Domestic implementation of international law
Republic of Belarus
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Crimes Section 17, Chapter VI of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Belarus of July 09, 1999, provides as follows in respect of Crimes against the peace and security of mankind and War Crimes:
Crimes against peace and security of mankind - War of Aggression
Arts. 122 and 123:
Article 122. Preparing or conducting a war of aggression
Article 123. Propaganda of war
Crimes Against Humanity
Article 128 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Belarus of July 09, 1999 incorporates the acts which constitute crimes against the security of mankind:
Article 128. Crimes against the security of mankind
Genocide
Article 127 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Belarus of July 09, 1999 defines genocide as follows:
Article 127. Genocide
In addition, Article 130 provides:
Actions, accomplished for the purpose of the systematic destruction in full or in part of any racial, national, ethnic, religious group or group, determined on the basis of any other arbitrary criterion, such as killing members of the group; causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; [and/or] forcibly transferring children of the group to another group (genocide), is punished by the deprivation of freedom for the period from ten to twenty five years, or by life imprisonment, or capital punishment.
[Translated into English by the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights]Article 130. Incitement to racial, national or religious enmity or discord
War Crimes
War crimes are provided for under Articles 129 (Section 17: "Crimes against the peace and security of mankind") and 132 to 138 (Section 18: "War crimes and other violations of the laws and customs of war") of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Belarus of July 09, 1999:
Article 129. Production, stockpiling or proliferation of prohibited means of warfare
Article 132. Recruitment, training, financing and use of mercenaries
Article 133. Mercenaries
Article 134. The use of weapons of mass destruction
Article 135. Violation of the laws and customs of war
Article 136. Criminal violations of the norms of International Humanitarian Law during armed conflicts
Article 137. Inaction or issuance of an illegal order during an armed conflict
Article 138. Illegal use of signs protected by international treaties
Jurisdiction and statute of limitations According to the information provided by the Republic of Belarus on the scope and application of the principle of universal jurisdiction pursuant to General Assembly resolution 64/117, "[A]rticle 6, paragraph 3, of the Criminal Code sets out the universal principle of the spatial applicability of criminal law, in accordance with which, for the following offences, the Criminal Code of Belarus is applied independently of the criminal law of the place in which the act was committed: genocide (art. 127 of the Criminal Code); crimes against the security of humankind (art. 128); production, stockpiling or distribution of prohibited instruments of war (art. 129); ecocide (art. 131); use of a weapon of mass destruction (art. 134); violation of the laws and customs of war (art. 135); criminal violations of the norms of international humanitarian law in time of armed conflict (art. 136); inaction or issuance of a criminal order in time of armed conflict (art. 137); human trafficking (art. 181); and other offences committed outside Belarus which are prosecutable on the basis of an international treaty by which Belarus is bound."
"Persons who have committed the aforementioned crimes are liable under the Belarusian Criminal Code if they have not been convicted in a foreign State of the crime committed and are prosecuted in the Republic of Belarus (art. 6, para. 4, of the Criminal Code)."
"Furthermore, in application of the Convention on the Non-Applicability of Statutory Limitations to War Crimes and Crimes against Humanity of 26 November 1968, article 85 of the Criminal Code prohibits the release from criminal responsibility, in connection with the expiration of statutory limitations, of persons who have committed these acts."
"A foreign national or stateless person who has committed crimes outside Belarus and who is on Belarusian territory may be extradited to a foreign State for criminal prosecution or to serve a prison term under an international treaty to which Belarus is a party (art. 7, para. 2, of the Criminal Code). The specific details of extradition of a perpetrator are determined by his or her nationality and the existence of relevant international treaties, such as the Commonwealth of Independent States Conventions on Legal Assistance and Legal Relations in Civil, Family and Criminal Matters of 22 January 1993 and 7 October 2002, as well as a number of bilateral international treaties on legal assistance to which Belarus is a party."
"In the absence of an international treaty, under article 7, paragraph 3, of the Criminal Code, a foreign national or stateless person may be extradited to a foreign State on the basis of the principle of reciprocity, in accordance with the procedure set out in section XV of the Code of Criminal Procedure."
"Belarus exercises extraterritorial jurisdiction, but only with regard to crimes covered by the relevant international treaties to which Belarus is a party. In order for the principle of universal jurisdiction to be established in its legislation, the relevant provisions of the international treaties to which Belarus is a party must be incorporated into Belarus's legal system, and legislation regulating the procedural conditions for implementation of the principle must be adopted."
"Those guilty of international crimes should be prosecuted in accordance with the international obligations of States and the requirements of their national laws or the applicable statutes of international judicial bodies, operating on the basis of complementarity."
See: Information provided by the Republic of Belarus on the scope and application of the principle of universal jurisdiction in accordance with General Assembly resolution 64/117.
General Assembly of the United Nations, Sixth Committee (Legal), sixty-fifth session (4 October to 11 November 2010) [ENG]
Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court: Belarus is not a State party to the Rome State of the International Criminal Court.
The Constitution of the Republic of Belarus (with amendments up to 2004).
National Center of Legal Information of the Republic of Belarus. [RUS]. [Last accessed 22 Oct. 2015] [External Link]
Penal Code of the Republic of Belarus No. 275-Z of 9 July, 1999 (as amended up to July 12, 2013).
World Intellectual Property Organization. [RUS]. [Last accessed 22 Oct. 2015] [External Link]
Penal Code of the Republic of Belarus.
National Center of Legal Information of the Republic of Belarus. [RUS]. [Last accessed 22 Oct. 2015] [External Link]
Code of Criminal Procedure of the Republic of Belarus.
National Center of Legal Information of the Republic of Belarus. [RUS]. [Last accessed 22 Oct. 2015] [External Link]
The National Center of Legal Information of the Republic of Belarus. [Last accessed 22 Oct. 2015] [External Link]