conscripting and enlisting children under the age of 15, pillaging, attacking civilians, attacking civilian objects. When perpetrated in the context of an internal armed conflict and with the necessary intent and knowledge of both the act and context, these acts amount to war crimes.167 Ordering the displacement of a civilian population in the context of an internal armed conflict is also a war crime, unless the security of the civilians involved or imperative military reasons so demand, both of which are exceptional circumstances.168 Torture constitutes a war crime when the perpetrator inflicted the pain or suffering for such purposes as obtaining information or a confession, punishment, intimidation or coercion, or for any reason based on discrimination of any kind.169 Although forced labour is not specifically enumerated as a war crime, it can amount to cruel treatment. In its judgment in the Simić case, the ICTY found that: [C]ertain types of forced labor may amount to cruel and inhumane treatment if the conditions under which the labor is rendered are such as to create danger for the life or health of the civilians, or may arouse in them feelings of fear, and humiliation. . . . Forcing protected persons to work in life-threatening circumstances fails to meet the obligation for protection against acts of violence and may result in inflicting upon these persons physical and mental suffering. It has been held that placing detainees in life-threatening situations constitutes cruel and inhuman treatment.170 Crimes against humanity The framework of analysis for atrocity crimes set out by the UN Office on Genocide Prevention and the Responsibility to Protect clarifies that different kinds of atrocity crimes can occur concurrently in the same situation, or one crime might be a precursor to another type of atrocity crime.171 Crimes against humanity are among the gravest crimes under international law, committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack against any civilian population. An ‘attack’ doesn’t need to be a military attack. It instead refers to a course of conduct involving the commission of prohibited acts.172 The attack must be either widespread or systematic in order to meet the legal threshold for a crime against humanity. The perpetrator must have knowledge that the conduct is part of a widespread or systematic attack against a civilian population. The ICC’s Pre-Trial Chambers decisions in the Bemba and Katanga and Ngudjolo cases clarified that a widespread attack entailed ‘an attack carried out over a large geographical area or an attack in a small geographical area directed against a large number of civilians.’173 As for ‘systematic,’ the ICC has stated that this element refers to ‘the organized nature of the acts of violence and the improbability of their random occurrence.’174 These contextual elements determine whether a set of prohibited acts reach the threshold of crimes against humanity. Such prohibited acts include (but are not limited to) murder, enslavement, rape, sexual 167 Rome Statute, Article 30. See also International Criminal Court, Elements of Crimes, (2011) Articles 8(2)(c) and 8(2)(e). 168 Klamberg, Nilsson and Angotti (eds.) International Criminal Court: The Statute Volume 1, (2023) 2nd edition Torkel Opsahl Academic E-Publisher 405. 169 International Criminal Court, Elements of Crimes, (2011) Article 7 Introduction [3]. 170 Prosecutor v. Simić, ICTY, IT-95-17/1-T, Judgment (Trial) [91]. 171 United Nations, ‘Framework of Analysis for Atrocity Crimes - a tool for prevention’ (2014) 6. 172 ICC Elements of Crimes, Article 8(2)(c)(i)-4. 173 Prosecutor v. Bemba, ICC PT. Ch. II, ICC-01/05-01/08-424, Decision Pursuant to Article 61(7)(a) and (b) of the Rome Statute on the Charges of the Prosecutor Against Jean-Pierre Bemba Gombo, 15 June 2009 [83] and Prosecutor v. Katanga and Ngudjolo, ICC PT. Ch. I, ICC-01/04-01/07-717, Decision on the Confirmation of Charges, 30 September 2008 [395]. 174 Prosecutor v. Katanga and Ngudjolo, ICC PT. Ch. I, ICC-01/04-01/07-717, Decision on the Confirmation of Charges, 30 September 2008, [394] Prosecutor v. Gbagbo, ICC PT. Ch. I, Decision on the Confirmation of Charges against Laurent Gbagbo, ICC-02/11-01/11-656-Red, 12 June 2014, [223]. 31