act 1903 (Cth) provides a neat catalyst to expand the defence and look at possible manners in which it can be constructed. Utilising a theoretical case study of Australian Defence Force members killing a possible terrorist, this article addresses the key elements of the defence-what an order is, when can it be constructed as being manifestly unlawful and what does reasonable and necessary force mean for Australian Defence Force members.

It’s a quarter of a century – and a half of my lifetime – since the 1995 Srebrenica genocide happened. Actually, to be more accurate, this genocide (like any other genocide) did not just happen; it was a planned, intentional crime committed by an army and the police trained, equipped and sponsored by Bosnia’s neighbour, the state of Serbia. They were the perpetrators –“beyond a reasonable doubt”, as numerous judgments by the ICTY have established– but this genocide was, in many regards, allowed to happened by the important actors within the international community who had chosen to play the role of passive bystanders, even though such a role was not only morally wrong but also against the international law and the 1951 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. Moreover, while representing the first act of genocide in Europe after the Holocaust, this was also the first genocide ever to happen in a United Nations Safe Area (which sadly proved to be rather an un-safe area). At the time, the United Nations had its troops on the ground in Srebrenica with the mandate to protect people trapped in this largest refuge for Bosniaks in eastern Bosnia. However, instead of this mission becoming a triumph of the United Nations, in July 1995 Srebrenica became a triumph of the evil and the lowest point in the UN history.

OGGETTO: Relazione del consulente tecnico a procedimenti penali relativi a episodi criminosi verificatisi durante il 2^conflitto mondiale in località comprese nel territorio della giurisdizione della Procura Militare della Spezia: 1) P.P. nr. 498/00 Reg.Mod. 21, in ordine al reato di "concorso in violenza con omicidio contro privati nemici" (art. 110 C.p., 13 e 185 co. 1-2 C.p.m.g.). Fatti commessi in Sant'Anna di Stazzema (LU) il 12.08.1944; 2) P.P. nr. 370/96 Reg.Mod. 44, in ordine al reato di "violenza con omicidio" (art. 185 C.p.m.g.). Fatti commessi in Padulivo (AR) il 11.07.1944; 3) Pp.Pp. nr. 365/96-76/99 Reg.Mod. 44, in ordine al reato di "violenza con omicidio" (art. 185 C.p.m.g.). Fatti commessi in Civitella e San Pancrazio (AR) il 29.06.1944; 4) P.P. nr. 188/00 Reg.Mod. 44, in ordine al reato di "violenza con omicidio" (art. 185 C.p.m.g.). Fatti commessi in Civitella (AR); 5) Pp.Pp. nr. 608/99-609/99-610/99-611/99-612/99-616/99 Reg.Mod. 21, in ordine al reato di "violenza con omicidio" (art. 185 C.p.m.g.). Fatti commessi in varie località del Valdarno durante il secondo conflitto mondiale; 6) P.P. nr. 374/96 Reg.Mod. 44, per il reato di "violenza con omicidio" (art. 185 C.p.m.g.). Fatto commesso nel Maceratese negli anni 1944 e 1945; 7) P.P. nr. 75/01 Reg.Mod. 21, in ordine al reato di "violenza con omicidio" (art. 185 C.p.m.g.). Fatti commessi in San Cesario sul Panaro il 14.12.1944.

https://www.toaep.org/ps-pdf/38-qcci This book offers detailed analyses on how the investigation and preparation of fact-rich cases can be improved, both in national and international jurisdictions. 24 chapters organized in 5 parts address, inter alia, evidence and analysis, systemic challenges in case-preparation, and investigation plans as instruments of QC.

The authors include Antonio Angotti, Devasheesh Bais, Olympia
Bekou, Gilbert Bitti, Leïla Bourguiba, Thijs B. Bouwknegt, Ewan Brown, Eleni Chaitidou, Cale Davis, Markus Eikel, Shreeyash Uday Lalit, Moa Lidén, Tor-Geir Myhrer, Trond Myklebust, Matthias Neuner, Christian Axboe Nielsen, Gilad Noam, Gavin Oxburgh, David Re, Alf Butenschøn Skre, Usha Tandon, William Webster and William H. Wiley, in addition to the four co-editors, Morten Bergsmo, Carsten Stahn, Simon De Smet and Xabier Agirre Aranburu.

