On Nov. 22, the Sixth Committee of the United Nations General Assembly approved without vote the draft text of the “United Nations Conference of Plenipotentiaries on Prevention and Punishment of Crimes against Humanity.” The Sixth Committee is charged with considering legal issues that come before the General Assembly; the United States as a member state of the United Nations is entitled to representation on this committee. The Crimes Against Humanity Convention is based on the work of the International Law Commission, which was established in 1947 by the General Assembly to essentially develop and codify international law, much as “uniform law commissions” seek to do domestically. The proposed treaty now moves forward with a negotiation process among states beginning in 2026, with a three week UN conference on the convention to occur in 2028 and 2029. Remarks made in October 2024 by the United States applauded the draft convention articles as “an important step forward” in filling the gap for accountability since, unlike the cases of genocide, war crimes, torture, enforced disappearances and apartheid, there is no multilateral treaty on crimes against humanity. The proposed convention addresses attacks on civilians not just in war zones, but in peacetime as well, and sets out a mandatory framework for nations to address the defined crimes against humanity in national courts.

The draft convention purports to define ten such “crimes against humanity” as murder, extermination, enslavement, deportation/forceable transfer of people, imprisonment/severe deprivation of physical liberty in violation of international law, torture, rape and related issues of sexual slavery, persecution against identifiable groups based on political, racial, national, ethnic, cultural, religious, gender or other universally recognized grounds, enforced disappearance of people, apartheid and a catchall for “other inhumane acts of a similar character.” The convention would impose on nations an undertaking to not commit the defined acts through national legislation and international cooperation, and essentially criminalize the acts under national law, with concomitant establishment of measures to establish its jurisdiction in covered cases. Other features address investigation, interim relief, due process and other practical concerns.