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 C—Crimes against humanity

268.20 Crime against humanity—persecution

(1) A person (the perpetrator) commits an offence if:
(a) the perpetrator severely deprives one or more persons of any of the rights referred to in paragraph (b); and
(b) the rights are those guaranteed in articles 6, 7, 8 and 9, paragraph 2 of article 14, article 18, paragraph 2 of article 20, paragraph 2 of article 23 and article 27 of the Covenant; and
(c) the perpetrator targets the person or persons by reason of the identity of a group or collectivity or targets the group or collectivity as such; and
(d) the grounds on which the targeting is based are political, racial, national, ethnic, cultural, religious, gender or other grounds that are recognised in paragraph 1 of article 2 of the Covenant; and
(e) the perpetrator's conduct is committed in connection with another act that is:
(i) a proscribed inhumane act; or
(ii) genocide; or
(iii) a war crime; and
(f) the perpetrator's conduct is committed intentionally or knowingly as part of a widespread or systematic attack directed against a civilian population.

Penalty: Imprisonment for 17 years.

(2) Strict liability applies to:
(a) the physical element of the offence referred to in paragraph (1)(a) that the rights are those referred to in paragraph (1)(b); and
(b) paragraphs (1)(b) and (d).

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:
(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

2. For the purpose of paragraph 1:
(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;