The Persecution Of Children As A Crime Against Humanity

This book addresses age-based persecution of children as a crime against humanity in connection with genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes (persecution - with some variation in the elements of the crime - is an existing offence under the Rome Statute of the permanent International Criminal Court, the statutes of various international criminal tribunals i.e. International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia and under the statutes of other international criminal courts (i.e. the Special Court of Sierra Leone)). The book introduces a completely original concept in international criminal law, however, in discussing age-based persecution of children as an international crime against humanity where (i) the particular discrete child collective is targeted ‘as such’ for international atrocity crimes or (ii) individual children are targeted based on their age-based group identity as it intersects with other perpetrator – targeted characteristics such as gender, ethnicity, religion etc.

This book addresses the phenomenon of children as the particular targets of extreme cruelty and genocide during armed conflict. Selected International Criminal Court cases are analyzed to illustrate the ICC‘s failure to address the genocidal forcible transfer of children to armed State and/or non-State groups or forces perpetrating mass atrocities and/or genocide. An original legal interpretation of children as a protected group in the context of the genocide provision of the Rome Statute is provided. The work also examines certain examples of the various modes in which armed State and/or non-State groups or forces perpetrating mass atrocities and/or genocide appropriate children and accomplish the genocidal forcible transfer of children to the perpetrator group. It is argued that the failure to prosecute the genocidal forcible transfer of children through the ICC mechanisms (where the Court has jurisdiction and the State has failed to meet its obligations in this regard) undermines the perceived gravity of this heinous international crime within the international community. Furthermore, this ICC failure to prosecute conflicts with the interests of justice and ultimately results in an erosion of the respect for the personhood and human dignity of children.

This unique book organizes the decisions of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia by topic, including genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, individual criminal responsibility, command responsibility, affirmative defenses, jurisdiction, sentencing, fair trial rights, guilty pleas and appellate review. In selected cases, the book also applies key aspects of the law to the facts of the case.

Among other accomplishments, British barrister Robertson has appeared as counsel in many landmark human-rights cases, and he conducted missions for Amnesty International to South Africa and Vietnam during the 1980s. Here he identifies a shift from diplomacy to law as the crucial post-Cold War development in the world's efforts on behalf of human rights, and he writes authoritatively about history, the current situation in various parts of the world, and prospects for the future. Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch, provides an introduction. The book was originally published in the UK (1999, Allen Lane, The Penguin Press). Distributed by W.W. Norton. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

This market-leading textbook gives an authoritative account of international criminal law, and the investigation and prosecution of crime, and guides the reader through controversies with an accessible and sophisticated approach. Now covers developments in the ICC, victims' rights, alternatives to international criminal justice, and has extended coverage of terrorism.

This book examines selected legal complexities of the notion of torture and the issue of the proper foundation for legally characterizing certain acts as torture, especially when children are the targeted victims of torture. ICC case law is used to highlight the International Criminal Court’s reluctance in practice to prosecute as a separable offence the crime of torture as set out in one or more of the relevant provisions of the Rome Statute where children are the particularized targets as part of a common plan during armed conflict. Also addressed is the failure of the ICC to consider that the young age of the victims of torture (i.e. children) should be an aggravating factor taken into account in determining the ICC sentence for those convicted of the torture of civilians, including children, in the context of armed conflict as part of a common plan. The six UN-designated grave crimes against children (including child soldiering for State or non-State forces perpetrating mass atrocities, and sexual violence perpetrated on a systematic and widespread basis against children including child soldiers), it is argued, are also instances of the torture of children as part of a common plan such that separate charges of torture are legally supportable (along with the other charges relating to additional Rome Statute offences involved in such circumstances). Useful legal perspectives on the issue of the torture of children in its various manifestations gleaned from the case law of other international judicial forums such as the Inter-American Court of Human Rights and the ICTY are also examined.

"The widely held assumption that the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territory is a temporary situation and that the 'peace process' will soon bring an end to Israeli abuses has obscured the reality on the ground today of Israel's entrenched discriminatory rule over Palestinians. A single authority, the Israeli government, rules primarily over the area between the Jordan River and Mediterranean Sea, populated by two groups of roughly equal size, methodologically privileging Jewish Israelis while repressing Palestinians, most severely in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT), made-up of the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and Gaza. Drawing on years of human rights documentation, case studies and a review of government planning documents, statements by officials and other sources, [this report] examines Israel's treatment of Palestinians and evaluates whether particular Israeli policies and practices in certain areas amount to the crimes against humanity of apartheid and persecution."--Page 4 of cover.

Discusses incidents of various crimes against humanity, including particular war crimes and acts of genocide, and ways to prevent these atrocities.

Why is genocide the 'ultimate crime' and does this distinction make any difference in confronting evil?