The Nurnberg Principles & Crimes Against Humanity

The following is the International Law currently being used to prosecute Slobodan Milosovich for crimes against humanity. Everyone should be aware of this law and remember that NO ONE IS IMMUNE from this, including politicians who wage war!

The Treaty of London, August 8, 1945 (59 Stat. 7544), provided for the creation of the International Military Tribunal and the Charter of the Tribunal. The first session of the General Assembly of the United Nations unanimously affirmed the principles of international law recognized by the Charter and judgment of the Nurnberg Tribunal and directed the International Law Commission to formulate them into an International Criminal Code (Res. 95 [1], 11 December 1946). The Nurnberg Principles were adopted by the International Law Commission, June-July 1950:

Principle I. Any person who commits an act which constitutes a crime under international law is responsible therefor and liable to punishment.

Principle II. The fact that internal law does not impose, a penalty for an act which constitutes a crime under international law does not relieve the person who committed the act from responsibility under international law.

Principle III. The fact that a person who committed an act which constitutes a crime under international law acted as Head of State or responsible government official does not relieve him from responsibility under international law.

Principle IV. The fact that a person acted pursuant to order of his Government or of a superior does not relieve him from responsibility under international law, provided a moral choice was in fact possible to him.

Principle V. Any person charged with a crime under international law has the right to a fair trial on the facts and law.

Principle VI. The crimes hereinafter set out are punishable as crimes under international law:

(a) Crimes against peace:

(i) Planning, preparation, initiation, or waging of aggression or a war in violation of international treaties, agreements or assurances

(ii) Participation in a common plan or conspiracy for the accomplishment of any of the acts mentioned under (i).

(b) War crimes:

Violations of the laws or customs of war which include, but are not limited to, murder, ill-treatment or deportation to slave-labour 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.

(c) Crimes against humanity:

Murder, extermination, enslavement, deportation, and other inhuman acts done against any civilian population, or persecutions on political, racial, or religious grounds, when such acts are done or such persecutions are carried on in exceution of or in connexion with any crime against peace or any war crime.

Principle VII. Complicity in the commission of a crime against peace, a war crime or a crime against humanity as set forth in Principle VI is a crime under international law.

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