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Republic of Armenia
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Crimes Crimes against peace and human security / Crime of Aggression
The Criminal Code of the Republic of Armenia of April 28, 2003 defines these crimes as follows:
Section 13.
Crimes against peace and human security
Chapter 33.
Crimes against peace and human security
Article 384. Aggressive war.
1. Planning or preparing an aggressive war is punished with imprisonment for the term from 5 to 10 years.
2. Starting or conducting an aggressive war is punished with imprisonment for the term from 8 to 15 years.
Article 385. Public calls for aggressive war.
1. Public calls for starting an aggressive war are punished with a fine from 100-fold minimal salaries to 100-200 minimal salaries, or with imprisonment for the term of up to 3 years.
2. The same actions which were implemented by mass media or by the highest state authority, are punished with a fine from 300-500 minimal salaries, or with imprisonment for the term of 2 to 5 years, by deprivation of the right to hold certain posts or practice certain activities for up to 3 years.
3. By the highest state authority in this Article, we mean the President of the Republic of Armenia, the members of the Government of the Republic of Armenia, the members of the National Assembly of the Republic of Armenia.
Criminal Code of the Republic of Armenia (18 April 2003).
(Non official translation). National Assembly of the Republic of Armenia. [ENG]Crimes Against Humanity
Article 392 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Armenia of April 28, 2003 (Section 13, Chapter 33 entitled "Crimes against peace and human security") provides as follows:
Article 392. Crimes against human security.
Deportation, illegal arrest, enslavement, mass and regular execution without trial, kidnapping followed by disappearance, torture or cruel treatment of civilians, due to racial, national, ethnic identity, political views and religion, is punished with imprisonment for 7-15 years or for life.Criminal Code of the Republic of Armenia (18 April 2003).
(Non official translation). National Assembly of the Republic of Armenia. [ENG]Genocide
Article 393 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Armenia of April 28, 2003 (Section 13, Chapter 33 entitled "Crimes against peace and human security") provides as follows:
Article 393. Genocide.
The actions aimed at the complete or partial extermination of national, ethnic, racial or religious groups by means of killing the members of this group, inflicting severe damage to their health, violently preventing them from childbearing, enforced hand-over of children, violent re-population, or physical elimination of the members of this group, are punished with imprisonment for the term of 13 to 15 years or with life sentence.Criminal Code of the Republic of Armenia (18 April 2003).
(Non official translation). National Assembly of the Republic of Armenia. [ENG]War Crimes
War Crimes are provided for under Articles 387, 390, 391 and 397 (Chapter 33, Section 13 "Crimes against peace and human security") of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Armenia of April 28, 2003:
Article 387. Application of prohibited methods of war.
1. Application of methods prohibited by international agreements in military actions or armed conflicts, is punished with imprisonment for the term of up to 15 years.
2. Application or testing of mass destruction weapons prohibited in international agreements is punished with imprisonment from 10 to 15 years, or to life.
Article 390. Serious breach of international humanitarian law during armed conflicts.
1. The following serious violations of international humanitarian norms during armed conflict against persons not immediately engaged in military actions or defenseless persons, the injured, ill, medical personnel or clergy, sanitary units or sanitary means of transportation, POWs, civilians, civil population, refugees, protected persons or other protected persons during military actions:
1) murder,
2) torture and inhuman treatment, including biological experiments;
3) willfully inflicted serious sufferance or other actions threatening man's physical or mental state,
is punished with imprisonment for 8-15 years, or for life.
2. The committal of the following acts seriously violating international norms with respect to persons and facilities mentioned in part 1 of this Article:1) inflicting damage to health,
2) forcing a protected person or POW to serve in the opponent army,
3) deprivation of a protected person or POW from impartial court trial,
4) illegal deportation, removal and arrest of a protected person, or deprivation of freedom otherwise,
5) taking hostages,
6) illegal, willful destruction or realization of property not caused by military necessity,
is punished with imprisonment for 5-12 years.
3. The following acts seriously breaching international humanitarian norms, causing grave damage to human physical or mental state during armed conflicts:1) assault on civilian population or individual civilians;
2) not selective assault which inflicts damage to the civilian population or civilian facilities, if it is obvious that such assault will cause large losses amongst civilians or extremely large losses to civilian facilities, if such damages are redundant for the achievement of specific and immediate military supremacy;
3) assault on facilities and equipment containing hazardous forces, if it is obvious that the assault will cause extremely large damage to civilian facilities, if such damages are redundant for the achievement of specific and immediate military supremacy;
4) targeting unprotected areas and demilitarized zones,
5) assault on a person who, obviously for the perpetrator, ceased immediate participation in military actions,
is punished with imprisonment for 10-15 years, of for life.
