CROATIA CRIMINAL CODE

SPECIAL PART

CHAPTER THIRTEEN (xiii) - CRIMINAL OFFENSES AGAINST VALUES PROTECTED BY INTERNATIONAL LAW

Article 157a

(1) Whoever violates the rules of international law in time of war, armed conflict or occupation and orders an attack against the civilian population, settlements, individual civilians or those hors de combat resulting in death, severe bodily harm or serious damage to people's health, orders an indiscriminate attack harming the civilian population, orders the killing, torturing or inhuman treatment of civilians, orders civilians to be subjected to biological, medical or other scientific experiments, their tissues or organs taken for transplantation, orders civilians to be subjected to great suffering impairing the integrity of their bodies or health, or orders their resettlement, displacement or forceful loss of ethnic identity or conversion to another religion, orders rape, sexual oppression, forced prostitution, pregnancy or sterilization or other sexual abuse, orders measures of intimidation or terror, hostage taking, collective punishment, unlawful deportations to concentration camps or illegal detention, deprives people of the rights to a just and unbiased trial, forces them to serve in hostile armed forces or in the information services or administration of a hostile power, subjects them to forced labor, starvation, confiscates property or orders that the population’s property be plundered or illegally and wantonly destroyed or its large-scale appropriation where there is no justification by military needs, or imposes illegal and disproportionately large contributions and requisitions, or decreases the value of the domestic currency or unlawfully issues it, or orders an attack against persons, equipment, materials, units or vehicles involved in humanitarian aid or a peace mission pursuant to the Charter of the United Nations, or orders that the rights and actions of the citizens of a hostile country be prohibited, suspended or pronounced unlawful in court proceedings, or injures personal dignity or orders civilians and other protected persons to be used to shield certain places, areas or military forces from military operations, or orders the recruitment of children under fifteen years of age for the national armed forces or their active participation in hostilities, or whoever commits any of the foregoing acts shall be punished by imprisonment for not less than five years or by long-term imprisonment.

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:
(xxvi) Conscripting or enlisting children under the age of fifteen years into the national armed forces or using them to participate actively in hostilities