Mass Atrocity Watch

In the news you watch and read of governments, armies, or even civilian hoards committing shocking acts of violence. These acts can be mass atrocities which under international law are crimes. Mass atrocities are common in the world we live in. But what is a mass atrocity crime?

deliberate military attacks or threats of attacks on civilians and civilian areas, use of civilians as human shield, destruction of property, and robbery of personal property, as well as attacks on hospitals, medical personnel, and locations with the Red Cross/Red Crescent emblem

Ethnic Cleansing does not yet have the status of a standalone crime under international law. As of now, ethnic cleansing can be observed in acts of genocide, crimes against humanity, or war crimes.

Ethnic Cleansing is a deliberate strategy to physically wipe out a particular group from a particular area

Ethnic Cleansing can be carried out through; murder, torture, arbitrary arrest and detention, extrajudicial executions, rape and sexual assaults, severe physical injury to civilians, forcible removal, displacement and deportation of civilian population (cont'd.)

War crimes in international contexts cover: Grave violations of the Geneva Conventions like willful killing, torture or inhuman treatment or willfully causing great suffering or serious injury to body or health against the sick and wounded persons not taking part in hostilities

War crimes can occur in international or non-international situations of violent conflict

apartheid, and “other inhumane acts of a similar character intentionally causing great suffering or serious injury to body or to mental or physical health.”

These acts according to the Rome Statute (1998) include; murder, extermination, enslavement, deportation, imprisonment, torture, rape (and other gender-based or sex crimes), group-based persecution, enforced disappearance (cont.d)

Crimes against humanity is generally used to mean...

4) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group 5) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group

1) Killing members of the group 2) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group 3) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction, in whole or in part

The Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (1948) lists 5 categories of actions that can be considered genocide. See comments for list;

The main intentional laws that define mass atrocity crimes are; 1) 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide 2) 1949 Geneva Conventions and their 1977 Additional Protocols 3) 1998 Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court

In the news you watch and read of governments, armies, or even civilian hoards committing shocking acts of violence. These acts can be mass atrocities which under international law are crimes. Mass atrocities are common in the world we live in. But what is a mass atrocity crime?

Sudan has been gripped by civil war since April, 2023. As is always the case, it is civilians who suffer and die as leaders and their armies fight for power #MassAtrocity #SudanCrisis