Article 8(2)(e) ICC Statute – Other serious violations of the laws and customs applicable in armed conflicts not of an international character

The crimes under Art. 8(2)(e) of the ICC Statute (crimes committed in non-international armed conflicts), although more limited in number, are to a large extent identical in formulation to the corresponding crimes under Art. 8(2)(b) of the ICC Statute (crimes committed in international armed conflicts). The PrepCom adopted the view that the specific elements (not the common elements relating to the subject-matter jurisdiction) accepted for the crimes under Art. 8(2)(b) should appear under the corresponding war crime under Art. 8(2)(e), unless the specific legal framework of a non-international armed conflict would preclude this. Paragraph 1 of the introduction to the war crimes section Paragraph 1 of the introduction to the war crimes section is particularly relevant to the crimes under Art. 8(2)(e). It reads as follows: The elements for war crimes under article 8, paragraph 2(c) and (e), are subject to the limitations addressed in article 8, paragraph 2(d) and (f), which are not elements of crimes. This paragraph emphasises that the content of Art. 8(2)(d) and (f) provides limitations to the jurisdiction of the Court, namely a description of situations of internal violence not covered by the Statute. Several interested delegations wanted to make sure that whenever the threshold for a non-international armed conflict as indicated in these provisions is not reached, the Court will not examine conduct occurring within a country. Therefore, this paragraph was added to the Introduction.