There are also forewords by Fatou Bensouda (ICC Prosecutor) and Manoj Kumar Sinha, and a prologue by Gregory S. Gordon.

The book follows from a conference at the Indian Law Institute, and is the main outcome of the third leg of a research project of the Centre for International Law Research and Policy (CILRAP)

Despite the claims that the ongoing armed conflict in Ukraine has become a “frozen zone”, the reality demonstrates such a characterization runs afoul of the facts: hostilities continue on, with the increasing number of cases of massive human rights violations following the use of force by the Russian Federation in Crimea and its participation in the conflict in Eastern Ukraine. According to multiple reports, those violations in many cases amount to war crimes. It is thus necessary to ensure a proper compliance with legal rules applicable in the course of armed conflict, i.e., rules of international humanitarian law. Making sure the perpetrators of such crimes are brought under proper responsibility in accordance with relevant international criminal law standards is of equal importance. The matter of analyzing and properly qualifying the human rights violations as crimes under the jurisdiction of the ICC will be a central substantive task of the Prosecution team and the Court if the situation makes it to the case. This Chapter deals with the qualification of war crimes as pertains to the armed conflict in Ukraine. Its main aim is to consider the relevant IHL norms and apply them to the alleged acts. This is instrumental in a proper determination of what criteria could be helpful for the ICC in ensuring the criminal responsibility of those who committed – and continue to commit, the horrible acts on both sides of the conflict. Eventually, the Chapter will argue that adjudicating war crimes committed in Ukraine by all parties at the ICC level represents an imperative task if the claimed purpose of international criminal law to bring the perpetrators of international crimes to justice is viable at all.

U radu se donosi 13 dokumenata Okružnoga narodnoga suda Slavonski Brod iz druge polovice 1945. godine, tj. spisi sudskog postupka u kojem je optužen suradnik OZN-e za počinjenje kaznenog djela ratnoga zločina. U svibnju 1945. godine pripadnici Jugoslaven-ske armije (partizani) iz Srbije uhitili su i isti dan likvidirali pet osoba iz mjesta Oriovac u kotaru Slavonski Brod. Nakon prijave supruge jednog od ubijenih Oriovčana, pokrenuta je istraga koja je rezultirala optužnicom i sudskim postupkom. Ključne riječi: partizani, OZN-a, Oriovac, Slavonski Brod, ratni zločin, Okružni narod-ni sud

In late December 1949, the Soviet Union conducted a somewhat
unexpected war crimes tribunal in the Russian Far East city of
Khabarovsk (‘Khabarovsk Trial’). It was the only Allied trial entirely
dedicated to the Japanese bacteriological weapons programme and human experiments related to it. Twelve Japanese war criminals had to finally stand trial before a Military Tribunal after they had been held captive by the Soviets for four years. They were sentenced to a forced labour camp for between two and 25 years, but all those convicted returned to Japan by 1956. The unusually light sentences seem to have been handed down in exchange for “valuable” data on bacteriological warfare.

Uluslararası ilişkilerin temel aktörü olan devletler günümüze kadar silahlı çatışmaların da temel aktörü olmuştur. Devlet dışında pek çok aktörün ortaya çıkması ve etkinlik kazanmasıyla bu durum değişmeye başlamıştır. Devlet dışı aktörlerin silahlı çatışmalara doğrudan veya dolaylı etkisi artmaktadır. Devleti temel aktör olarak kabul eden uluslararası hukuk, devlet dışı aktörlerin silahlı çatışmalarda oynadıkları rolü yeterince kapsamamaktadır. Bu çalışmanın temel amacı devlet dışı aktörlerin yetki ve sorumluluklarını incelemektir.

When national courts judge international crimes like genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes, they can draw on both national and international criminal law. The relationship between these two bodies of law is not always clear. Can national courts base prosecutions of international crimes directly on international criminal law? In a world where national laws often proscribe international crimes in an incomplete or deficient manner, this question has considerable practical relevance for the enforcement of international criminal law. Yet, it has received little attention in doctrine while practice shows widely divergent approaches of national courts to the feasibility of direct application. The author examines the concept of the direct application of international criminal law in national courts. He provides a rich description of the relevant practice in many different States ranging from Argentina to Senegal. Easily accessible, this book is a valuable tool for academics and practitioners alike.

