Extermination is a

crime against humanity Crimes against humanity are widespread or systemic acts committed by or on behalf of a ''de facto'' authority, usually a state, that grossly violate human rights. Unlike war crimes, crimes against humanity do not have to take place within the ...

that consists of "the act of killing on a large scale". To be convicted of this crime, someone must play a role in a sufficiently-large scale killing of civilians, including those carried out by "the intentional infliction of conditions of life... calculated to bring about the destruction of part of a population". It was first prosecuted at the

International Military Tribunal International is an adjective (also used as a noun) meaning "between nations". International may also refer to: Music Albums * ''International'' (Kevin Michael album), 2011 * ''International'' (New Order album), 2002 * ''International'' (The T ...

in Nuremberg, and was included in the enumerated crimes against humanity in the

Rome Statute The Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court is the treaty that established the International Criminal Court (ICC). It was adopted at a diplomatic conference in Rome, Italy on 17 July 1998Michael P. Scharf (August 1998)''Results of the R ...

History

Extermination was listed as a crime against humanity in the Nuremberg charter (as well as the charter for the

Tokyo trial The International Military Tribunal for the Far East (IMTFE), also known as the Tokyo Trial or the Tokyo War Crimes Tribunal, was a military trial convened on April 29, 1946 to try leaders of the Empire of Japan for crimes against peace, conv ...

) and was first tried at the

in 1945. Czech jurist Egon Schwelb argued that the purpose of its inclusion, alongside murder, was to enable the prosecution of perpetrators too remote from the act of killing to be charged as murder. Following these prosecutions, it was generally accepted to have become part of

customary international law Customary international law is an aspect of international law involving the principle of custom. Along with general principles of law and treaties, custom is considered by the International Court of Justice, jurists, the United Nations, and its ...

. It was codified into the

in 1998.

Elements

Like other crimes against humanity, extermination must be "committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack directed against any civilian population", but can occur in peacetime as well as wartime (unlike war crimes). Similar to other international crimes, extermination includes both an ''

actus reus (), sometimes called the external element or the objective element of a crime, is the Law Latin term for the "guilty act" which, when proved beyond a reasonable doubt in combination with the ("guilty mind"), produces criminal liability in t ...

'' (an act of large-scale killing) and '' mens rea'' (the intent to participate in this action). The definition of the crime according to the Rome Statute is mostly aligned with that of

. According to

William Schabas William Anthony Schabas, OC (born 19 November 1950) is a Canadian academic specialising in international criminal and human rights law. He is professor of international law at Middlesex University in the United Kingdom, professor of internation ...

and other jurists, the only difference from customary international law was to specify that the crime of 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"—phrasing that Schabas argues was inspired by one of the elements of the crime of genocide, "deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part."

Actus reus

The perpetrator's action must have composed part of a large-scale killing, whether one that took place at one time or one location, or a series of incidents that accumulate to sufficient massiveness. A plan or policy is not necessary. Separate incidents must be sufficiently connected to each other to be understood as one operation. There is no minimum size threshold for the crime; it is assessed based on the circumstances, although case law has recognized incidents ranging from dozens to thousands of victims. The collective nature of the crime is satisfied by being of sufficient scale. The victims may be targeted as individuals, and it is not required that the crime target a particular group of civilians or aim at the extermination of part of this group. (Similar acts not connected to large-scale killing are likely to count as the crime against humanity of murder instead). Playing a role in the part of killing at least one person as part of a mass killing event is sufficient, although the prosecution does not need to prove that the accused caused the death of any particular person. The accused's role might be commission, omission, or a combination of both; encouragement, assistance, or indirect planning. The method of killing is not relevant; it could be carried out indirectly, for example depriving civilians of food or medicine, "creating a

humanitarian crisis A humanitarian crisis (or sometimes humanitarian disaster) is defined as a singular event or a series of events that are threatening in terms of health, safety or well-being of a community or large group of people. It may be an internal or extern ...

", blocking aid delivery, forcing people on a

death march A death march is a forced march of prisoners of war or other captives or deportees in which individuals are left to die along the way. It is distinguished in this way from simple prisoner transport via foot march. Article 19 of the Geneva Conve ...

, or refusing shelter.

Mens rea

The accused must have intended to engage in large scale killings, or to subject a large number of people to conditions that would be likely to cause their deaths. It is not required that the accused personally intended to kill on a large scale if it can be proven that their action was committed with the knowledge that it formed part of a sufficiently large-scale killing event. This might be proved by various means, such as large-scale logistics needed for certain types of killing. The motives for committing the crime are irrelevant; unlike

persecution Persecution is the systematic mistreatment of an individual or group by another individual or group. The most common forms are religious persecution, racism, and political persecution, though there is naturally some overlap between these term ...

, discriminatory intent is not required.

Comparison with other international crimes

Extermination (as well as the crime against humanity of murder) is similar to genocide, and could cover the same events. Unlike genocide, extermination as a crime against humanity is not required to be committed with

intent to destroy ''Intent to Destroy: Death, Denial, & Depiction'' is a 2017 documentary film directed by Joe Berlinger about the Armenian genocide. Production Berlinger embedded in the filming crew of '' The Promise'' to shoot ''Intent to Destroy''. The film ...

an ethnic, religious, or national group. Extermination is a crime committed against individuals, although on a large scale. The same underlying events might support a prosecution for extermination as well as the war crime of starvation.

References

Sources

*{{cite book , last1=Mettraux , first1=Guénaël , title=International Crimes: Law and Practice: Volume II: Crimes Against Humanity , date=2020 , publisher=Oxford University Press , isbn=978-0-19-260391-3 , language=en Crimes against humanity by type