The Prosecution of War Crimes in Non-International Armed Conflict

After World War II, the Nuremberg and Tokyo trials, as well as national trials, were among the first to prosecute war criminals who had offended on a large scale, the fundamental norms of international humanitarian law. These trials were to give a precedent on future violations of international humanitarian law in international conflicts. Still, the preventive aspect (implementation of legal provisions in Protocol II and Common Article 3), as well as the repressive aspect (the possible prosecution of alleged war criminals) of non-international -internal- conflicts would prove to be a far more challenging aspect.