RESOLUTION OF THE LIBERTY UNION PARTY<\/p>\n
Every member of the Vermont Congressional Delegation is a War =20
\nCriminal, as defined by the International Criminal Court and United =20
\nNations Human Rights Commission Resolution A\/HRC\/29\/L, due to their =20
\nrespective votes (August 22, 2014) approving $225 million dollars =20
\nadditional military aid to Israel, supporting Israel’s 2014 invasion =20
\nof Gaza (July 7-August 4).<\/p>\n
NOTES\/REFERENCES:<\/p>\n
The 29th Regular Session of United Nations Human Right Commission =20
\n(June 15-July 3) passed Resolution A\/HRC\/29\/L. 35 “Ensuring =20
\naccountability and justice for all violations of international law in =20=<\/p>\n
the Occupied Palestinian Territory.” The United States is the only =20
\ncountry voting against this resolution which was approved by 41 =20
\nnations (with 5 other nations abstaining).<\/p>\n
=46rom ICRC\/International Committee of the Red Cross on Customary Human =
\n=20
\nRights Law:<\/p>\n
Rule 156 of the International Criminal Court defines war crimes as =20
\n“serious violations of the laws and customs applicable in =20
\ninternational armed conflict” and “serious violations of the laws and =20=<\/p>\n
customs applicable in an armed conflict not of an international =20
\ncharacter. (ICC Statute, Article 8 , cited in Vol. II, Ch. 44, =C2=A7 3)<\/p>\n
A deductive analysis of the actual list of war crimes found in various =20=<\/p>\n
treaties and other international instruments, as well as in national =20
\nlegislation and case-law, shows that violations are in practice =20
\ntreated as serious, and therefore as war crimes, if they endanger =20
\nprotected persons or objects or if they breach important values.<\/p>\n
(i) The conduct endangers protected persons or objects. The majority =20
\nof war crimes involve death, injury, destruction or unlawful taking of =20=<\/p>\n
property. However, not all acts necessarily have to result in actual =20
\ndamage to persons or objects in order to amount to war crimes. This =20
\nbecame evident when the Elements of Crimes for the International =20
\nCriminal Court were being drafted. It was decided, for example, that =20
\nit was enough to launch an attack on civilians or civilian objects, =20
\neven if something unexpectedly prevented the attack from causing death =20=<\/p>\n
or serious injury. This could be the case of an attack launched =20
\nagainst the civilian population or individual civilians, even though, =20=<\/p>\n
owing to the failure of the weapon system, the intended target was not =20=<\/p>\n
hit. The same is the case for subjecting a protected person to medical =20=<\/p>\n
experiments =E2=80=93 actual injury is not required for the act to =
\namount to =20
\na war crime; it is enough to endanger the life or health of the person =20=<\/p>\n
through such an act. (See Knut D=C3=B6rmann, Elements of War Crimes =
\nunder =20
\nthe Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court: Sources and =20
\nCommentary, Cambridge University Press, 2003, pp. 130 and 233).<\/p>\n
(ii) The conduct breaches important values. Acts may amount to war =20
\ncrimes because they breach important values, even without physically =20
\nendangering persons or objects directly. (See ICC Statute, Article 8(2)=20=<\/p>\n
(b)(xxvi) and (e)(vii)<\/p>\n
Regarding individual criminal responsibility under international law
\nIn the interlocutory appeal in the Tadi=C4=87 case in 1995, the Appeals =20=<\/p>\n
Chamber of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former =20
\nYugoslavia stated that =E2=80=9Cthe violation of the rule [of =
\ninternational =20
\nhumanitarian law] must entail, under customary or conventional law, =20
\nthe individual criminal responsibility of the person breaching the =20
\nrule=E2=80=9D.<\/p>\n
This practice does not exclude the possibility that a State may define =20=<\/p>\n
under its national law other violations of international humanitarian =20=<\/p>\n
law as war crimes. The consequences of so doing, however, remain =20
\ninternal and there is no internationalization of the obligation to =20
\nrepress those crimes and no universal jurisdiction.<\/p>\n
Earlier practice seems to indicate that a specific act did not =20
\nnecessarily have to be expressly recognized by the international =20
\ncommunity as a war crime for a court to find that it amounted to a war =20=<\/p>\n
crime.<\/p>\n
Practice provides further specifications with respect to the nature of =20=<\/p>\n
the conduct constituting a war crime, its perpetrators and their =20
\nmental state.<\/p>\n
(i) Acts or omissions. War crimes can consist of acts or omissions.<\/p>\n
(ii) Perpetrators. Practice in the form of legislation, military =20
\nmanuals and case-law shows that war crimes are violations committed =20
\neither by members of the armed forces or by civilians against members =20=<\/p>\n
of the armed forces, civilians or protected objects of the adverse =20
\nparty.<\/p>\n
(iii) Mental element. International case-law has indicated that war =20
\ncrimes are violations that are committed wilfully, i.e., either =20
\nintentionally (dolus directus) or recklessly (dolus eventualis).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
RESOLUTION OF THE LIBERTY UNION PARTY Every member of the Vermont Congressional Delegation is a War =20 Criminal, as defined by the International Criminal Court and United =20 Nations Human […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-610","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-liberty-union-party-member-opinion"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/greenmountainpeaceandjusticeparty.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/610","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/greenmountainpeaceandjusticeparty.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/greenmountainpeaceandjusticeparty.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greenmountainpeaceandjusticeparty.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greenmountainpeaceandjusticeparty.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=610"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/greenmountainpeaceandjusticeparty.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/610\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":611,"href":"https:\/\/greenmountainpeaceandjusticeparty.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/610\/revisions\/611"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/greenmountainpeaceandjusticeparty.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=610"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greenmountainpeaceandjusticeparty.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=610"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greenmountainpeaceandjusticeparty.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=610"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}