This paper notes that the Special Court for Sierra Leone, often cited as a ‘new model’ for post-conflict international criminal justice, has been lauded for trying ‘persons bearing the greatest responsibility’ for crimes during Sierra Leone’s conflict. The paper challenges narratives depicting neo-liberal intent on the part of the Court’s designing and co- operating states. Examining empirical data in this case illuminates state behavior seeking to shape case selection for real or perceived interests, including entrenching and weakening regimes in the region. The paper considers whether pressure to prioritize particular crimes would provide tribunal designers one more instrument to deploy where politically amenable. Placing the creation of the Special Court in historical context illuminates geopolitical objectives outside the parameters of orthodox transitional justice narratives which highlight the dangers of selective prosecution. The Sierra Leonean case warns against assisting duplicitous actors who could selectively preference thematic prosecution of sex crimes against the grain of emerging case selection norms. Homogenizing case selection criteria rather than diversifying it without broad consensus mitigates the politicization risk.

Данная монография посвящена вопросам уточнения причин возникновения,
природы, форм, разновидностей, стадий развития фашизма, идентификации его
проявлений в жизни современных европейских наций и определения набор институтов и
механизмов, которые могут использоваться для предупреждения его развития в будущем.
Книга предназначена для политиков, исследователей, общественных деятелей,
преподавателей общественных дисциплин, публицистов, правозащитников, общественных
активистов, которые заинтересованы в предупреждении возрождения фашизма в Европе.

Relazione del consulente tecnico al procedimento no. 1860/99 R.G.N.R. nei confronti di TSCHIERSCHWITZ Gerhard nato a Berlino il 23.4.1920, per il il reato di violenza con omicidio aggravato e continuato in danno di cittadini italiani in concorso (ertt. 13 e 185, co. 1° e 2°, c.p.m.g., 81, 110, 575, 577, n. 4, e 61 n. 4, c.p.).

""Im deutsch besetzten Italien fielen zwischen 1943 und 1945 mehr als 70.000 Menschen dem Partisanenkrieg zum Opfer, darunter etwa 10.000 Zivilisten, die bei Massakern und Geiselerschießungen durch die Besatzer getötet wurden. Diese Ereignisse haben sich tief in das kollektive Gedächtnis Nachkriegsitaliens eingeprägt.
Der Autor, der ein Jahrzehnt lang als Sachverständiger bei Kriegsverbrecherprozessen vor Gerichten tätig war, stellt in diesem Buch erstmals systematisch und auf breite Quellenbasis gestützt das Vorgehen der deutschen Besatzungstruppen dar. Sachlich und differenziert werden u. a. mehrere durch die Prozesse der letzten Jahren bekannt gewordene Kriegsverbrechen wie Sant’Anna di Stazzema, Civitella in Val di Chiana und Marzabotto sowie deren Täter untersucht.""

This book deals with the study of war crimes in ancient Greece and Roman world, and the relationship to this phenomenon during classical civilization. The book contains a large numbers of examples of war crimes and examples of punishing those who would commit them.

Between 1950 and 1972 Israel's Attorney General prosecuted approximately forty Holocaust survivors on accusation that they had collaborated with the Nazis. This article, which is part of a larger book project, gives an overview of these trials and the changing perceptions of those alleged collaborators that developed in them. Published in Jewish Honor Courts
Revenge, Retribution, and Reconciliation in Europe and Israel after the Holocaust (Edited by Laura Jockusch and Gabriel N. Finder) (Wayne State University Press, 2015).

Unit 731, at the forefront of Japan’s wartime bacteriological warfare programme, is deeply reviled in China but virtually forgotten in Japan today. Scholars have argued that this forgetting is largely the result of a United States cover-up of the Khabarovsk Trial, the 1949 Soviet military tribunal that brought the activities of Unit 731 to light.

This paper uses previously un-translated Japanese newspaper reports and clippings from People’s Daily, as well as British Foreign Office records and Russian Presidential Archive material to argue that the forgetting of the Khabarovsk Trial can be understood as the result of an “active forgetting” and a “passive forgetting”.

