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Crimes against humanity

Les crimes contre l’humanité représentent l’une des formes les plus graves de violations des droits humains, aux côtés des génocides, des crimes de guerre, des actes de torture et des disparitions forcées.

What is a crime against humanity?

Crimes against humanity constitute one of the most serious forms of human rights violations, alongside genocide, war crimes, acts of torture, and enforced disappearances.

The concept was first given legal recognition in the Statute of the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg. It was subsequently expanded and clarified by international ad hoc tribunals (such as those for the former Yugoslavia and for Rwanda) and was comprehensively codified in the Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC), which provides the most recent definition.

Under Article 7(1) of the ICC Statute, a crime against humanity refers to any of the inhumane acts listed below when committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack directed against a civilian population.

Our action and impact

Civitas Maxima is actively engaged in the fight against crimes against humanity.

Contributing to convictions before courts

Before the Swiss Federal Criminal Court:

In 2023, Alieu Kosiah became the first person in Switzerland to be convicted of acts classified as crimes against humanity.

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.

Before the Paris Assize Court in France:

In 2022, Kunti Kamara became the first Liberian citizen convicted of crimes against humanity committed during the civil war that devastated the country for more than ten years. He was found guilty of knowingly facilitating, in particular, the preparation or commission by his soldiers of rapes and sexual abuses constituting crimes against humanity. This historic decision was upheld on appeal in 2024.

In 2018, Civitas Maxima filed the criminal complaint that initiated the proceedings in France and participated in Paris as a civil party in both the trial and appeal proceedings, alongside Liberian victims.

Advancing case law

The decision handed down by the Appeals Chamber of the Swiss Federal Criminal Court in the proceedings against Alieu Kosiah established precedent, now enabling the court to prosecute in Switzerland other individuals accused of crimes against humanity committed prior to 2011.

  • Murder
  • Extermination
  • Enslavement
  • Deportation or forcible transfer of population
  • Imprisonment or other severe deprivation of physical liberty
  • Torture
  • Rape, sexual slavery, enforced prostitution, forced pregnancy, enforced sterilization, or any other form of sexual violence of comparable gravity
  • Persecution on political, racial, national, ethnic, cultural, religious, or gender grounds
  • Enforced disappearances
  • Apartheid
  • Other inhumane acts of a similar character intentionally causing great suffering or serious injury to body or to physical or mental health
  • An attack directed against a civilian population
  • The attack must be widespread or systematic, meaning that the acts are committed on a large scale or in an organized and planned manner as part of a pattern
  • The perpetrator must have knowledge of the attack, i.e. be aware that their acts form part of a widespread or systematic attack against a civilian population

Crimes against humanity may be committed as part of a state policy or by an entity that, in fact, exercises power over a given territory. Unlike war crimes, they do not require any link to an armed conflict and may therefore be committed in times of peace.

Crimes against humanity are now recognized as a peremptory norm of customary international law (jus cogens), meaning that they are prohibited in all circumstances and binding on all states. They are not subject to statutes of limitations and are universally condemned, regardless of domestic law.

Many states have now incorporated the definition of crimes against humanity into their domestic legislation. This allows for the prosecution and trial, under the principle of universal jurisdiction, of perpetrators of crimes committed abroad—even if they are foreign nationals—subject to the conditions set out in national law (presence on the territory, residence, double criminality, etc.). Such legislation also facilitates judicial cooperation with the International Criminal Court and with other states, thereby strengthening the fight against impunity.

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