What are war crimes?
War crimes are classified as the violations of the laws and custom of war (GIC). This definition causes many more questions to be asked. Like what are the laws or war? Or what classifies as violations of the law? Well click on the Laws of War tab to find out.
You also may be thinking why do wars have law? Well if wars don't have laws, the whole world could be in a chemical deterrence, or any soldier can come into a village and kill anyone and walk away freely. Since there are laws, if a soldier did that, he or she would get punished (see example tab to see an example).
You also may be thinking why do wars have law? Well if wars don't have laws, the whole world could be in a chemical deterrence, or any soldier can come into a village and kill anyone and walk away freely. Since there are laws, if a soldier did that, he or she would get punished (see example tab to see an example).
Laws of War
According to Kafala of bbc news, laws of war include (these are only some examples, not all are written down) murder, attacking an undefended town, imprisonment, torture or rape. Most of these examples came from WWII when Hitler murdered several million people (Kafala). These laws were written down to ensure that nobody would try to wipe out a whole race again. When WWII ended, a group of people called the IMT or the international military tribunal tried to hold the Nazi accountable for the attempted genocide of the Jews (ushmm.org).