Fiat Justisia (Mar 2023)

The Urgency of War Crimes Regulation in Indonesian Criminal Law

  • Desia Rakhma Banjarani,
  • Febrian Febrian,
  • Mada Apriandi Zuhir,
  • Neisa Angrum Adisti

DOI
https://doi.org/10.25041/fiatjustisia.v17no2.2859
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 17, no. 2
pp. 107 – 130

Abstract

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Indonesia's Law Number 26 of 2000 concerning the Human Rights Court aligns with the principles of the Rome Statute but does not address war crimes, which are specifically regulated by the Rome Statute. Given that war crimes do not have an expiration date, they must be prosecuted at any time. This research aims to explore how war crimes provisions are articulated within humanitarian law and international criminal law and why their regulation is essential in Indonesian criminal law. Utilizing a normative juridical approach with qualitative descriptive analysis, the findings reveal that war crimes are governed by humanitarian law through instruments such as the 1907 Hague Convention, the 1949 Geneva Convention, the Declaration on the Protection of Women and Children in Emergencies (1974), and Additional Protocol II of the Geneva Convention (1977), while international criminal law addresses the responsibilities of war crime perpetrators in the IMT Charter (1945), IMTFE Charter (1946), the 1993 ICTY Statute, the 1994 ICTR Statute, and the 1998 Rome Statute. The urgency of incorporating war crimes regulation into Indonesian law is underscored by four factors: Indonesia's ratification of the 1949 Geneva Convention, the absence of specific regulations in the 2023 Criminal Code, Indonesia's role as part of the international community, and the unresolved cases related to armed conflict law enforcement within the country.

Keywords