Over 3.8 million people have reportedly made their way out of Ukraine since the Russian invasion. Currently, Kyiv is faced with a huge displacement crisis as reports by the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) showed that six million more individuals are internally displaced.
The Republic of Poland thus far is the largest recipient of Ukrainian refugees as the exodus into other European countries intensifies. With an estimated figure of over 2.2 million refugees crossing its border, the Polish authorities shoulder the biggest burden and solicit more international aid.
Earlier this month United States President Joe Biden was filmed telling a journalist at a White House event that he thinks his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, is a “war criminal” – a remark made off-the-cuff in view of the Russian missile attacks and shellings in Ukraine.
Resoundingly, Mr. Biden made the statement to condemn President Putin in a speech delivered in Rzeszow last week on a state visit to meet with his Polish counterpart Andrzej Duda, in a bid to assess the humanitarian impact of the conflict and high influx of refugees into Poland. He said:
“……our effort to curtail the devastation that is occurring at the hands of a man whom I quite frankly think is a war criminal. And I think he’ll meet the legal definition of that as well”.
The concept of “war crime”
War remains a significant, although destructive form of interaction between states and is guided by principles. In global politics, a whole number of concepts are governed by rules and the concept of war is not an exception.
A war crime is a serious breach of internationally agreed laws of war outlined in legal documents notably The Hague and Geneva Conventions which states a series of actions that are permissible and others that are disallowed in the course of an armed conflict. The term war criminal applies to anyone who violates the rules of engagement in war, viz – the laws of armed conflict.
War crimes criminalise serious violations of the international humanitarian law of which the civilian population is accorded greater recognition and concern. Contextually, war crimes take place in an armed conflict either intra-state or international, and are largely committed against civilians.
Captured in the broad-based list of war crime breaches are torture, taking hostages, mass extermination of targeted civilians, wanton destruction of property, use of chemical or biological weapons, sexual violence, willful killing of civilians, conscription of children in the military, and a host of others as defined by international law and recognised by the United Nations.
War crimes are committed if there is a serious breach of a provision within the international humanitarian law. On its establishment after due investigation, the international criminal law acts as an enforcement mechanism. In 1949, the Geneva Conventions now ratified by 196 current sovereign governments, legally defined new war crimes and established that states could exercise universal jurisdiction over war criminals.
The rules of war crimes, drawn particularly at the end of the 19th century, governed how countries should behave in times of war. However, after the Second World War, the first international military tribunals began to investigate them in Nuremberg and Tokyo in the 1940s which led to the prosecution of thousands of Nazis and their allies in war crimes; hence it was further developed as a modern concept.
Notably, the institution – saddled with the responsibility of prosecuting international war crimes – is the International Criminal Court (ICC). Established in 2002 and located in The Hague, Netherlands, the ICC plays a crucial role in upholding the rules of war. War crimes are explicitly defined in its statute of establishment.
Since its first hearing in 2006, the ICC has indicted a total of 46 individuals including former African state leaders such as Omar Al-Bashir of Sudan and Muammar Gaddafi of Libya among others.
Is Putin committing war crimes in Ukraine?
In the face of the deplorable humanitarian crisis in Europe, Washington has formally accused Russia of committing war crimes in Ukraine, all of which have been consistently watered-down by Moscow and rebukes early allegations by the United States as “unacceptable and unforgivable rhetorics”.
United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken delivered the assessment last week when he stated: “Today, I can announce that, based on information currently available, the U.S. government assesses that members of Russia’s forces have committed war crimes in Ukraine”.
The U.S. assessment helps build a legal case against Moscow that would be prosecuted at a world judicial institution such as the ICC at The Hague.
Diplomatic relations between Washington and Moscow hit a new low amid contrasting approaches to the situation in Ukraine. A situation experts say could have a serious ripple effect. It is now left to the International Criminal Court (ICC) to decide the validity of President Biden’s position at The Hague.
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