The formal concept of war crimes emerged from the drafting of customary international laws that applied to wars between independent states, such as the Lieber Code (1863) of the Union Army during the American Civil War and the Hague Conventions of 1899 and 1907 for international warfare. After World War II, war crime trials of the Axis powers' leaders established the Nuremberg principles of international criminal law, such as defining war crimes in international criminal law. In 1949, the Geneva Convention legally defined new war crimes and stipulated that states could exercise universal jurisdiction over war criminals.
By the end of the twentieth and the beginning of the twenty-first century, international courts expanded and defined other categories of war crimes applicable to internal conflicts.
Crimes against humanity are widespread or systematic criminal acts carried out by or on behalf of a de facto authority, usually by or on behalf of a state, that violate human rights. Unlike war crimes, crimes against humanity do not need to occur within the framework of war, and these crimes concern widespread actions rather than acts carried out by individuals. Although crimes against humanity pertain to acts carried out by or on behalf of leaders, they do not need to be part of an official policy but must be condoned by authorities. The first trial for crimes against humanity took place at the Nuremberg court. Initially considered for legal use, it broadly became an international human rights standard after the Holocaust, as stated in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948). As the declaration mentions, groups or states that violate or incite human rights norms represent the political pathology associated with crimes against humanity.
War crimes and crimes against humanity constitute gross violations of the laws of war and give rise to individual criminal liability. Examples of war crimes include intentionally killing civilians or prisoners, torture, inhumane treatment such as testing chemical and biological weapons, destroying civilian property, hostage-taking, oppression, beatings, use of child soldiers, looting, and abuse of military force. War crimes are not limited to conflicts between countries but also occur during civil wars.
The distinction between war crimes and crimes against humanity is that crimes against humanity are specific acts deliberately committed by a government or on behalf of a government as part of a broad or organized policy in times of war or peace. Unlike war crimes, which soldiers typically commit, the state or its agents perpetrate crimes against humanity within a repressive government. The perpetuation of such acts is considered a grave violation of human rights.
Throughout history, the Kurdish people have been subjected to war crimes and crimes against humanity hundreds of times, leading to the loss of hundreds of thousands of lives, the devastation, and the displacement of defenseless and civilian populations. Here, we intend to discuss all the crimes committed against the Kurds in the presence of the global audience and the international community, who observed these atrocities silently and indifferently.