ABSTRACT
Prosecution for 'war crimes' became a central theme of human rights discourse during the final decade of the twentieth century, with the creation of ad hoc tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda, calls for similar organs to deal with atrocities in Congo, Burundi, Cambodia and East Timor, new-found enthusiasm among domestic prosecutors to pursue erstwhile dictators such as Augusto Pinochet and, ultimately, the creation of the International Criminal Court. Yet the popular term 'war crimes' is quite misleading. The movement has far more to do with prosecution of serious breaches of human rights than with the classical concept of 'war crimes', which were essentially breaches of the norms of fair play among combatants. Today's 'war crimes' prosecutions are principally about the protection of non-combatant civilian populations, generally within the context of internal armed conflicts or in the absence of armed conflict altogether.
