Reply #47: War Crimes... how does someone get charged? [View All]

[Demosthenes_K]

Just briefly, my understanding of the procedure for someone to be charged with "War Crimes", or more specifically "Crimes against Humanity" is that, firstly, the person(s) being charged can not be an incumbent political figure. And secondly, the person(s) must be referred by a State, not an individual or group. So, there you have it, you must wait until after 2008 and they (including Kindasleezy) must be referred by a state, perhaps Iran could be persuaded to do so... :)

...Added after a brief cigarette break...

The United States is NOT a signatory to the International Court of Justice and will not recognize it's jurisdiction. And... most tellingly, it has pressured many nations to NOT refer US citizens to the court.

Interestingly, the pressure primarily has the form of reducing or ceasing foreign aid to the country, and as many are aware, the majority of US foreign aid is in the form of military hardware. Amnesty International found, a couple of years ago, that the level of US foreign aid to any given country correlates very well with human rights atrocities. No surprises there I guess?