GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2016

Status

Accepted

Abstract

In July 2014, the U.N. International Law Commission placed the topic “Crimes against humanity” on its current program of work and appointed a Special Rapporteur. According to the topic proposal, the objective of the Commission is to draft articles for what could become a Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Crimes against Humanity.

In July 2015, based on the Special Rapporteur’s First Report, the Commission provisionally adopted the first four draft articles with commentary. In this Second Report, which will be debated by the Commission during the summer of 2016, the Special Rapporteur proposes an additional six draft articles, which are focused on various actions to be taken by States under their national laws with respect to crimes against humanity. Specifically, the six proposed draft articles address: establishment of national laws that identify offences relating to crimes against humanity (draft article 5); establishment of national jurisdiction so as to address such offences when they occur (draft article 6); general investigation and cooperation for identifying alleged offenders (draft article 7); exercise of national jurisdiction when an alleged offender is present in a State’s territory (draft article 8); submission of the alleged offender to prosecution or extradition or surrender (aut dedere aut judicare) (draft article 9); and fair treatment of the alleged offender at all stages of the process (draft article 10).

Annex I to the report contains the four draft articles provisionally adopted by the Commission to date. Annex II contains the draft articles proposed in this report.

GW Paper Series

GWU Law School Public Law Research Paper No. 2016-10; GWU Legal Studies Research Paper No. 2016-10

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