Israel's war on Gaza: What are crimes against humanity?
Editor's note: This is one of four explainers about international law. The series includes an overview, as well as separate pieces about genocide and war crimes.
The International Criminal Court has recently focused on Israel’s war on Gaza, including issuing arrest warrants for crimes against humanity against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and ex-defence minister Yoav Gallant.
Hamas leaders Mohammed Deif and Yahya Sinwar, each also the subject of an ICC warrant, were both killed by Israel, and confirmed dead by Hamas.
But the ICC does not only concern itself with the Middle East, and looks at allegations of crimes against humanity elsewhere.
In November 2024, the ICC's chief prosecutor Karim Khan sought a warrant for Myanmar’s acting president, Min Aung Hlaing, for his actions against the Rohingya population.
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And in January 2025, he requested warrants for Taliban Supreme Leader Haibatullah Akhundzada, and Chief Justice Abdul Hakim Haqqani for their alleged crime against humanity of the persecution of Afghan women and girls.
Crimes against humanity share some similarities with other serious international crimes, including war crimes and genocide. But while there is overlap, each is distinct: here Middle East Eye looks at crimes against humanity.
What are crimes against humanity?
Crimes against humanity are prohibited acts knowingly committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack against civilians, even outside war. Unlike war crimes, they do not need to be part of an armed conflict: they can be committed during war by the parties to an armed conflict; or during peacetime by a state or other groups.
If an authoritarian ruler, for example, starts a campaign of murder or rape within their own country, then that might count as a crime against humanity. It's a category of offence designed to protect civilian populations at all times - not just during conflicts.
Unlike war crimes and genocide, there is no treaty dedicated to crimes against humanity. The International Law Commission, the UN body that develops international law, is currently working on a draft convention.
When were crimes against humanity first defined?
Like the term “war crimes”, the phrase “crimes against humanity” was being used several decades before it first appeared in courts.
In 1883, US politician George Washington Williams used these three words to describe slavery. He repeated the phrase again in 1890 when writing to the US State Department about colonial atrocities in the Congo Free State, committed under the rule of Belgium's King Leopold II that led to millions of deaths.
The term "laws of humanity" began to routinely appear in international law with the Hague Conventions of 1899 (suggested by Russia) and 1907 (proposed by the US). A third convention, scheduled for 1915, was cancelled due to the First World War.
The two conventions formed the basis of modern international humanitarian law, which governs armed conflicts and seeks to protect those who are not involved, including civilians and prisoners of war.
When were crimes against humanity first set out?
Crimes against humanity were first set out in the charters of the Nuremberg and Tokyo trials, which began after the Second World War in 1945.
They were then included in the statutes of the tribunals of the 1990s that dealt with the conflicts in Yugoslavia - the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY), and Rwanda: the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR).
The International Law Commission, the UN body that develops international law, is currently working on a draft convention for crimes against humanity.
But until then the Rome Statute, which was signed in 1998 and led to the creation of the ICC, has the most complete list of the 11 crimes. They can be found in Article 7 and are, to sum up:
- Murder
- Extermination
- Enslavement
- Deportation or forcible transfer of population
- Imprisonment or other severe deprivation of physical liberty that violates international law
- Torture
- Rape, sexual slavery, enforced prostitution, forced pregnancy, enforced sterilisation, or any other comparable sexual violence
- Persecution against any identifiable group on the basis of politics, race, nation, ethnicity, culture, religion or gender; or any other grounds that are universally recognised as not allowed under international law
- Enforced disappearances
- Apartheid
- Other inhumane acts of a similar character that intentionally causing great suffering, or serious injury, either physically or mentally
How do you prove a crime against humanity?
Crimes against humanity can occur at any time: as mentioned above, there is no need to prove there has been an armed conflict.
Like every crime, any crime against humanity has two elements that must be shown by the prosecution: the intention behind it (known as "mens rea"), and the elements of the act itself (this is called "actus reus").
In addition, the Rome Statute outlines that to prove a crime against humanity has been committed, the following criteria must be met. Again, it can occur outside war:
Awareness: The perpetrator was aware that a widespread or systematic attack had been carried out
Civilians: The prohibited act was carried out against a civilian population
Widespread: The prohibited act was part of a widespread or systematic attack
What is a ‘widespread or systematic attack’?
