The Crime of Political Persecution before the International Criminal Court

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I would like to take this chance for thanking my research facilitator, friends & family for support they provided & their belief in me as well as guidance they provided without which I would have never been able to do this research.

DECLARATION

I, (Your name), would like to declare that all contents included in this thesis/dissertation stand for my individual work without any aid, & this thesis/dissertation has not been submitted for any examination at academic as well as professional level previously. It is also representing my very own views & not essentially which are associated with university.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTii

DECLARATIONiii

CHAPTER 01: INTRODUCTION1

Background1

Research Questions2

Aims and Objectives2

CHAPTER 02: LITERATURE REVIEW3

Historical Meaning3

Legal Meaning4

The changing nature of refugee situations4

Refugee Law6

Discriminatory Grounds7

International Human Rights Law8

Non-State Actors as Agents of Persecution9

Remedies10

CHAPTER 03: METHODOLOGY11

Mixed Research11

Classification of research methods12

Multi-method studies12

Mixed method studies12

Steps in mixed methodology12

Strength and weakness of the mixed research:13

Strengths13

Weaknesses14

Research Design14

Literature Search15

Instrument for data collection15

Data analysis16

BIBLIOGRAPHY17

CHAPTER 01: INTRODUCTION

Background

In 1998, the definition of persecution was formed, in agreement with the Rome Statute of International Criminal Court (ICC) drafters.

According to Article 7(2) (g) of the Rome Statute, persecution means "the intentional and severe deprivation of fundamental rights contrary to international law by reason of the identity of the group or collectivity." On the other hand, in the 20th century, regardless of the actual prevalence, the definition of persecution as the crime was escaped under the international criminal law.

Before the World War II, nonintervention standards and principles, whereby states were forbidden from making interventions into the matters basically within the domestic jurisdiction of another state, was considered to pose an insuperable obstacle to global criminalization for such kind of acts and conducts.

At first, the emergence of persecution as a crime took place in the London Charter, at Nuremberg (under international criminal law) of the International Military Tribunal (IMT). The tribunal was empowered to prosecute by the London Charter's article 6(c):

The crimes which are against humanity: deportation, enslavement, extermination, murder and other acts that are inhumane, which are committed against, any population of civilian, during the war or before it, or political persecutions, religious or racial grounds in connection with or in execution of any crime that falls within the Tribunal jurisdiction, whether in violating the law at the domestic level of the country.

In the international law, it was a watershed event, when the crimes against humanity were included in the IMT authorities because it was marked as a punishable conduct which can be perpetrated by the authorities at the state level against their nationals.

Research Questions

The research aims at answering the following research questions:

What were the past trends in crime of political persecutions?

What are the proposed solutions to the political persecutions and how can this crime be controlled?

Aims and Objectives

The major aim behind this research will be the critical review of the history of crime of political persecutions before the international criminal court and identification of the conflicting claims, claimants, their bases of power, identifications, values, ...