The official portrayal of the Soviet detention of Japanese soldiers in Siberia and the change in Soviet and Chinese policy towards Japanese war crimes between 1950-1956, this paper demonstrates, both had much to do with how the Khabarovsk Trial came to be forgotten.

On 14 December 1995, the signing of the Dayton Peace Accords ended the separatist war in former Yugoslavia and created the State of Bosnia-Herzegovina.
Twenty years on, MSF reveals how the organization spoke out about a conflict marked by ethnic cleansing, crimes against humanity, targeted assaults of humanitarian organizations and individuals, and the unfulfilled promises by the International Community.
MSF claimed that mass distributions of aid were simply a ‘humanitarian alibi’ of the international community that lacked the will to take political and military measures to end the conflict. Some MSF leaders even called for an armed intervention against the Bosnian-Serb artillery bombing Sarajevo.
In December 1992, MSF published a report describing the Bosnian Serb policy of ethnic cleansing. They denounced the Bosnian Serbs for hindering supplies to Srebrenica and Gorazde Muslim besieged enclaves. They raised awareness and denounced the lack of protection of the population when the enclaves came under attack in 1994 and 1995 despite being declared safe zones by the UN.
In August 1995, MSF denounced a lack of access to the Serb refugees and from 2000, MSF advocated for parliamentary commissions to be set up to investigate the military and political responsibilities of the States involved in the Srebrenica crisis.
This Speaking Out Case Study explores the variety of questions and dilemmas MSF faced, Among them: to what extent should MSF risk the lives of its staff in order to operate in conflict zones? Should MSF condemn obstacles set up to limit the access to the population if it meant no longer having any access at all? Should MSF denounce the fact that humanitarian aid was presented by the international political leaders as the only solution to the conflict and call for military force, an action that would lead to loss of human life?

Eines der wohl bekanntesten und besonders grausamen NS-Verbrechen sind die im Zusammenhang mit der sogenannten "Straßburger Schädelsammlung" begangenen Morde an Konzentrationslager-Häftlingen. 1 Im Jahre 1943 wurden 115 Menschen im KZ Auschwitz zur Ermordung ausgewählt. Im KZ Natzweiler unweit von Straßburg wurden 86 dieser Häftlinge mittels Gas ermordet, deren Leichen anschließend kon-serviert und gelagert. Alle Täter und Beihelfer dieses Verbrechens-mit Ausnahme des Lagerpersonals-arbeiteten in der SS-Wissenschaftseinrichtung "Ahnenerbe". Die Haupttäter waren Bruno Beger, Heinrich Himmler, August Hirt und →Wolfram Sievers. Der Anthropologe Bruno Beger studierte und promovierte bei dem "Rassenfor-scher" →Hans F. K. Günther. 2 Parallel dazu wurde Beger als Rasseprüfer im SS-Ras-se-und Siedlungshauptamt (RuSHA) eingesetzt. 3 Er gehörte zu den Teilnehmern der Deutschen Tibetexpedition 1938/39 unter der Leitung des Ornithologen Ernst Schä-fer unter der Schirmherrschaft von Himmler. Da SS und Ahnenerbe nicht über die Mittel zur vollständigen Finanzierung dieser Expedition verfügten, wurde sie von verschiedenen Unternehmen und dem Werberat der Deutschen Wirtschaft finan-ziert. Nach Rückkehr der Teilnehmer gründete Wolfram Sievers innerhalb der SS-Forschungseinrichtung "Ahnenerbe" die "Forschungsstätte Innerasien und Expedi-tionen", in denen die Forscher ihre Expedition auswerten konnten. Eines der Ergeb-nisse war der 1943 eröffnete Kassenmagnet "Tibet-Schau" im Salzburger Haus der Natur. Beger war in Tibet der damals wissenschaftlich gängigen Vermutung nachge-gangen, dass die Ursprünge der europäischen Rasse in Tibet zu suchen seien und zudem der weiteren Vermutung, dass immigrierte nordische Menschen die tibeti-sche Adelsschicht stellten. 4 Seit der der Wiedereröffnung der Universität Straßburg war der dortige Lehr-stuhl für Anthropologie noch unbesetzt. 5 Sievers erwartete generell die Habilitation der Ahnenerbe-Forscher. Beger schlug Sievers im Dezember 1941 ein potentielles Habilitationsprojekt vor: Er wollte die seit fast 200 Jahren von verschiedenen Wis-senschaftlern, darunter Immanuel Kant, vermutete Wanderungsbewegung rassen-anthropologisch belegen, weil er glaubte, in Tibet entsprechende Anhaltspunkte ge-funden zu haben. Sievers gewährte für das Forschungsvorhaben "Die Wanderungs-wege der Indogermanen auf Grund nordrassiger Restbestandteile" im Januar 1942 ein entsprechendes Stipendium-keine drei Wochen, nachdem Beger ihm dieses Projekt vorgestellt hatte. 6 Beger erhielt dieses bis Kriegsende. Er hatte in Tibet mit den damaligen Mitteln der Anthropologie gearbeitet-so etwa Vermessung des Körpers, insbesondere des Schädels, Bestimmung von Haar-und Augenfarbe. Hinzu kamen Abformungen des Kopfes von außen, aus denen ein Positiv hergestellt wurde. Nach den Vorstellungen Begers und seiner Mitarbeiter konnten die heute als genetisch determiniert bezeichneten Differenzierungen zwi-schen Schädelskelett, Fettgewebe, Muskeln und Haut nur auf eine einzige Weise

