Subscribe Donate

War crimes

War crimes demand a response from the international community. Since 2012, Civitas Maxima has worked alongside victims and local partners to bring perpetrators before courts of law, including securing the first ever conviction for war crimes before the Swiss Federal Criminal Court.

What is a war crime?

War crimes are serious violations of international humanitarian law committed in the context of an international or non-international armed conflict against protected persons or property. Such acts—including murder, torture, and the intentional targeting of civilians or protected infrastructure—give rise to individual criminal responsibility for their perpetrators.

These crimes are primarily derived from the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949 and their Additional Protocols I and II of 1977, as well as the Hague Conventions of 1899 and 1907. Their most recent codification is found in Article 8 of the 1998 Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC).

Under Article 8 of the Rome Statute, war crimes include, in particular, grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions and other serious violations of the laws and customs of war applicable in international armed conflicts. For certain crimes, classification requires that they be committed as part of a plan or policy, or as part of a large-scale pattern of similar crimes; however, this requirement does not apply to all war crimes.

Our action and impact

In the fight against war crimes, Civitas Maxima’s work has led to very concrete judicial outcomes with significant impact.

In 2023, Alieu Kosiah was found guilty by the Swiss Federal Criminal Court of acts qualifying as war crimes. This conviction marked a milestone in Swiss judicial history, as it was the first conviction for war crimes handed down by the Federal Criminal Court since its establishment.

The case, which concerned crimes committed by a commander of a rebel group during Liberia’s first civil war (1993–1995), also marked a turning point in the judicial history of the country where the crimes were committed. The proceedings against Alieu Kosiah resulted in the first conviction of a Liberian national for war crimes committed during that civil war, which devastated the country for more than ten years.

Alain Werner, Director of Civitas Maxima, was one of the lawyers who filed the first complaints against Alieu Kosiah in 2014 and represented several Liberian victims throughout the proceedings, including at both the trial and appeal hearings.

War crimes may be prosecuted before various national and international courts, depending on the treaties ratified by the states concerned and on the capacity and political will of the states where the perpetrators are located.

While states bear the primary obligation to investigate war crimes committed by their own nationals, as well as crimes committed on their territory and/or within their jurisdiction, there are situations in which they lack the willingness or capacity to do so, particularly during periods of political transition. In such cases, criminal justice may be exercised by other jurisdictions, including ad hoc, international, or hybrid tribunals (former Yugoslavia, Rwanda, Cambodia, Sierra Leone, etc.), as well as by the International Criminal Court.

Perpetrators may also be prosecuted in countries other than those where the crimes were committed under the principle of universal jurisdiction, which allows a state to investigate and prosecute any war crime regardless of where it was committed and irrespective of the nationality of the perpetrators or victims. This jurisdiction has been exercised on several occasions by France, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, and Switzerland, among others.

  • Intentional killing of protected persons
  • Torture and other cruel or inhuman treatment
  • Taking of hostages
  • Deliberate attacks against civilians or civilian objects
  • Rape, sexual slavery, and other forms of sexual violence
  • Pillage
  • Recruitment or use of child soldiers
  • Use of prohibited weapons
  • Forced displacement of populations

Learn more about our other topics

Related resources

Stay informed

Subscribe to our monthly newsletter to be informed of our latest articles.
Subscribe