Some crimes against humanity are crimes in their own right, such as instances of torture and rape against individuals. But they are defined as crimes against humanity if they were committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack against a civilian population.
A "widespread attack," according to the ICTR, which examined the genocide in Rwanda, refers to a large-scale attack directed against many victims.
It becomes "systematic" when it's part of a preconceived policy or plan. This means that random or isolated attacks carried out for personal criminal gain are excluded, even if they occurred at the same time.
But an act of rape that occurs during a wider and systematic attack against civilians counts as a crime against humanity.
Sometimes, several of the acts listed in Article 7, such as murder, torture, and rape, will be carried out at the same time. Taken together, they would all amount to crimes against humanity if the court decides that they were part of a widespread or systematic attack.
When were the first verdicts of crimes against humanity?
The first verdicts of crimes against humanity were delivered by international judges against Nazi leaders at the Nuremberg Trials in October 1946 for atrocities committed during World War Two.
The guilty included Hermann Goering, the second most powerful Nazi leader after Hitler, who played a key role in the extermination of Jews and others. He was sentenced to death, although killed himself only hours before his planned execution.
Ten Nazis were eventually hung including foreign minister Joachim von Ribbentrop, former interior minister Wilhelm Frick, and newspaper publisher Julius Streicher. Others were jailed.
A later example is that of Adolf Eichmann, a key architect of the Holocaust, who initially evaded justice after World War Two and fled from Europe.
But in 1960 he was captured by Israeli agents in Argentina, sedated, and smuggled out of Argentina on an El Al flight disguised as a crew member, sparking international controversy.
On trial in Jerusalem, he was found guilty of crimes against humanity and executed on 1 June 1962 - the only judicial death sentence carried out by Israel.
The ICTR and ICTY delivered landmark convictions for crimes against humanity. The ICTR in its trial of the Rwandan genocide found several individuals guilty of crimes against humanity along with genocide.
For example, Ferdinand Nahimana, the co-founder of RTLM radio, was found guilty of several acts of genocide, including direct and public incitement to commit genocide, as well as crimes against humanity including persecution and extermination. These all stemmed from hate speech broadcast by the radio station against the Tutsis during the genocide of 1994.
The ICTY also issued convictions for crimes against humanity. The tribunal convicted Radovan Karadzic, former president of Republika Srpska (RS), of several crimes against humanity that were carried out by Serb forces against civilians during the armed conflict between 1992 and 1995.
Since its founding in 2002, the ICC has found several state leaders and commanders guilty of crimes against humanity. In 2019, Bosco Ntaganda, a former warlord from the Democratic Republic of Congo, was convicted by the ICC of crimes against humanity. He received a 30-year sentence, the longest issued yet by the ICC since it began its work in 2002.
How do crimes against humanity differ from genocide?
As mentioned above, there are three serious categories of international crimes: war crimes, genocide, and crimes against humanity.
While they may be defined separately, they can all occur at the same time, which means courts may prosecute them simultaneously.
This means that certain crimes against humanity may share features with certain acts of genocide - but whether they qualify as a crime against humanity or an act of genocide depends on how much they satisfy their definition.
Let's take the crime against humanity that is defined as "murder". It sounds not unlike the act of genocide, known as "killing members of the group". But what differentiates them is the element of intent:
Murder (crime against humanity): Prosecutors need to prove that it was done against a civilian population as part of a targeted widespread or systematic attack. There is no need to prove an intention to destroy the group.
Killing members of the group (act of genocide): Prosecutors need to prove that it was done intentionally to destroy that group in whole or part.
Likewise, the crime against humanity known as "persecution" is often considered as a prelude to acts of genocide.
At the Nuremberg Trials in 1946, Nazi propagandist Julius Streicher was convicted and executed for "persecution" due to antisemitic publications that predated the Holocaust.
How do crimes against humanity differ from war crimes?
The legal prohibition of war crimes is intended to protect, during war, those who are not fighting, such as civilians, prisoners of war, and wounded fighters. They can only be committed as part of an armed conflict.
But there are some war crimes that also amount to crimes against humanity. For these war crimes to qualify as crimes against humanity, the accused need to have been aware they were committing a crime that was part of a widespread or systematic attack against a civilian population.
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