War Crime
War crimes areviolations of international humanitarian law that give rise to individual criminal responsibility under international law.
They must always take place in the context of an armed conflict, either international or non-international.1
Examples of war crimes include intentionally killing civilians or prisoners of war, torture, taking hostages, unnecessarily destroying civilian property, deception by perfidy, wartime sexual violence, pillaging, and any individual who is part of the command structure who orders any attempt to committing mass killings including genocide or ethnic cleansing, the granting of no quarter despite surrender, the conscription of children in the military, and flouting the legal distinctions of proportionality and military necessity.2
Human Rights Watch has documented cases of deliberate cruelty and violence against Ukrainian civilians in Russia-controlled areas, which should be investigated as war crimes.0