Explanation: Crimes against humanity are defined as serious crimes committed as part of a large-scale or systematic attack directed against any civilian population. Crucially, these acts can be committed during both peacetime and wartime, not exclusively during wartime.

Explanation: M. Cherif Bassiouni posits that crimes against humanity constitute *jus cogens*, signifying fundamental and non-derogable norms within international law.

Explanation: The definition of crimes against humanity under the Rome Statute requires the attack to be directed against any civilian population, not necessarily a specific nationality. While persecution on grounds like nationality is prohibited, the attack itself can be broader.

Explanation: George Washington Williams, an American minister and historian, first employed the term 'crimes against humanity' in 1890 to denote the atrocities perpetrated under Leopold II's administration in the Congo Free State.

Explanation: The 1915 declaration by the Allied Powers (Britain, France, and Russia) explicitly condemned atrocities committed by Turkey as 'a crime against humanity,' representing the first instance where a government was officially charged with such an offense.

Explanation: While the preambles of the Hague Conventions of 1899 and 1907 incorporated references to the 'laws of humanity,' they did not explicitly define or prohibit crimes against humanity as a distinct legal category.

Explanation: The foundational prosecutions for crimes against humanity were conducted during the Nuremberg trials, which targeted leaders and collaborators of Nazi Germany.

Explanation: The Rome Statute defines crimes against humanity based on a widespread or systematic attack against a civilian population, and does not require a connection to war crimes or crimes against peace.

Explanation: The Nuremberg Charter defined crimes against humanity to include murder, extermination, enslavement, deportation, and other inhumane acts against civilian populations, as well as persecutions on political, racial, or religious grounds.

Explanation: The ICTR Statute notably omitted the requirement for a nexus to armed conflict, stipulating instead that the acts must constitute part of a 'systematic or widespread attack against any civilian population on national, political, ethnic, racial or religious grounds.'

Explanation: While efforts like the Crimes Against Humanity Initiative aim to create such a convention, currently, there is no single, comprehensive international treaty that codifies all aspects of crimes against humanity; its legal framework has evolved primarily through customary international law and specific statutes.

Explanation: The International Criminal Court (ICC) holds the distinction of being the first international tribunal to explicitly incorporate a spectrum of sexual and gender-based crimes, including rape, sexual slavery, and forced pregnancy, within the definition of crimes against humanity.

Explanation: A significant constraint under the initial Nuremberg Charter was the requirement that crimes against humanity be prosecuted only if connected to war crimes or crimes against peace, a limitation notably articulated by US representative Robert H. Jackson.

Explanation: The UN's 1996 Draft Code defined crimes against humanity as systematic or large-scale inhumane acts instigated or directed by a government or organization, thereby maintaining the requirement for state or organizational policy, unlike earlier frameworks that sometimes linked these crimes to armed conflict.

Explanation: The ICTY Statute's definition required that crimes against humanity be committed 'in armed conflict, whether international or internal in character.' While the acts must be part of a systematic or widespread attack against a civilian population, the ICTY Statute specifically mandated a nexus to armed conflict.

Explanation: The Crimes Against Humanity Initiative aims to establish a dedicated international treaty for the definition and prohibition of crimes against humanity, addressing a significant gap in international law where these severe offenses, though frequently committed, lack a singular, comprehensive convention.

Explanation: The Rome Statute's definition of crimes against humanity retained the 'widespread or systematic' element, defining it as a course of conduct involving multiple commission of prohibited acts against a civilian population, pursuant to or in furtherance of a state or organizational policy.

Explanation: Apartheid was formally recognized as a crime against humanity via the International Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid, adopted in 1973, and subsequently by the United Nations General Assembly in 1976.

Explanation: The Rome Statute enumerates eleven distinct categories of acts that may constitute crimes against humanity, including murder, extermination, enslavement, torture, rape, and enforced disappearance.

Explanation: UN Security Council Resolution 1820 (2008) affirmed that rape and other forms of sexual violence occurring in conflict zones may be classified as war crimes, crimes against humanity, or constitutive acts related to genocide.

Explanation: In principle, crimes against humanity, akin to other grave international offenses, are not subject to temporal or jurisdictional statutes of limitations, especially when universal jurisdiction is applicable.

Explanation: The ICC may exercise jurisdiction over crimes against humanity if the offenses occurred within the territory of a State Party to the Rome Statute, if a situation is referred by a non-party state, or if the UN Security Council refers a case to the Court.

Explanation: The Nuremberg Trials established the seminal principle of worldwide jurisdiction for severe war crimes and crimes against humanity, permitting prosecution irrespective of the geographical locus of the offense or the nationalities of the parties involved, not solely for minor offenses.

Explanation: The Goldstone report indicated that both Israeli and Hamas forces potentially committed crimes against humanity, citing concerns such as disproportionate force and civilian targeting by Israel, and indiscriminate rocket attacks by Hamas.

Explanation: The UN Human Rights Office assessment concluded that the extensive arbitrary and discriminatory detention of Uyghurs and other Muslim groups in Xinjiang since 2017 could constitute international crimes, specifically crimes against humanity.

Explanation: The actions perpetrated by the Myanmar military against the Rohingya Muslims, encompassing killings and widespread rape, have been characterized as crimes against humanity, genocide, and ethnic cleansing by entities such as the United Nations and Amnesty International.

Explanation: The International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant, citing alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity, with specific emphasis on the deliberate starvation of civilians in Gaza as a weapon of war.

Explanation: The UN Human Rights Council adopted a resolution demanding accountability for Israel regarding potential war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza, and calling for a cessation of arms sales to Israel.

Explanation: The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has encountered considerable international scrutiny for allegedly exacerbating atrocities in Sudan through the provision of military equipment and support to the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), potentially contravening UN arms embargoes, not the SAF.

Explanation: Former Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte was apprehended pursuant to an International Criminal Court (ICC) warrant concerning alleged extrajudicial killings perpetrated during his 'war on drugs,' which are classified as crimes against humanity.