International Criminal Justice and the United Nations

Vocabulary flashcards covering international law, the structure and history of the United Nations, core international crimes, ad hoc tribunals, the International Criminal Court, and universal jurisdiction.

International Law

A body of rules, norms, and principles that defines and regulates the legal responsibilities of States in their conduct with each other and in their treatment of individuals within State boundaries.

Principle of Non-Refoulement

An international custom prohibiting the forcing of refugees or asylum seekers to return to a country where they would likely be in danger of persecution based on race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion.

League of Nations

The first worldwide intergovernmental organization, established in 1919 under the Treaty of Versailles following World War I to promote international cooperation and achieve peace and security; later replaced by the United Nations in 1945.

Charter of the United Nations

The founding document of the United Nations drafted in 1945 in San Francisco, establishing the organization's framework, governing structure, and primary purposes under Article 1, including the maintenance of international peace and security.

United Nations General Assembly (UNGA)

The main policymaking organ and 'Parliament of nations' of the UN, comprising all member states where each nation has one equal vote, meeting annually in regular sessions from September to December.

United Nations Security Council (UNSC)

The 15-member UN organ responsible for maintaining international peace and security, composed of 5 permanent members and 10 non-permanent members elected by the General Assembly for two-year terms.

Permanent Five (P5)

The five permanent member states of the UN Security Council: China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States of America.

VETO Power

The power held by any of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council that allows them to block any resolution or decision regardless of majority opinion.

Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR)

A foundational document containing 30 articles setting out fundamental human rights to be universally protected, adopted by the UN General Assembly in Paris on 10 December 1948.

Genocide

Criminal acts committed with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial, or religious group, through killing, bodily or mental harm, destructive conditions of life, preventing births, or forcibly transferring children.

Crimes Against Humanity

Criminal acts committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack directed against any civilian population, with knowledge of the attack, including murder, extermination, torture, enslavement, and apartheid.

Apartheid (Rome Statute definition)

Inhumane acts committed in the context of an institutionalized regime of systematic oppression and domination by one racial group over any other racial group or groups, carried out with the intention of maintaining that regime.

War Crimes

Grave breaches of the 1949 Geneva Conventions and other serious violations of the laws and customs applicable in armed conflicts, including wilful killing, torture, hostage-taking, and attacking civilians or undefended places.

Crimes of Aggression

The use of armed force by a State against the sovereignty, territorial integrity, or political independence of another State, such as invasions, military occupations, blockades, and bombardments.

Ad Hoc Tribunals

Temporary courts with narrow jurisdiction instigated for specific purposes to try international crimes, including the Nuremberg and Tokyo tribunals as well as the ICTY and ICTR.

Nuremberg International Tribunal

A war crimes court established under the August 1945 London Agreement by Allied powers (France, Soviet Union, UK, US) to try high-ranking Nazi war criminals, convicting 19 defendants in October 1946.

London Agreement (August 1945)

The agreement concluded by Allied powers (France, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, and the United States) that established the Nuremberg International Tribunal and laid out its Statute.

International Military Tribunal for the Far East (IMTFE)

The Tokyo War Crimes trial court modeled after Nuremberg, established in 1946 by General MacArthur to try 28 senior Japanese political and military leaders for World War II crimes.

International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY)

A UN court established in 1993 by Security Council Chapter VII resolution in The Hague to prosecute persons responsible for serious violations of international humanitarian law in the former Yugoslavia since 1991.

Srebrenica Genocide

The systematic mass killing of Bosnian Muslims in July 1995 during the conflict in the former Yugoslavia, emblematic of the resolve to prosecute such acts legally as genocide before the ICTY.

International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR)

A UN court established in 1995 by Security Council Chapter VII resolution, based in Arusha, Tanzania, to prosecute persons responsible for genocide and other serious violations committed in Rwanda and neighboring states in 1994.

Case of Jean Paul Akayesu (1998)

A landmark ICTR trial representing the first international tribunal verdict in relation to genocide, which legally defined rape in international criminal law and recognized rape as a means of perpetrating genocide.

International Criminal Court (ICC)

An independent permanent judicial institution and court of last resort established by the Rome Statute to prosecute individuals for genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and crimes of aggression committed on or after 1 July 2002.

Rome Statute

The founding treaty of the International Criminal Court, adopted in July 1998 at the Rome Conference, which sets out the court's jurisdiction, crimes, and operating framework.

Proprio Motu

The legal power allowing the ICC Prosecutor to initiate an investigation on their own initiative, as opposed to receiving a referral from a State Party or the UN Security Council.

Article 16 of the Rome Statute

The provision that allows the UN Security Council, via a Chapter VII resolution, to suspend or defer an ICC investigation or prosecution for a renewable period of 12 months.

Universal Jurisdiction

The legal principle allowing domestic judicial systems of a state to investigate and prosecute certain serious international crimes regardless of where the crime occurred or the nationality of the perpetrator or victim.