Chapter II
Crimes

Section II
War crimes


Article 10
War crimes against person

1. Anyone who, in the context of an international armed conflict or a non-international armed conflict, commits any of the following acts against a person protected by international humanitarian law:

(a) Murder;
(b) Torture or cruel, degrading or inhuman treatment, including biological experiments;
(c) 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;
(d) Acts that cause great suffering or serious injury to body or health;
(e) Killing or wounding a combatant who has laid down his or her arms or who, no longer having any means of defence, has surrendered unconditionally or has been placed hors de combat by any cause;
(f) Taking of hostages;
(g) Acts described in subparagraph (g) of the preceding article that constitute a serious violation of the Geneva Conventions;
(h) Conscripting or enlisting children into a State’s armed forces or military or paramilitary forces, or into armed groups other than a State’s armed forces or military or paramilitary forces, or using them to participate in hostilities;
(i) Deportation or transfer, or unlawful confinement;
(j) Conviction and execution of sentence without a previous fair and impartial trial;
(l) Outrages upon personal dignity, in particular humiliating and degrading treatment;

shall be punished with a term of imprisonment of 10 to 25 years.

2. Anyone who, in the context of an international armed conflict:

(a) Transfers, directly or indirectly, as the occupying power, part of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies, or transfers all or part of the population of the occupied territory within or outside this territory;
(b) Compels prisoner of war or other protected person to serve in the forces of a hostile power;
(c) After the cessation of hostilities, delays the repatriation of prisoners of war without justication;

shall be punished with a term of imprisonment of 10 to 25 years.


Article 11
War crimes involving the employment of prohibited methods of warfare

Anyone who, in the context of an international armed conflict or a non-international armed conflict:

(a) Attacks the civilian population as such or individual civilians not taking direct part in hostilities;
(b) Attacks civilian objects, that is, objects which are not military objectives;
(c) Attacks, by whatever means, population centres, dwellings or buildings that are undefended and that are not military objectives;
(d) Launches an indiscriminate attack against the civilian population or civilian property in the knowledge that such attack will cause loss of human life, injury to civilians or excessive damage to civilian objects;
(e) Uses the presence of civilians or other protected persons to prevent specific locations, areas or military forces from being targeted by military operations;
(f) Intentionally uses starvation of the civilian population as a method of warfare by depriving them of objects indispensable to their survival, including impeding relief supplies as provided for under the Geneva Conventions;
(g) Declares or threatens, as a person with official status, that no quarter will be given;
(h) Treacherously kills or wounds enemy combatants;
(i) Launches an attack in the knowledge that such attack will cause 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;
(j) Commits perfidy, which means the act of killing, injuring or capturing by inviting, with intent to betray, the confidence of an adversary that he or she is entitled to, or is obliged to accord, protection under rules of international humanitarian law;

shall be punished with a term of imprisonment of 10 to 25 years.


Article 12
War crimes involving the employment of prohibited means of warfare

1. Anyone who, in the context of an international armed conflict or a non-international armed conflict, employs 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, shall be punished with a term of imprisonment of 10 to 25 years.

2. The preceding paragraph relates, in particular, to the employment of:

(a) Poison or poisoned weapons;
(b) Asphyxiating, toxic or similar gases or any analogous liquid, material or device;
(c) Bullets that 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;
(d) Anti-personnel mines in violation of the provisions of the Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on Their Destruction, ratified by Decree of the President of the Republic No. 64/99 of 28 January;
(e) Chemical weapons in violation of the provisions of the Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production, Stockpiling and Use of Chemical Weapons and on Their Destruction, ratified by Decree of the President of the Republic No. 25-C/96 of 23 July;
(f) Weapons the primary effect of which is to injure by fragments which in the human body escape detection by X-rays, in violation of the provisions of Protocol I Additional to the Convention on Prohibitions or Restrictions on the Use of Certain Conventional Weapons which may be Deemed to be Excessively Injurious or to Have Indiscriminate Effects, concerning non-detectable fragments, ratified by Decree of the President of the Republic No. 1/97 of 13 January;
(g) Incendiary weapons, in violation of the provisions of Protocol III Additional to the Convention on Prohibitions or Restrictions on the Use of Certain Conventional Weapons Which May be Deemed to be Excessively Injurious or to Have Indiscriminate Effects, concerning prohibitions or restrictions on the use of incendiary weapons, ratified by Decree of the President of the Republic No. 1/97 of 13 January;
(h) Laser weapons that cause blindness, in violation of the provisions of Protocol IV Additional to the Convention on Prohibitions or Restrictions on the Use of Certain Conventional Weapons Which May be Deemed to be Excessively Injurious or to Have Indiscriminate Effects, concerning blinding laser weapons, ratified by Decree of the President of the Republic No. 38/2001 of 13 July.


Article 13
War crimes against objects protected by distinctive insignia or emblems

Anyone who, in the context of an international armed conflict or a non-international armed conflict, attacks:

(a) Personnel, installations, material, units or vehicles involved in a peacekeeping or humanitarian assistance mission in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations, where the latter are entitled to the protection given to civilians or civilian objects under the international law of armed conflict;
(b) Buildings, installations, material, units or vehicles, duly marked with the distinctive emblems of the Geneva Conventions, or personnel authorised to use such emblems;

shall be punished with a term of imprisonment of 10 to 20 years.


Article 14
Improper use of distinctive insignia or emblems

1. Anyone who, in the context of an international armed conflict or a non-international armed conflict, improperly uses, with perfidious intent, a flag of truce, a national flag, the military insignia or uniform of the enemy or of the United Nations, or the distinctive emblems of the Geneva Conventions, thereby causing death or serious injury, shall be punished with a term of imprisonment of 10 to 25 years.

2. Anyone who, in the context of an international armed conflict or a non-international armed conflict, commits the acts described in the preceding paragraph, but without perfidious intent, shall be punished with a term of imprisonment of 1 to 5 years.


Article 15
War crimes against property

1. Anyone who, in the context of an international armed conflict or a non-international armed conflict:

(a) Appropriates, destroys or damages property on a large scale or of great value, in a manner not justified by military necessity or carried out unlawfully or wantonly;
(b) Attacks, destroys or damages buildings used for religious worship, education, the arts, science or charitable purposes, cultural or historical monuments, archaeological sites, hospitals and places where the sick and wounded are collected, provided they are not being used for military purposes;
(c) Pillages a town or place, even when taken by assault;

shall be punished with a term of imprisonment of 5 to 15 years.


Article 16
War crimes against other rights

1. Anyone who, in the context of an international armed conflict or a non-international armed conflict, declares abolished, suspended or inadmissible in a court of law any rights and procedures of the nationals of the hostile party shall be punished with a term of imprisonment of 5 to 15 years.