War Crimes in Internal Armed Conflicts

Does international law make perpetrators responsible for war crimes committed during civil wars?

Does international law make individuals responsible for perpetrating war crimes during internal armed conflicts? Eve La Haye explores the content of international criminal law applicable in such conflicts and questions the 1995 finding of the Appeals Chamber of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia that responsibility could be enforced on the basis of customary international law. This finding is evaluated with regard to state practice and the practice of international organisations. The means to enforce individual criminal responsibility for such crimes are also investigated. The states on whose territory the crimes took place have sometimes tried such perpetrators, but can other states prosecute perpetrators of war crimes under the principle of universal jurisdiction? The applicability of universal jurisdiction to war crimes committed in civil wars and the practice of domestic courts are examined, alongside the role and achievements of prosecutions carried out by international courts and tribunals.

1. Towards a workable definition of internal armed conflicts; 2. The laws and customs of war applicable in internal armed conflicts; 3. The regime of war crimes; 4. Individual criminal responsibility for war crimes committed in internal armed conflicts; 5. National prosecutions of war criminals and internal armed conflicts; 6. International prosecutions of war criminals and internal armed conflicts.

Does international law make individuals responsible for perpetrating war crimes during civil wars? If so, how can that responsibility be enforced? Eve La Haye discusses the feasibility of national and international prosecutions and the means to bring to justice those who have committed such crimes.

Eve La Haye is a former Associate Legal Officer of the Appeals Chamber of the ICTY and is now Legal Advisor at the International Committee of the Red Cross, Geneva.