The most important war crimes trials following World War II were held in Nuremberg, Germany, under the authority of two legal instruments. One, known as the London Agreement, was signed by representatives of the United States, the United Kingdom, France, and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) in London on August 8, 1945; the other, Law No. 10, was issued by the Allied Control Council in Berlin on December 20, 1945.

 

The London Agreement provided for the establishment of the International Military Tribunal, composed of one judge and one alternate judge from each of the signatory nations, to try war criminals. Under the London Agreement, the crimes charged against defendants fell into three general categories: (1) crimes against peace-that is, crimes involving the planning, initiating, and waging of aggressive war; (2) war crimes-that is, violations of the laws and customs of war as embodied in the conventions adopted at the Hague Conferences, and (3) crimes against humanity, such as the extermination of racial, ethnic, and religious groups and other large-scale atrocities against civilians.

 

The judgment of the International Military Tribunal was handed down on September 30-October 1, 1946. Among notable features of the decision was the conclusion, in accordance with the London Agreement, that to plan or instigate an aggressive war is a crime under the principles of international law. The tribunal rejected the contention of the defense that such acts had not previously been defined as crimes under international law and that therefore the condemnation of the defendants would violate the principle of justice prohibiting ex post facto punishments. It also rejected the contention of a number of the defendants that they were not legally responsible for their acts because they performed the acts under the orders of superior authority.

 

Another war crimes trial was held under international authority in Tokyo. The International Military Tribunal for the Far East was constituted under the authority of a charter promulgated on January 19, 1946, by General Douglas MacArthur, supreme commander for the Allied Powers. Many provisions of the charter were adapted from those of the London Agreement.

The Tokyo trial opened on May 3, 1946, and held its final session on November 12, 1948. The conclusions reached by the 11-nation tribunal were generally parallel to those embodied in the judgment given in Nuremberg.

 

The United Nations established the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia in May 1993 to prosecute individuals responsible for war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide committed in the territory of the former Yugoslavia. Originally set up to prosecute crimes resulting from the Wars of Yugoslav Succession (1991-1995), the tribunal also has addressed crimes occurring in the late 1990s as the result of a separatist movement in Kosovo, a province in southwestern Serbia. [The republics of Serbia and Montenegro presently make up the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY).] The tribunal convened at The Hague, Netherlands. It consists of 14 judges from different nations and was given the power to impose a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.

 

By 1998 the tribunal had indicted more than 70 people in connection with the wars of Yugoslav succession. However, the work of the tribunal was hampered by lack of cooperation from most of the governments in the region where the conflicts occurred, making it difficult for the tribunal to apprehend the people it has indicted. The first trial of the tribunal opened in May 1996. In 1998 the tribunal became the first international court to find an individual accountable for rape as a war crime.

In November 1994 the Security Council of the United Nations adopted Resolution 955 creating the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda. The tribunal was authorized to prosecute individuals responsible for genocide and other serious violations of humanitarian law during the 1994 civil war in Rwanda. Another express purpose of the tribunal was to encourage the process of national reconciliation in Rwanda and the maintenance of peace in the region. The civil war in Rwanda began in 1994, after the death of Rwandan president Juvenal Habyarimana sparked fighting between the nation’s two chief ethnic groups, the Hutu and Tutsi. Habyarimana was a Hutu. An estimated 500,000 to 1 million people, mostly Tutsi, were killed during the war. The Hutu-dominated Rwandan army was accused of genocide against the Tutsi.

 

The first trial started in October 1996. In May 1998 former Rwandan Prime Minister Jean Kambanda pleaded guilty to multiple charges of genocide and crimes against humanity and was sentenced to life imprisonment. Jean-Paul Akayesu, who was tried and found guilty of genocide and crimes against humanity, was also sentenced to life imprisonment. Another man, Omar Serushago, was sentenced to 15 years in prison for similar crimes. These convictions mark the first instances of an international court finding individuals guilty of the crime of genocide. As of early 1999 the tribunal had indicted more than 45 Rwandans, including numerous top government officials.

 

The Nuremberg and other war crimes trials were a notable step in the evolution of international penal law. The principles applied in the Nuremberg and Tokyo trials helped to strengthen international law and the judicial mechanisms for its enforcement. Also, the United Nations has ratified the general principles of the trials. The use of international war crimes tribunals in former Yugoslavia and Rwanda extends the principles that were the basis of the other war crimes trials to the treatment of civilians in conflicts involving only one nation. The war crimes trials of the 1990s also established the principle that even the victors in a violent conflict are subject to criminal prosecution.

 

In July of 1998 UN delegates approved a statute proposing a permanent international court to try people accused of genocide (systematic extermination of a group), war crimes, crimes against humanity, and crimes of aggression. The International Criminal Court would be a permanent forum and would be headquartered in The Hague, Netherlands. The court would replace ad hoc tribunals such as those convened to address the situations in the former Yugoslavia and in Rwanda.

 

International Crimes Against Peace. World of Criminal Justice, Gale (2002).