جرائم الحرب العالمية

What constitutes a war crime today? This valuable book, written by world-renowned human rights lawyer Geoffrey Robertson, investigates the evidence and how to deter attacks on free societies. Today we are faced with evidence of thousands of war crimes: apartment buildings bombed and burned in Ukraine, corpses of children being pulled from the rubble in Gaza, civilians beaten and starved by armies in Sudan, hospitals and refugee camps deliberately targeted, and a growing number of aid workers, journalists and innocent civilians killed by soldiers. The evidence proves guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, but we know that there will be few, if any, prosecutions. Newspapers and television reports do not refer to these crimes as war crimes, and diplomats and politicians are reluctant to describe them as such. As a result, soldiers rarely hesitate to commit them, and generals feel no moral qualms about giving orders. This book explains, simply and without resorting to complex legal analysis, what constitutes a war crime today. It also warns soldiers of orders they should not obey, and warns officers of what will make them criminals. This book will give journalists and diplomats the confidence needed to describe war crimes. NGOs will have the ability to refute denials by governments or military institutions. Students of political science, law, and international relations will better understand this increasingly important topic in their disciplines. Most importantly, citizens will learn how to identify and expose illegal actions by military forces in their countries and in other countries, and will become better informed about the legality of arms exports to forces that may use them to commit war crimes. This book is an authoritative and thoughtful examination of the issues at stake in an increasingly complex, violent, and conflict-ridden world, and in many ways an extension of Robertson's best-selling Crimes Against Humanity.