Le procès de Nuremberg fut le premier procès filmé. Sa représentation est étudiée au prisme de trois films réalisés à différentes époques : None Shall Escape (André de Toth, 1944), une fiction portant sur le procès imaginaire d'un dignitaire nazi ; Judgment at Nuremberg (Stanley Kramer, 1961), une autre fiction qui relate le procès des juges, l'un des douze procès successeurs qui s'est tenu à Nuremberg ; et The Memory of Justice (Marcel Ophüls, 1977), un documentaire qui présente pour la première fois des images du procès historique de Nuremberg, interrogeant notamment la responsabilité des Américains dans la guerre du Vietnam et des Français dans celle d'Algérie.

Wolfram Sievers was managing director (Reichsgeschäftsführer) of SS-scholar organisation "Ahnenerbe". The monographs www.skull-collection.com and www.himmlers-forscher.de have each a large biographical chapter on Wolfram Sievers. This article is a summary of these chapters.

Oružane sukobe u Bosni i Hercegovini u periodu od 1992. do 1995. godine, a koji su okončani zaključivanjem tzv. Dejtonskog mirovnog sporazuma, obilježilo su ozbiljna kršenja temeljnih ljudskih prava i sloboda te vršenja strašnih ratnih zločina. Procesuiranje optuženih za ove zločine odvija(lo) se na nekoliko nivoa, odnosno pred: a) Međunarodnim krivičnim sudom za bivšu Jugoslaviju (MKSJ), b) domaćim sudovima i c) sudovima pojedinih inostranih država. U radu su analizirani određeni pokazatelji vezani za procesuiranje navedenih zločina, njihov obim i struktura, kao i odnos osuđujućih i oslobađajućih presuda za pojedine ratne zločine, obim primjene konvencionalnih i sumarnih formi okončanja krivičnih predmeta te sudska politika sankcioniranja učinilaca odnosnih krivičnih djela. Došlo se do saznanja da je sa krajem 2020. godine okončano na stotine krivičnih postupaka protiv približno hiljadu optuženih. Najveći broj optuženih je procesuiran pred Sudom Bosne i Hercegovine (Sud BiH), potom pred MKSJ te nešto manji broj pred sudovima država sa prostora bivše SFRJ i pojedinih zapadno-evropskih država.
Istraživanjem je utvrđeno da je pred MKSJ od sveukupnog broja optuženih za ratne zločine počinjene na prostoru Bosne i Hercegovine njih čak 90,2% pravosnažno osuđeno za neki od datih zločina, dok je stopa osuđenih u odnosu na optužene pred Sudom BiH iznosila 67,2%, a pred sudovima u Republici Srbiji 70,2%. Zanimljivo je da je pred MKSJ čak 24,3% optuženih osuđeno u sumarnom postupku na temelju sporazuma o izjašnjenju o krivnji (plea agreement), dok je pred Sudom BiH primjenom sporazuma o priznanju krivnje (plea bargaining) kao konsenzualnog modela okončanja krivičnih predmeta osuđeno 13,3% optuženih. Za zločin genocida kao najteži zločin pred MKSJ, Sudom BiH i njemačkim sudovima osuđene su do sada 22 osobe i sve osude odnosile su se na djelovanje Vojske Republike Srpske tokom rata u Bosni i Hercegovini.. Na kraju, utvrđeno je da su pojedini sudovi, posebno Sud BiH, baštinili relativno blagu politiku kažnjavanja ratnih zločina.

