'Violations of laws and customs - IAC' in document 'Montenegro - Criminal Code'

Jump to:

RELEVANT SECTIONS OF THE IMPLEMENTING LEGISLATION

SPECIAL PART

TITLE THIRTY-FIVE
CRIMINAL OFFENCES AGAINST HUMANITY AND OTHER VALUES GUARANTEED BY INTERNATIONAL LAW

War Crime against Civilian Population

Article 428
(1) Anyone who, in breach of the rules of international law, in state of war, armed conflict or occupation orders an attack upon civilian population, settlement, individual civilians, persons incapacitated for combat or members or facilities of humanitarian organizations or peace-keeping missions ; an attack without a specific target which strikes civilian population or civilian facilities under special protection of international law ; an attack upon military targets that was known to cause killing of civilian population or damage to civilian facilities in obvious disproportion to the expected military effect ; orders action against civilian population so as to physically injure, torture, treat inhumanly, use in biological, medical and other scientific experiments or take tissue or organs for transplantation, or to perform other acts causing harm to health or extensive suffering, or orders displacement or movement or forced change of nationality or religion; coercion to prostitution or rape ; taking of measures of intimidation and terror, taking of hostages, collective sentencing, unlawful placing under arrest and detention ; deprivation of the right to a just and impartial trial ; proclamation of rights and acts of nationals of the opposite party forbidden, suspended or not allowed in court procedure ;
compelling to service in armed forces of an enemy force or its intelligence service or administration; forced service in armed forces of persons under the age of seventeen ; forced labour ; starving of population ; unlawful confiscation, misappropriation, or destruction of property which belongs to civilian population and which is not justified by military needs ; taking an unlawful and excessive contribution and requisition ; devaluation of local currency or unlawful issuance of currency or who commits any of the said offences shall be punished by a prison term not shorter than five years.

(2) The punishment under para. 1 above shall also apply to anyone who by breaching the rules of international law during a war, armed conflict or occupation orders any of the following : an attack upon facilities under special protection of international law or facilities and installations of dangerous power such as dams, embankments, and nuclear power plants; strikes at civilian facilities under special
protection of international law, places without defence and demilitarised zones; long term and extensive damage to environment that can cause harm to health or survival of population or who commits any of the said offences.

(3) Anyone who during a war, armed conflict or occupation orders murders against civilian population or who commits such a crime shall be punished by a prison term not shorter than ten years or by a forty year prison term.

(4) Anyone who by breaching the rules of international law during a war, armed conflict or occupation, as an occupying force, orders or commits displacement of a part of its own civilian population to the occupied territory shall be punished by a prison term not shorter than five years.

(5) Anyone who threatens to commit one or more of the offences under paras 1 and 2 above shall be punished by a prison term from six months to five years.

SPECIAL PART

TITLE THIRTY-FIVE
CRIMINAL OFFENCES AGAINST HUMANITY AND OTHER VALUES GUARANTEED BY INTERNATIONAL LAW

Cruel Treatment of the Injured, Sick and of Prisoners of War

Article 437
Anyone who, in breach of rules of international law, treats inhumanly the injured, sick or prisoners of war, or who prevents or denies their access to the rights vested in them under such rules or who orders the commission of such offences shall be punished by a prison term from six months to five years.

RELEVANT ROME STATUTE PROVISIONS

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:
(i) Intentionally directing attacks against the civilian population as such or against individual civilians not taking direct part in hostilities;
(ii) Intentionally directing attacks against civilian objects, that is, objects which are not military objectives;
(iii) Intentionally directing attacks against personnel, installations, material, units or vehicles involved in a humanitarian assistance or peacekeeping mission in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations, as long as they are entitled to the protection given to civilians or civilian objects under the international law of armed conflict;
(iv) Intentionally launching an attack in the knowledge that such attack will cause incidental loss of life or injury to civilians or damage to civilian objects or widespread, long-term and severe damage to the natural environment which would be clearly excessive in relation to the concrete and direct overall military advantage anticipated;
(v) Attacking or bombarding, by whatever means, towns, villages, dwellings or buildings which are undefended and which are not military objectives;
(vi) Killing or wounding a combatant who, having laid down his arms or having no longer means of defence, has surrendered at discretion;
(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;
(viii) The transfer, directly or indirectly, by the Occupying Power of parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies, or the deportation or transfer of all or parts of the population of the occupied territory within or outside this territory;
(ix) Intentionally directing attacks against buildings dedicated to religion, education, art, science or charitable purposes, historic monuments, hospitals and places where the sick and wounded are collected, provided they are not military objectives;
(x) Subjecting persons who are in the power of an adverse party to physical mutilation or to medical or scientific experiments of any kind which are neither justified by the medical, dental or hospital treatment of the person concerned nor carried out in his or her interest, and which cause death to or seriously endanger the health of such person or persons;
(xi) Killing or wounding treacherously individuals belonging to the hostile nation or army;
(xii) Declaring that no quarter will be given;
(xiii) Destroying or seizing the enemy's property unless such destruction or seizure be imperatively demanded by the necessities of war;
(xiv) Declaring abolished, suspended or inadmissible in a court of law the rights and actions of the nationals of the hostile party;
(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;
(xvi) Pillaging a town or place, even when taken by assault;
(xvii) Employing poison or poisoned weapons;
(xviii) Employing asphyxiating, poisonous or other gases, and all analogous liquids, materials or devices;
(xix) Employing bullets which expand or flatten easily in the human body, such as bullets with a hard envelope which does not entirely cover the core or is pierced with incisions;
(xx) Employing weapons, projectiles and material and methods of warfare which are of a nature to cause superfluous injury or unnecessary suffering or which are inherently indiscriminate in violation of the international law of armed conflict, provided that such weapons, projectiles and material and methods of warfare are the subject of a comprehensive prohibition and are included in an annex to this Statute, by an amendment in accordance with the relevant provisions set forth in articles 121 and 123;
(xxi) Committing outrages upon personal dignity, in particular humiliating and degrading treatment;
(xxii) Committing rape, sexual slavery, enforced prostitution, forced pregnancy, as defined in article 7, paragraph 2 (f), enforced sterilization, or any other form of sexual violence also constituting a grave breach of the Geneva Conventions;
(xxiii) Utilizing the presence of a civilian or other protected person to render certain points, areas or military forces immune from military operations;
(xxiv) Intentionally directing attacks against buildings, material, medical units and transport, and personnel using the distinctive emblems of the Geneva Conventions in conformity with international law;
(xxv) Intentionally using starvation of civilians as a method of warfare by depriving them of objects indispensable to their survival, including wilfully impeding relief supplies as provided for under the Geneva Conventions;
(xxvi) Conscripting or enlisting children under the age of fifteen years into the national armed forces or using them to participate actively in hostilities.