The upcoming U.N. conference for the negotiation of a Convention on Prevention and Punishment of Crimes against Humanity, launched by the U.N. General Assembly in December 2024, will have as its basis draft articles produced by the U.N. International Law Commission (ILC). This essay briefly recounts the process at the ILC and the substance of the draft articles. In 2012-2013, due to the lack of a treaty that obligates States to prevent and punish crimes against humanity, and that calls for inter-State cooperation to that end, I proposed that the ILC undertake drafting articles that could serve as the basis for such a convention. Once the topic was formally launched in 2014, I submitted to the ILC a first report (2015), second report (2016), and third report (2017) proposing text for the draft articles, based on an assessment of State practice, treaties, general principles of law, and jurisprudence. Those proposals were refined in the ILC’s drafting committee, after which I prepared commentary that was developed and adopted in the plenary, allowing for a complete “first reading” package to be sent in 2017 to the General Assembly for reactions.
Overview of the ILC Draft Articles for a Crimes Against Humanity Convention
