Schedule 1—Amendment of the Criminal Code Act 1995

Chapter 8—Offences against humanity and related offences

Division 268—Genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and crimes against the administration of the justice of the International Criminal Court

Subdivision E—Other serious war crimes that are committed in the course of an international armed conflict


268.53 War crime—compelling participation in military operations

(1) A person (the perpetrator) commits an offence if:

(a) the perpetrator coerces one or more persons by act or threat to take part in military operations against that person’s or those persons’ own country or forces; and
(b) the person or persons are nationals of an adverse party; and
(c) the perpetrator’s conduct takes place in the context of, and is associated with, an international armed conflict.

Penalty: Imprisonment for 10 years.

(2) It is not a defence to a prosecution for an offence against subsection (1) that the person or persons were in the service of the perpetrator at a time before the beginning of the international armed conflict.

Article 8
War crimes
2. For the purpose of this Statute, "war crimes" means:
(b) Other serious violations of the laws and customs applicable in international armed conflict, within the established framework of international law, namely, any of the following acts:
(xv) Compelling the nationals of the hostile party to take part in the operations of war directed against their own country, even if they were in the belligerent's service before the commencement of the war