Kanisa George
How do we make sense of war? How do we conceptualise the disruptions of civilian life and the complete and utter disregard for history and culture?
It's easy to flick through the pages of time and observe the world turn on a much quicker axis due to the onslaught of war and a way of life that took decades to reconstruct. From the comfort of our living rooms, we watch as the red army invade Warsaw on the BBC's presentation of World on Fire and as Brad Pit put on an epic performance in Inglorious Bastards. But for those of us cringing at the horror of the present-day world, war and its criminal side is far from easy to understand.
Over the last few days, it has become apparent that "Putin's war" has entered into new territory. In the minds of many, the acts of the Russian delegation have gained the status of war crimes.
"It is a war crime to attack a nuclear power plant," the US embassy in Kyiv said on its Twitter page last week. "Putin's shelling of Europe's largest nuclear plant takes his reign of terror one step further."
The former Ukrainian prime minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk made it very clear to the Council on Foreign Relations that Putin is a war criminal who has to sit behind the bars of the International Criminal Court.
To the average man, the mere act of mounting troops and invading Ukraine amounts to crimes of aggravation and everything else that follows. Yet amid these terms hovering dangerously over the scene at Mariupol, many question what can be done in the short-term to stop it.
War crimes and crimes of aggression fall within the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court (ICC). Along with genocide and crimes against humanity, the ICC is mandated to try individuals (rather than states) and hold such persons accountable for these offences viewed as a serious concern to the international community.
Known as the first treaty-based permanent international criminal court, the ICC was established by the 1998 Rome Statute with more than 120 signatories. One of the court's main objectives is to end impunity and hold those responsible for their crimes.
In the wake of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, chief prosecutor of the ICC Karim Ahmad Khan, launched an investigation of war crimes and crimes against humanity allegedly committed by Russia.
There is no doubt that these acts can also be viewed as acts of aggression by Russia, but in this case, they aren't being investigated as it does not fit the requirements set out by the Rome Statute. The statute follows that the court can only prosecute crimes of aggression if one member state commits an act of aggression against another. And since neither Russia nor Ukraine is a member, crimes of aggression in this scenario can't be prosecuted.
Crimes against humanity according to the Rome Statute include any of the following acts committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack directed against any civilian population with knowledge of the attack. This includes murder, extermination and the crime of apartheid. Wa
