International crimes: concept and types

In global legal norms there is no single concept of an international crime. However, they contain its main features. In various sources, there is such a definition as "an international crime against humanity and the world." Many scientists and the UN Commission consider these terms synonymous. In this connection, it was decided not to introduce a general definition. The UN Commission concluded that the establishment of the general limits of the concept defining international crimes, the concept and types of such acts provided for in the Charter of the Nuremberg Tribunal (in Article 6), should be implemented in practice.

General Definition

At present, many definitions are proposed in the world and national literature. Analyzing them, the specialists tried to formulate a general definition. International criminal offense is a violation of global legal regulations. It entails individual punishment for the person who committed it. The main feature of this act is its principal jurisdiction of the court of any country that wants and has the opportunity to start the appropriate production. This feature distinguishes international crimes from ordinary acts, the persecution of which concerns the doctrine of state sovereignty.

Similar category

International crimes constitute an encroachment on peaceful cooperation in various spheres of relations: property, socio-cultural, economic and so on. Such acts harm the legal persons and citizens of different countries. Penalties for crimes of an international character may be established in relevant interstate agreements. However, such treaties must be ratified by the countries that signed them. The prosecution of the perpetrators in this case is carried out within the limits of a specific state jurisdiction. Such actions, as a rule, include piracy, hijacking of planes, counterfeiting, manufacturing and distribution of drugs and so on.

What are the signs of international crimes?

Their characteristics are based on certain characteristics. First of all, this is a wide sphere of distribution. An international crime, a crime against peace, covers violations of both normal, general norms and the terms of interstate agreements. Regulations that do not comply with the guilty subject should be aimed at protecting specific values. They are considered by the world community as the most important and connecting all people and all countries. The main values are fixed:

• In the UN Charter.
• The Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
• European Convention.
• International Covenants.
• The Geneva Convention, etc.

The fight against international crimes is a task for the entire world community.

Basic Types

In the normative documents, the following types of international crimes are distinguished:

1. Genocide.
2. Military encroachment.
3. Crimes against humanity.
4. Aggression.

Genocide

This definition covers international legal crimes committed with the aim of destroying an ethnic, religious or national group. In particular, they include:

1. Murder of community members.
2. Prevention of childbearing.
3. Mental impact.
4. Limitation of conditions for normal life.
5. Physical damage.

These international crimes are enshrined in the Convention on the Prevention of and Punishment of Genocide of 1948, in the Rome Statute of the ICC of 1998.

Encroachments on citizens

This category includes the following international crimes:

• Enslavement.
• Murder.
• Link.
• Persecution on religious, racial, political and other grounds, etc.

These acts are reflected in the Rome Statute, the Statute of the International Tribunal.

Military encroachment

These include international crimes:

• Slavery against the inhabitants of the occupied territory.
• Torture of civilians.
• Murders of citizens.
• Violent actions towards prisoners of war.
• Hostage kills.
• The ruin and robbery of private or public property, not justified by military maneuvers.
• Destruction of villages or cities, etc.

Such crimes are enshrined in the Statute of the Tribunal, the Rome Statute, the Additional Protocol to the Geneva Conventions.

Domestic legislation

Responsibility for international crimes is recorded in Ch. 34 of the Criminal Code. It provides for punishment for the following articles:

• 354 - for a public call to unleash a war.
• 356 - for the use of prohibited methods and means of warfare.
• 357 for genocide.
• 360 - for attacking institutions and persons under international protection.

It should be said that Art. 356 of the Criminal Code is inherently blanket, since it contains a reference to interstate agreements with the Russian Federation.

Recognition of acts: consequences

Researchers identify several of the most significant legal consequences of the classification of encroachments as international crimes:

1. Acts of this category are punished regardless of whether any sanctions are provided for them in domestic law.
2. International encroachments may be prosecuted by courts that, under other (ordinary) circumstances, would not have jurisdiction. This means that the subjects who are supposedly responsible for their commission can be convicted and punished by any country, regardless of the territorial connection with the act and the citizenship of the victim or intruder. It will not matter if there is no direct threat to security or the national interests of this state. Thus, the prosecution is carried out by the authority, even if there are no traditional grounds for jurisdiction.
3. International encroachments mitigate generally accepted norms that provide for the immunity of heads of state and other high-ranking officials from prosecution. This means that the person who committed such an act acted as a public official, a representative of the state. The inviolability of the criminal or civil jurisdiction of competent courts and foreign countries does not extend to such a subject. As an exception, acting state heads, diplomatic representatives, ID ministers, who enjoy immunity until the moment of leaving their post.
4. The court may be granted temporary jurisdiction over international acts committed before its establishment. This rule is limited only to cases where the encroachments were criminalized in the global norms at the time of the commission.
5. To international crimes, at least to such as genocide, war crimes, torture, acts against humanity, the limitation period can not be applied.
6. Acts of amnesty adopted by the authorities of countries whose citizens are the subjects alleged to have committed acts, or on whose territory the encroachments in question occurred, do not bind the courts of other states and other competent authorities.

