REVIEWING THE PUNISHMENT FOR CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY AND WAR CRIMES

Abstract

The punishments for crime against humanity and war crime differ from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. The reasons for this phenomenal legal system also differ from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. This paper seeks to analyze the issue of this kind of structured penalties for crimes against humanity and war crimes and advance the argument that penalties for crimes against humanity should be more grave and drastic than war crimes. This is in contradistinction to the present position where the penalties meted out for crime against humanity and war crimes are the same. One reason why the present approach is being used is that there seems to be no generally accepted blueprint and guideline to determine different levels of sentencing for war crimes and crimes against humanity. Even though the contextual elements of the war crimes and crimes against humanity are largely interwoven and analogous, crimes against humanity and war crime are not the same and should not carry the same minimum or maximum penalties. This paper seeks to recommend that the international community needs to adopt an index to increase the punishment for crimes against humanity more than war crimes. Crime against humanity has a motivation with a heinous mind to commit homicide. This is usually followed by loss of lives, massive injury, or property being destroyed. It is not in doubt that crime against humanity is committed both during war and peace times.