FAQs: International Humanitarian Law

IHL, also known as the laws of war, is a body of rules that limits the effects of armed conflict. It protects civilians, the wounded, and prisoners of war, and regulates the means and methods of warfare. The Geneva Conventions and their protocols form its core. Violations of IHL, such as targeting civilians, can amount to war crimes.

The Geneva Conventions are a set of treaties that form the core of International Humanitarian Law. They protect people who are not taking part in fighting — including civilians, prisoners of war, and the wounded. The four conventions adopted in 1949 cover protection on land and sea, treatment of prisoners, and protection of civilians. Additional protocols expand these protections.

War crimes are serious violations of the laws of war. Examples include deliberately targeting civilians, targeting civilian objects, the use of starvation as a method of warfare, indiscriminate attacks, carrying out of disproportionate attacks, targeting attacks against humanitarian operations, or torturing prisoners of war. War crimes can be prosecuted in national courts or by international courts like the International Criminal Court.

Collective punishment means penalizing an entire group (such as a community or ethnic group) for the actions of a few individuals. International Humanitarian Law forbids it because criminal responsibility must always be individual. Denying aid, imposing curfews, or destroying infrastructure as punishment can amount to war crimes.

Crimes against humanity are serious acts like murder, extermination, persecution, torture, rape, enslavement, or forced displacement, committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack against civilians. Unlike war crimes, they can be committed in both war and peacetime.

Crimes against humanity should not be confused with war crimes. Here are the key differences:

• While crimes against humanity can only be committed against civilians, most war crimes can be committed against both civilians and enemy combatants.
• A crime against humanity must be committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack against a civilian population; there is no such requirement for a war crime.
• War crimes can only be committed during armed conflict, while crimes against humanity can be committed at any time, both in peace and war, and against a state's own nationals as well as foreign nationals.

Genocide is the deliberate attempt to destroy a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group, in whole or in part. Acts of genocide include killing members of the group, causing serious harm, inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part, preventing births, or forcibly transferring children. Genocide is one of the gravest international crimes and is prosecuted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) and other tribunals.

Ethnic cleansing refers to the deliberate removal of a particular ethnic, racial, or religious group from a territory, often through forced displacement, violence, or destruction of cultural heritage. While not a formally codified crime in international law, many acts of ethnic cleansing overlap with crimes against humanity or genocide.

The ICC is a permanent international court in The Hague, created in 2002 under the Rome Statute. It prosecutes individuals accused of genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and the crime of aggression. The ICC acts when national courts are unwilling or unable to do so, reinforcing accountability for the most serious international crimes.