Dr. Farijah Mohamed Hisham
Lecturer – specializing in International Criminal Law – School of Law and Political Sciences – University of Msila – Algeria

Abstract:

The issue of crimes against humanity is of great importance, especially at the present time, due to the fact that in many regions, where they occur, numerous murders are committed in the form of genocides, as well as enslavements, all occurring for various reasons, including religious, ethnic and national reasons. These crimes are part of large-scale or systematic attacks, making them international crimes that would violate the noble principles of international law.
Therefore, this study aims at defining the concept of crimes against humanity and its elements, giving some examples of the crimes against humanity occurring in some regions around the world by answering the following problematic: how did crimes against humanity develop into being considered an international crime? and what are the different elements constituent to it?
The study concludes with the following recommendations: making crimes against humanity a priority of the internal judiciary, in line with the principle of complementarity between the national and the international judiciary, and avoiding international interference and the resorting of victims to the international courts. This is in addition to the need to provide for crimes against humanity in the internal laws of States, and to disseminate their concepts among citizens, leaders and military personnel, as well as law enforcement personnel in locations of armed conflict so as not to get involved in such crimes on the pretext of having to implement orders issued to them or their chiefs.

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