Abstract
The term ‘crimes against humanity’ has been widely used by different people to mean different things. The media has referred the term to include a variety of contemporary political events that they have reported on. The media practitioners and social workers have used the term loosely to refer to situations where the governments or any other people holding power, authority or influence have done any wrong. Politicians and political scientists deploy the term while referring to unacceptable and unfair activities in the political field. To International law scholars, the term has been used to refer to a specific crime under international criminal law, as distinguished from Genocide and War Crimes. This paper traces how crimes against humanity as a category of international crimes emerged and its essential requirements and how courts and institutions have developed and interpreted it, since the term crimes against humanity has acquired both a legal as well as socio-political perspective. Key words: Crimes against humanity, political violence, hostis humani generis.
Highlights
There is a lot of misconception on the actual meaning of crimes against humanity as a category of crimes under international criminal law
It has become clear that there is use of the term as a general definition of condemnation of intolerable political behavior in the eyes of political activists, and political news reporters. For those practicing or studying international criminal law, they must be guided to understand and distinguish the term crimes against humanity from a socio-political perspective and the one referred to in international statutes and understood by judges in the courts dealing with the legal aspects of the crime
The term crimes against humanity has been more commonly used than genocide and as such has become a more useful term for purposes of discussions and descriptions of various conflict situations because it is broader than genocide which is specific
Summary
There is a lot of misconception on the actual meaning of crimes against humanity as a category of crimes under international criminal law. This position is derived from the general legal framework classifying crimes in relation to either the subject or object as is even the case in domestic law, where there are classifications such as crimes against persons, crimes against property, crimes against morality, crimes against public order, and likewise crimes against humanity This is a demonstration that a crime is defined or elaborated through the pointing of the legally protected values that the law is targeting. It has become clear that there is use of the term as a general definition of condemnation of intolerable political behavior in the eyes of political activists, and political news reporters For those practicing or studying international criminal law, they must be guided to understand and distinguish the term crimes against humanity from a socio-political perspective and the one referred to in international statutes and understood by judges in the courts dealing with the legal aspects of the crime.
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