war crime

Definitions

A punishable offence under international law for violations of the laws of war by any person or persons, military or civilian.

Equivalents

30 more languages

العربيةجَرِيمَة حَرْب

Azərbaycan dilihərbi cinayət

Catalàcrim de guerra

Češtinaválečný zločin

Danskkrigsforbrydelse

Ελληνικάέγκλημα πολέμου

Eestisõjakuritegu

Suomisotarikos

עבריתפֶּשַׁע מִלְחָמָה

हिन्दीयुद्ध अपराध

Magyarháborús bűn

Bahasa Indonesiakejahatan perang

Íslenskastríðsglæpur

Italianocrimine di guerra

日本語戦争犯罪

ქართულისამხედრო დანაშაული

ភាសាខ្មែរឧក្រិដ្ឋកម្មសង្គ្រាម

한국어전쟁 범죄

Македонскивоено злосторство

Bahasa Melayujenayah perang

Nederlandsoorlogsmisdaadoorlogsmisdrijf

Polskizbrodnia wojenna

Portuguêscrime de guerra

Русскийвоенное преступление

Svenskakrigsbrottkrigsförbrytelse

Kiswahiliuhalifu wa kivita

ไทยอาชญากรรมสงคราม

Türkçesavaş suçu

Українськавоє́нний зло́чин

Tiếng Việttội ác chiến tranh

Examples

“[W]ar crimes are such hostile or other acts of soldiers or other individuals as may be punished by the enemy on capture⟳ of the offenders. […] [A]lthough among the acts called war crimes are many which, such as abuse of a flag of truce or assassination of enemy soldiers for instance, are crimes in the moral sense⟳ of the term, there are others which, such as taking part in a levy en masse on territory occupied by the enemy for instance, may be highly praiseworthy patriotic acts. Because every belligerent can and actually must in the interest⟳ of his own⟳ safety punish⟳ these acts, they are termed war crimes, whatever may be the motive, the purpose, and the moral character of the respective act.”

“[Paragraph] 441. The term "War Crime" is the technical expression for such an act of enemy soldiers and enemy civilians as may be visited by punishment or capture⟳ of the offenders. […] [Paragraph] 442. War crimes may be divided into four different classes:– (i) Violations of the recognized rules of warfare by members of the armed forces. (ii) Illegitimate hostilities in arms committed by individuals who are not members of the armed forces. (iii) Espionage and war treason. (iv) Marauding.”

“If, this time, there is going to be, after the victory of the United Nations, due punishment of these abominable war crimes, perpetrated in breach of the laws of war by enemy nations and for which enemy individuals must be held responsible, it would be a grave mistake⟳ to concern⟳ ourselves at this stage⟳ merely with the discussion of the most appropriate tribunals to deal⟳ with such charges, or with the minutiae of juridical analysis.”

“To be sure, there is a strong argument that aiding and abetting a recognized international-law war crime such as terrorism is itself an international-law war crime. And there are other similar war crimes.”

No. 11-1257

“To deal⟳ with war crime such as rape a mobile court system was created in the DRC [Democratic Republic of the Congo].”

“The two primary ones are that by the time anyone bothered to codify rules of war, lighthouses went on the list of "do not attack" pretty much immediately, and so it would be a rather pointless war crime to commit; the second reason⟳ is related to why they went on the list of "do not attack" targets very quickly, and that is that lighthouses are completely nondiscriminatory as to who they alert to what's going on in terms of danger and coastlines and hidden rocks and such[…]”

“Condoleezza Rice pops up on Fox to be told by the anchor: "When you invade a sovereign nation, that is a war crime." With a solemn nod, the former secretary of state to George Bush replies: "It is certainly against every principle of international law and international order⟳."”

CEFR level