Draft bill #11484 of August 15, 2024
Sponsor: the President
Status: sent for review to the Law Enforcement Committee
Who is affected: service members, law enforcement officers, courts, and prosecutors
Summary:
- a military commander or a person who effectively performs their functions shall be criminally liable for the crime of aggression, war crimes, the use of weapons of mass destruction, and genocide, if such crimes are committed by their subordinates and they did nothing to prevent them
- increases the punishment for planning, preparing, and waging aggressive war from a sentence of 7 to 12 years in prison to a sentence of 10 to 15 years in prison
- adds life imprisonment as a possible penalty for waging aggressive war. The currently existing punishment is 10 to 15 years in prison
- introduces a new article to the Criminal Code establishing criminal liability for crimes against humanity, which include:
- persecution of any identifiable group or community. Referring to the restriction of fundamental human rights based on political, racial, national, ethnic, cultural, religious, gender, or other grounds
- deportation and forced displacement of population
- rape, sexual exploitation, coercion into prostitution, forced pregnancy or sterilization, and any other forms of sexual violence
- slavery or trafficking in persons
- illegal deprivation of liberty, enforced disappearance of persons, torture, and other acts inflicting severe suffering, serious bodily injury, or other serious harm to health
- establishes criminal liability for the intentional commission of apartheid (institutionalized racial segregation and discrimination), extermination, and murder of civilians within the framework of a conscious widespread or systematic attack.
What is right: brings national legislation in line with international standards and establishes accountability for crimes against humanity that fall within the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court.