UPDATED STATUTE OF THE INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL TRIBUNAL
FOR THE FORMER YUGOSLAVIA
(ADOPTED 25 MAY 1993 BY RESOLUTION 827)
(AS AMENDED 13 MAY 1998 BY RESOLUTION 1166)
(AS AMENDED 30 NOVEMBER 2000 BY RESOLUTION 1329)
(AS AMENDED 17 MAY 2002 BY RESOLUTION 1411)
(AS AMENDED 14 AUGUST 2002 BY RESOLUTION 1431)
(AS AMENDED 19 MAY 2003 BY RESOLUTION 1481)
(AS AMENDED 20 APRIL 2005 BY RESOLUTION 1597)
(AS AMENDED 28 FEBRUARY 2006 BY RESOLUTION 1660)
(AS AMENDED 29 SEPTEMBER 2008 BY RESOLUTION 1837)
(AS AMENDED 7 JULY 2009 BY RESOLUTION 1877)
Having been established by the Security Council acting under Chapter VII of the Charter of the United
Nations, the International Tribunal for the Prosecution of Persons Responsible for Serious Violations of
International Humanitarian Law Committed in the Territory of the Former Yugoslavia since 1991 (hereinafter
referred to as “the International Tribunal”) shall function in accordance with the provisions of the present
Statute.
Article 1
Competence of the International Tribunal
The International Tribunal shall have the power to prosecute persons responsible for serious violations of
international humanitarian law committed in the territory of the former Yugoslavia since 1991 in accordance
with the provisions of the present Statute.
Article 2
Grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions of 1949
The International Tribunal shall have the power to prosecute persons committing or ordering to be committed
grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949, namely the following acts against persons or
property protected under the provisions of the relevant Geneva Convention:
(a) wilful killing;
(b) torture or inhuman treatment, including biological experiments;
(c) wilfully causing great suffering or serious injury to body or health;
(d) extensive destruction and appropriation of property, not justified by military necessity and carried out
unlawfully and wantonly;
(e) compelling a prisoner of war or a civilian to serve in the forces of a hostile power;
(f) wilfully depriving a prisoner of war or a civilian of the rights of fair and regular trial;
(g) unlawful deportation or transfer or unlawful confinement of a civilian;
(h) taking civilians as hostages.
Article 3
Violations of the laws or customs of war
The International Tribunal shall have the power to prosecute persons violating the laws or customs of war.
Such violations shall include, but not be limited to:
(a) employment of poisonous weapons or other weapons calculated to cause unnecessary suffering;
(b) wanton destruction of cities, towns or villages, or devastation not justified by military necessity;
(c) attack, or bombardment, by whatever means, of undefended towns, villages, dwellings, or buildings;
(d) seizure of, destruction or wilful damage done to institutions dedicated to religion, charity and education,
the arts and sciences, historic monuments and works of art and science;
(e) plunder of public or private property.
Article 4
Genocide
1. The International Tribunal shall have the power to prosecute persons committing genocide as defined in
paragraph 2 of this article or of committing any of the other acts enumerated in paragraph 3 of this article.
2. Genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national,
ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:
5
(a) killing members of the group;
(b) causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;
(c) deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in
whole or in part;
(d) imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;
(e) forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.
3. The following acts shall be punishable:
(a) genocide;
(b) conspiracy to commit genocide;
(c) direct and public incitement to commit genocide;
(d) attempt to commit genocide;
(e) complicity in genocide.
Article 5
Crimes against humanity
The International Tribunal shall have the power to prosecute persons responsible for the following crimes
when committed in armed conflict, whether international or internal in character, and directed against any
civilian population:
(a) murder;
(b) extermination;
(c) enslavement;
(d) deportation;
(e) imprisonment;
(f) torture;
(g) rape;
(h) persecutions on political, racial and religious grounds;
(i) other inhumane acts.
Article 6
Personal jurisdiction
The International Tribunal shall have jurisdiction over natural persons pursuant to the provisions of the
present Statute.
Article 7
Individual criminal responsibility
1. A person who planned, instigated, ordered, committed or otherwise aided and abetted in the planning,
preparation or execution of a crime referred to in articles 2 to 5 of the present Statute, shall be individually
responsible for the crime.
2. The official position of any accused person, whether as Head of State or Government or as a responsible
Government official, shall not relieve such person of criminal responsibility nor mitigate punishment.
3. The fact that any of the acts referred to in articles 2 to 5 of the present Statute was committed by a
subordinate does not relieve his superior of criminal responsibility if he knew or had reason to know that the
subordinate was about to commit such acts or had done so and the superior failed to take the necessary and
reasonable measures to prevent such acts or to punish the perpetrators thereof.
4. The fact that an accused person acted pursuant to an order of a Government or of a superior shall not
relieve him of criminal responsibility, but may be considered in mitigation of punishment if the International
Tribunal determines that justice so requires.
Article 8
Territorial and temporal jurisdiction
The territorial jurisdiction of the International Tribunal shall extend to the territory of the former Socialist
Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, including its land surface, airspace and territorial waters. The temporal
jurisdiction of the International Tribunal shall extend to a period beginning on 1 January 1991.
6
Article 9
Concurrent jurisdiction
1. The International Tribunal and national courts shall have concurrent jurisdiction to prosecute persons for
serious violations of international humanitarian law committed in the territory of the former Yugoslavia since 1
January 1991.
2. The International Tribunal shall have primacy over national courts. At any stage of the procedure, the
International Tribunal may formally request national courts to defer to the competence of the International
Tribunal in accordance with the present Statute and the Rules of Procedure and Evidence of the International
Tribunal.
Article 10
Non-bis-in-idem
1. No person shall be tried before a national court for acts constituting serious violations of international
humanitarian law under the present Statute, for which he or she has already been tried by the International
Tribunal.
2. A person who has been tried by a national court for acts constituting serious violations of international
humanitarian law may be subsequently tried by the International Tribunal only if:
(a) the act for which he or she was tried was characterized as an ordinary crime; or
(b) the national court proceedings were not impartial or independent, were designed to shield the accused
from international criminal responsibility, or the case was not diligently prosecuted.
3. In considering the penalty to be imposed on a person convicted of a crime under the present Statute, the
International Tribunal shall take into account the extent to which any penalty imposed by a national court on the
same person for the same act has already been served.