Non-state entities and crimes against humanity : purpose and power

Abstract

In order to find that a crime against humanity has been committed, there is a threshold requirement that the acts must have been carried out ‘pursuant to or in furtherance of a State or organizational policy’ under Article 7(2)(a) of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. The use of the word ‘organizational’ in this Article raises questions about what type of groups may be considered perpetrators of such crimes. A classic viewpoint alleges that only States or State-like actors commit such crimes. Increasingly, there are moves to broaden this stance, with non-State groups such as terrorist organisations, independent armed groups, rebels and organised crime syndicates being coined the culprits of crimes against humanity. This piece aims to identify what types of group entities may be considered an organisation orchestrating a policy to commit such attacks, thus falling under the remit of the Article. In order to do so, there will be a move to isolate the most pertinent characteristics of an organisation that indicate it is shaping a policy to commit crimes of an international nature, thus demarcating its actions from the concern of domestic criminal law.