'Crimes against humanity' in document 'Latvia - Criminal Code'

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RELEVANT SECTIONS OF THE IMPLEMENTING LEGISLATION

General Part

Chapter I
General Provisions

Section 5. Time When The Criminal Law is In Force

(4) A person, who has committed a crime against humanity, a crime against peace, a war crime or has participated in genocide, shall be punishable irrespective of the time when such offence was committed.

General Part

Chapter III
Circumstances which Exclude Criminal Liability

Section 34. Execution of Criminal Commands or Criminal Orders

(1) Execution of a criminal command or a criminal order by the person who has executed it is justifiable only in those cases when the person did not know of the criminal nature of the command or the order and it was not manifest. In such cases, criminal liability shall nonetheless apply if crimes against humanity and peace, war crimes or genocide have been committed.

(2) A person who has not executed a criminal command or order shall not be held criminally liable.

General Part

Chapter VI
Release from Criminal Liability and Punishment

Section 57. Inapplicability of Limitation Period

A limitation period for criminal liability is not applicable to a person who has committed a crime against humanity, a crime against peace, a war crime or a person who has participated in genocide.

Special Part

Chapter IX
Crimes against Humanity and Peace, War Crimes and Genocide

Section 71.2 Crimes against Humanity

For a person who commits crime against humanity, that is, for an activity which is performed as a part of vast or systematic offensive to civilians and which has been expressed as homicide, extermination, enslavement, deportation or forced movement, unlawful deprivation or limitation of liberty, torture, rape, involvement of a person into sexual slavery, compelling the engaging in prostitution, forced fertilisation or sterilisation, or sexual violence of similar degree of severity, apartheid, persecution of any group of people or union on the basis of political, racial, national, ethnical, cultural, religious or gender affiliation or other reasons which have been recognised as inadmissible in the international law, in relation to any activity indicated in this Section or genocide, or war crime or other activity provided for in the international law binding upon the Republic of Latvia, which causes serious physical or mental suffering,
the applicable punishment is life imprisonment or deprivation of liberty for a term of not less than three and not exceeding twenty years.

RELEVANT ROME STATUTE PROVISIONS

Article 5
Crimes within the jurisdiction of the Court
1. The jurisdiction of the Court shall be limited to the most serious crimes of concern to the international community as a whole. The Court has jurisdiction in accordance with this Statute with respect to the following crimes:
(b) Crimes against humanity

Article 7
Crimes against humanity
1. For the purpose of this Statute, "crime against humanity" means any of the following acts when committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack directed against any civilian population, with knowledge of the attack:
(a) Murder;
(b) Extermination;
(c) Enslavement;
(d) Deportation or forcible transfer of population;
(e) Imprisonment or other severe deprivation of physical liberty in violation of fundamental rules of international law;
(f) Torture;
(g) Rape, sexual slavery, enforced prostitution, forced pregnancy, enforced sterilization, or any other form of sexual violence of comparable gravity;
(h) Persecution against any identifiable group or collectivity on political, racial, national, ethnic, cultural, religious, gender as defined in paragraph 3, or other grounds that are universally recognized as impermissible under international law, in connection with any act referred to in this paragraph or any crime within the jurisdiction of the Court;
(i) Enforced disappearance of persons;
(j) The crime of apartheid;
(k) Other inhumane acts of a similar character intentionally causing great suffering, or serious injury to body or to mental or physical health.
2. For the purpose of paragraph 1:
(a) "Attack directed against any civilian population" means a course of conduct involving the multiple commission of acts referred to in paragraph 1 against any civilian population, pursuant to or in furtherance of a State or organizational policy to commit such attack;
(b) "Extermination" includes the intentional infliction of conditions of life, inter alia the deprivation of access to food and medicine, calculated to bring about the destruction of part of a population;
(c) "Enslavement" means the exercise of any or all of the powers attaching to the right of ownership over a person and includes the exercise of such power in the course of trafficking in persons, in particular women and children;
(d) "Deportation or forcible transfer of population" means forced displacement of the persons concerned by expulsion or other coercive acts from the area in which they are lawfully present, without grounds permitted under international law;
(e) "Torture" means the intentional infliction of severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, upon a person in the custody or under the control of the accused; except that torture shall not include pain or suffering arising only from, inherent in or incidental to, lawful sanctions;
(f) "Forced pregnancy" means the unlawful confinement of a woman forcibly made pregnant, with the intent of affecting the ethnic composition of any population or carrying out other grave violations of international law. This definition shall not in any way be interpreted as affecting national laws relating to pregnancy;
(g) "Persecution" means the intentional and severe deprivation of fundamental rights contrary to international law by reason of the identity of the group or collectivity;
(h) "The crime of apartheid" means inhumane acts of a character similar to those referred to in paragraph 1, committed in the context of an institutionalized regime of systematic oppression and domination by one racial group over any other racial group or groups and committed with the intention of maintaining that regime;
(i) "Enforced disappearance of persons" means the arrest, detention or abduction of persons by, or with the authorization, support or acquiescence of, a State or a political organization, followed by a refusal to acknowledge that deprivation of freedom or to give information on the fate or whereabouts of those persons, with the intention of removing them from the protection of the law for a prolonged period of time.
3. For the purpose of this Statute, it is understood that the term "gender" refers to the two sexes, male and female, within the context of society. The term "gender" does not indicate any meaning different from the above.