| Abstract [eng] |
War crimes consist of conduct (acts or omissions) which is prohibited by the rules of international law applicable in armed conflicts, conventions and recognized principles and rules of international law of armed conflicts. Chapter XV of Penal Code of Lithuania lists war crimes. The origin of this Chapter was determined by international commitments made according to the international treaties regulating war crimes, including Four Geneva Conventions of 1949 and its two Additional protocols of 1977 as well as Rome statute. This paper analyses war crimes included in Penal Code of Lithuania and its conformity with international law and especially Rome statute. The development of definition of war crimes in international law is researched in the first part of the work. The analysis begins with regulating war crimes until 1945, war crimes included in Nuremberg charter, Charter of Tokyo, Rwanda’s statute and statute of the international tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia is briefly discussed after that. The latest international instrument regulating war crimes is Rome statute. In the second part of the work war crimes listed in Rome statute is the object of analysis. This part of the work includes also studying other international treaties (Four Geneva Conventions of 1949 and its two Additional Protocols of 1977 and others), which explain war crimes. War crimes listed in Penal Code of Lithuania is the object of analysis in the final part of the work. Analysis begins with the concept and system of war crimes in Lithuanian law. The work ends with analysis of separate war crimes and with conclusions that there are certain problems regarding the definitions of war crimes in Penal Code of Lithuania and it conformity with international law. First of all, Penal Code of Lithuania does not include any war crime committed during non-international armed conflict, its lacks the implementation of the command responsibility doctrine. Secondly, a number of definitions, provided in Penal Code of Lithuania are not conformity with the same definitions provided in the international instruments: “shipwrecked”, “rape of women”. The element “annexation” is surplus, because no one international document includes such element. |