Violations of subjects under protection

The list of persons whose acts are recognized as international crimes is enshrined in the relevant convention. According to the document, the subjects under protection include:

1. Head of State or each member of the collegial body performing his duties.
2. An official or other agent of an international intergovernmental organization, members of their families living with them.
3. Minister of Foreign Affairs.
4. Representatives of the state or other officials who have the right to special protection.
5. Head of Government.
6. Accompanying persons, the above subjects, members of their families.

Forethought

It is established with respect to crimes, if it was committed:

1. Abduction, murder or other encroachment on the freedom and personality of a subject under special protection.
2. An attack using violence on residential, official premises, a vehicle of such a person.
3. Attempted encroachment.
4. Complicity in the attack.
5. Expression of threats against a person under special protection.

Unlike the domestic criminal system, international legislation provides for a wider range of actions. At the same time, the motive on which the encroachment was committed does not matter. The basic provisions for the special protection of individuals are established in the conventions. One of them was adopted in 1994. It regulates the security of UN personnel and related persons. The latter, in particular, include participants in peacekeeping operations, employees of non-governmental associations that provide humanitarian assistance. Infringements on such subjects are recognized as crimes in accordance with national criminal law.

Capture of hostages

This crime is characterized as a dangerous terrorist act. Initially, the hostage-taking was classified as a violation of the generally accepted norms in the world only if it was associated with armed conflicts. The characterization of this crime is established in the 1979 Convention, to which in 1987 the USSR joined. The document, in particular, says that an entity that captures and detains another person, threatening to kill, cause harm, or continues to hold it, to force a state, an intergovernmental organization or any citizen / legal entity to perform an act as a mandatory condition for release , Commits hostage taking. The attempt and participation in such an act is also considered as such a crime. In this case it is a crime of an international character. In this regard, in Art. 13 of the convention stipulates that the provisions of the document do not apply to cases where the seizure of citizens is committed within the territory of one country, and the perpetrator and victim are its citizens, the first being in this state. This note establishes the framework for the interaction of the Powers in the fight against such a crime. At the same time, this reservation does not prevent the government of the state from foreseeing in its own legislation the punishment for any act of taking hostages.

Drug turnover

Illegal operations related to the manufacture and marketing of such substances have for many decades acted as an object of international regulatory impact. Today, there are universal conventions on psychotropic and narcotic drugs in the world. They presuppose broad legal regulation, provide methods for controlling trafficking in prohibited substances. In particular, the penalty is provided for illegal:

1. Import / Export.
2. Storage.
3. Cultivation and manufacturing.
4. Sale / purchase.

As a new normative act, the UN Convention regulating methods of combating illicit trafficking in such compounds is in force. This document was adopted in 1988. The USSR ratified it in 1989. The convention proclaims that the eradication of illegal distribution, manufacture, storage of narcotic, psychotropic substances acts as a collective duty of all countries. A list of actions that qualify as an intentional violation of the prescribed requirements is given in art. 3. Domestic legislation also provides for responsibility for such acts. The Federal Law "On Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances", adopted in 1998, has a complex meaning. It approved the basis of government policy in the sphere of illegal trafficking in these substances, there are references to international acts.

Capture aircraft

This crime is also described in the relevant UN Convention. The document notes that an act of this kind threatens the security of property and persons, causes significant damage to air traffic, undermines citizens' confidence in flight safety. The characterization of the crime is given in art. 1 convention. As an act, unlawful, with the use of violence or under such threat or using another form of intimidation, the seizure of an aircraft or the exercise of control over it, undertaken by any entity on board a vessel in flight. This category of crimes also includes an attempt to commit it and complicity in it. The aircraft is considered to be in flight from the moment when the external doors are closed after the loading is performed before opening any of them for unloading. The Convention extends to cases where the place of actual landing or take-off is outside the registration of the aircraft. At the same time, it will not matter whether an internal or international flight was made.

The Convention does not restrict the state in establishing responsibility in its own legislation for such crimes. In Russia, the question of punishment is resolved as follows. Responsibility is not conditioned by the factors noted by the convention and related to the interaction of countries. It concerns any cases of capture or hijacking of an airplane. In this case, the punishment extends to acts committed not only in flight, but during the time on the ground. The restrictive provisions set forth in the convention do not affect national jurisdiction.

Additionally

Today another category is being singled out - a transboundary crime. As a rule, such acts constitute an attack that harms the interests of organizations or citizens of different countries. That is, the damage in this case extends beyond the borders of one state. This nature has recently acquired organized crime.