Forging a Convention for Crimes Against Humanity

Sadat, Leila Nadya
Leila Nadya Sadat is the Henry H. Oberschelp Professor at Washington University School of Law and Director of the Whitney R. Harris World Law Institute. She is also the holder of the Alexis de Tocqueville Distinguished Fulbright Chair at the University of Cergy-Pontoise, in Paris, France, for spring 2011. A distinguished expert in international criminal law and human rights, Sadat is the Director of the Crimes against Humanity Initiative, a three-year project to study the problem of crimes against humanity and draft a comprehensive convention addressing their punishment and prevention. A prolific scholar, Sadat is the author of The International Criminal Court and the Transformation of International Law: Justice for the New Millennium.

Crimes against humanity were one of the three categories of crimes elaborated in the Nuremberg Charter. However, unlike genocide and war crimes, they were never set out in a comprehensive international convention. This book represents an effort to complete the Nuremberg legacy by filling this gap. It contains a complete text of a proposed convention on crimes against humanity in English and in French, a comprehensive history of the proposed convention, and fifteen original papers written by leading experts on international criminal law. The papers contain reflections on various aspects of crimes against humanity, including gender crimes, universal jurisdiction, the history of codification efforts, the responsibility to protect, ethnic cleansing, peace and justice dilemmas, amnesties and immunities, the jurisprudence of the ad hoc tribunals, the definition of the crime in customary international law, the ICC definition, the architecture of international criminal justice, modes of criminal participation, crimes against humanity and terrorism, and the inter-state enforcement regime.

This book attempts to complete the Nuremberg legacy by elaborating a complete text of a specialized draft convention on crimes against humanity. It includes the travaux préparatoires of the draft convention and fifteen original papers written by leading experts on international criminal law.

Preface; Foreword - the crimes against humanity initiative; 1. Crimes against humanity and the responsibility to protect Gareth Evans; 2. History of efforts to codify crimes against humanity: from the charter of Nuremberg to the statute of Rome Roger S. Clark; 3. The universal repression of crimes against humanity before national jurisdictions: the need for a treaty-based obligation to prosecute Payam Akhavan; 4. Revisiting the architecture of crimes against humanity: almost a century in the making with gaps and ambiguities remaining - the need for a specialized convention M. Cherif Bassiouni; 5. The bright red thread: the politics of international criminal law - the West African experience - a case study: operation justice in Sierra Leone David Crane; 6. Gender-based crimes against humanity Valerie Oosterveld; 7. 'Chapeau elements' of crimes against humanity in the jurisprudence of the United Nations ad hoc tribunals Göran Sluiter; 8. The definition of crimes against humanity and the question of a 'policy' element Guénaël Mettraux; 9. Ethnic cleansing as euphemism, metaphor, criminology and law John Hagan and Todd J. Haugh; 10. Immunities and amnesties Diane Orentlicher; 11. Modes of participation Elies van Sliedregt; 12. Terrorism and crimes against humanity Michael P. Scharf and Michael A. Newton; 13. Crimes against humanity and the international criminal court Kai Ambos; 14. Crimes against humanity and the responsibility to protect David Scheffer; 15. Re-enforcing enforcement in a specialized convention on crimes against humanity: inter-state cooperation, mutual legal assistance, and the aut dedere aut judicare obligation Laura M. Olson; 16. Why the world needs an international convention on crimes against humanity Gregory H. Stanton; Appendice I. International convention on the prevention and punishment of crimes against humanity; Appendice II. Convention internationale pour la prévention et la répression des crimes contre l'humanité; Appendice III. A comprehensive history of the international convention on the prevention and punishment of crimes against humanity.