Description:

After the Second World War, many international legal acts were adopted to define the concept and content of war crimes. In this regard, the 1949 Geneva Conventions and the 1977 Additional Protocols I and II should be emphasized. All these documents regulated the theoretical problems of war crimes and prosecution for those crimes. However, important steps have been taken to regulate war crimes from a practical point of view. The activities of international criminal tribunals (Nuremberg, the former Yugoslavia, Rwanda) and, in particular, the International Criminal Court should be noted in this regard. Thus, both international legal acts, as well as the activities of international tribunals and courts have played an important role in revealing the essence of war crimes, identifying its theoretical and practical problems. All this gives grounds to say that the formation of the concept of war crimes is formed not only as a result of theoretical work (various concepts, theories and views), but also as a result of practical work arising from the application of legal norms. In interpreting war crimes, the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court took into account the provisions of previous international legal acts, in particular the Nuremberg Tribunal, the International Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, and the International Tribunal for Rwanda. We believe that the difference between war crimes and other crimes is, first of all, that the offense is committed in the context of armed conflict and is closely related to it. This criterion, that is, the existence of an armed conflict, is reflected in the approaches of most authors to war crimes.