Crimes Against Humanity

Rustam B. Atadjanov

2022

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DOI 10.1007/978-94-6265-515-7_47
Data confidence 70 medium
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Abstract

Crimes against humanity represent one of the so-called “core crimes” or crimes under international law. They constitute mass crimes against a civilian population and may be the most commonly known among the different of types international crimes used for labeling mass atrocities almost every time when there is news that such have occurred. The phenomenon of crimes against humanity continues to sparkle lots of debates both scholarly and practical. The modern definition of crimes against humanity is firmly established in the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. Despite this, many important doctrinal and normative issues (e.g., protective scope, contextual element, policy requirement and civilian population) are actively debated in scholarship and practice. This chapter discusses the key contextual elements of crimes against humanity, as well as the individual criminal acts comprising them but not before briefly describing the historical origins and definitional evolution of crimes against humanity, reviewing their contemporary structure according to the existing treaty definition, and offering a succinct explanation as to what constitutes the truly protected interest of crimes against humanity. The chapter aims at providing the textbook’s readership with a brief but comprehensive account of the main legal, substantive and normative aspects related to crimes against humanity including doctrinal challenges and also some new pertinent developments in the law.