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


268.44 War crime—improper use of the distinctive emblems of the Geneva Conventions

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

(a) the perpetrator uses an emblem; and
(b) the emblem is one of the distinctive emblems of the Geneva Conventions; and
(c) the perpetrator uses the emblem for combatant purposes to invite the confidence of an adversary in order to lead him or her to believe that the perpetrator is entitled to protection, or that the adversary is obliged to accord protection to the perpetrator, with intent to betray that confidence; and
(d) the perpetrator knows of, or is reckless as to, the illegal nature of such use; and
(e) the perpetrator’s conduct results in death or serious personal injury; and
(f) the conduct takes place in the context of, and is associated with, an international armed conflict.

Penalty: Imprisonment for life.

(2) Strict liability applies to paragraph (1)(b).

(3) In this section:
emblem means any emblem, identity card, sign, signal, insignia or uniform.

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:
(vii) Making improper use of a flag of truce, of the flag or of the military insignia and uniform of the enemy or of the United Nations, as well as of the distinctive emblems of the Geneva Conventions, resulting in death or serious personal injury