Ključne riječi: genocid i ratni zločini u Bosni i Hercegovini, Međunarodni krivični sud za bivšu Jugoslaviju, Sud Bosne i Hercegovine, kaznena politika, sporazum o priznanju krivnje

Abstract
The armed conflicts in Bosnia and Herzegovina in the period from 1992 to 1995, which ended with the conclusion of the so-called The Dayton Peace Agreement was marked by serious violations of fundamental human rights and freedoms and the commission of horrific war crimes. Prosecution of defendants for these crimes takes place at several levels, ie before: a) the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY), b) domestic courts and c) courts of certain foreign states. The paper analyzes certain indicators related to the prosecution of these crimes, their scope and structure, as well as the ratio of convictions and acquittals for certain war crimes, the scope of application of conventional and summary forms of ending criminal cases and court policy of sanctioning perpetrators. It was learned that by the end of 2020, hundreds of criminal proceedings against approximately a thousand defendants had been completed. Most of the accused were prosecuted before the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina (Court of BH), followed by the ICTY, and a slightly smaller number before the courts of the former SFRY and some Western European countries.
The research established that before the ICTY, out of the total number of accused for war crimes committed in Bosnia and Herzegovina, as many as 90.2% were convicted of some of these crimes, while the rate of convicted in relation to accused before the Court of BH was 67.2% , and before the courts in the Republic of Serbia 70.2%. It is interesting that before the ICTY as many as 24.3% of the accused were convicted in summary proceedings on the basis of a plea agreement, while before the Court of BH 13,3% of the accused were convicted using a plea bargaining as a consensual model for ending criminal cases. So far, 22 people have been convicted of the crime of genocide as the most serious crime before the ICTY, the Court of BH and German courts, and all convictions related to the activities of the Army of Republika Srpska during the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Court of BH, inherited a relatively mild policy of punishing war crimes. Finally, it was found that certain courts, especially Court of BH, inherited a relatively mild policy of punishing war crimes.
Keywords: genocide and war crimes in Bosnia and Herzegovina, ICTY, Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina, penal policy, plea agreement

Dall’estate del 1943 e alla primavera del 1945, mentre la Wehrmacht arretra dal sud al nord Italia e il nuovo fronte della resistenza prende corpo, il Terzo Reich scatena la violenza delle sue truppe sulla popolazione civile. Uomini, donne e bambini diventano nemici da annientare, bersagli scelti di corpi speciali. Di quelle stragi Carlo Gentile si è occupato da studioso e da perito nei processi che in alcuni casi – come Sant’Anna di Stazzema – sono ancora storia viva. Frutto di anni di ricerca nei principali archivi internazionali – compreso il noto «armadio della vergogna – il suo lavoro ripercorre la storia delle vittime e ci offre un ritratto inedito dei carnefici, spesso militari molto giovani ma fortemente ideologizzati. Già pubblicato in Germania, dove è stato accolto come un importante contributo al dibattito storiografico, lo studio di Gentile è la cronaca di un biennio che ha ferito l’Italia nel profondo, ma soprattutto è un quadro dettagliato, assai significativo, delle strategie di guerra tedesche nel nostro paese.

Relazione del consulente tecnico al procedimento no. 304/A/2007 TOR R.G.N.R. nei confronti di MUHELHAUSER Otmar, nato a Burgheim (Germania) l’8 settembre 1920 e residente a Dillingen (Germania), Am Stadtberg 3, in ordine al seguente reato: concorso personale nel reato continuato e aggravato di violenza con omicidio commessa da militari nemici in danno di militari italiani prigionieri di guerra