4. The following acts seriously breaching the norms of international humanitarian law during armed conflicts:1) re-population by the aggressor state of part of one's own population in the occupied territories, or depopulation of the whole population or part thereof in the occupied territory, or movement within the occupied territory or beyond its boundaries,
2) unjustified delay in the repatriation of POWs or civilians,
3) humiliation of a person's self-esteem, based on apartheid or racial discrimination, application of inhuman and other humiliating practices,
4) targeting specially protected, clearly marked, cultural, spiritual and historical monuments, works of art, ceremonial places, and inflicting large damage to the latter as a result of assault, if these facilities are not in near proximity from military objectives and if there is no information attesting to the use of these historical monuments, works of art, ceremonial places by the enemy for military purposes,
is punished with imprisonment for 8-12 years,
5. During armed conflicts, medical intervention not necessitated by the health condition of the persons under jurisdiction of the enemy, arrested or otherwise detained, and detrimental for the physical or mental condition of the latter violating universally recognized medical norms, particularly, even with consent of these persons, inflicting physical injuries to people, subjecting them to medical or scientific experiments, harvesting parts of body or tissues for transplantation, is punished with imprisonment for 8-12 years.
6. Other violations of the norms of international humanitarian law, agreements envisaged by international agreements during armed conflicts: is punished with imprisonment for up to 5 years.
Article 391. Inaction or making an illegal command during armed conflict.
1. During armed conflict, failure to take all possible measures by the commander or official, within the authority of the latter, to prevent crimes under Articles 387, 390 by the subordinates, if the commander knew or had information, which in the given situation should have helped him to conclude that the subordinate is committing or tends to commit an offence, and if within his authority, he did not take all possible measures to prohibit or to prevent this violation, is punished with imprisonment for 5-10 years.
2. The same action which was committed recklessly, is punished with imprisonment for 2-5 years.
3. During armed conflict, an order by the commander or official to the subordinate not spare anybody's life or other obviously criminal order, aimed at the committal of crimes envisaged in Articles 387, 390, is punished with imprisonment for 5-15 years.
Article 397. Illegal use of identification signs protected by international treaties.
During military actions, the use of the symbols and insignia of the Red Cross or Red Crescent protected by international treaties, the signs envisaged for marking cultural values or other protective signs, or the flag or national identification symbols of the enemy or a neutral state, or the flags of international organizations, in breach of international treaties and international law, is punished with correctional labor for 1-2 years or imprisonment for up to 3 years.Criminal Code of the Republic of Armenia (18 April 2003).
(Non official translation). National Assembly of the Republic of Armenia. [ENG]* * *
Additionally, the following Articles of the Criminal Code of 2003 are included under the Chapter entitled "Crimes against peace and human security":
Article 386. Manufacture or proliferation of mass destruction weapons.
Creation, production, acquisition or realization of chemical, biological or other types of weapons prohibited by international agreements, transfer of raw materials or fissionable materials to a country that does not possess nuclear weapons, providing anyone with mass destruction weapons prohibited in international agreements or components necessary for its production, is punished with imprisonment for the term from 4 to 8 years.
Article 394. Ecocide.
Mass destruction of flora or fauna, poisoning the environment, the soils or water resources, as well as implementation of other actions causing an ecological catastrophe, is punished with imprisonment for the term of 10 to 15 years.
Article 395. Mercenaries.
1. Recruitment of mercenaries, mercenary training, financing or supporting them materially in any other way, as well as using them in armed conflicts or military actions, is punished with imprisonment for the term of 5 to 10 years.
2. The act envisaged in part 1 of this Article committed1) by abuse of official position;
is punished with imprisonment for 7-12 years.
2) involvement of obvious minors,
3. The participation of a mercenary in armed conflicts or military actions is punished with imprisonment for 3-7 years.
4. A mercenary is a specially recruited person who acts in order to receive financial compensation and is not a citizen of the state participating in the armed conflicts or military actions, does not permanently reside in its territory, is not a member of the armed forces of the state participating in the armed conflicts or military actions, and is not sent by another state to carry out official duties in the armed forces.
Jurisdiction and non-application of statute of limitations Jurisdiction:
Article 15 of the Criminal Code of 18 April 2003 states:Article 15. Effect of criminal law with regard to persons who committed crimes outside the territory of the Republic of Armenia.
1. The citizens of the Republic of Armenia who committed crime outside the territory of the Republic of Armenia, as well as stateless persons permanently residing in the Republic of Armenia, are subject to criminal liability under the Criminal Code of the Republic of Armenia, if the act committed by them is recognized as a crime in the legislation of the state where the crime was committed, and if they were not convicted in another state. When convicting the above mentioned persons, the punishment can not exceed the upper limit for punishment in the state where the crime was committed.
2. The citizens of the Republic of Armenia who committed crime outside the territory of the Republic of Armenia, as well as stateless persons permanently residing in the Republic of Armenia, are subject to criminal liability under Articles 384, 386-391, 393-397 of this Criminal Code, regardless whether the act is considered or not considered a crime in the state where the crime was committed.
3. Foreign citizens and stateless persons not permanently residing in the Republic of Armenia, who committed a crime outside the territory of the Republic of Armenia, are subject to criminal liability under the Criminal Code of the Republic of Armenia, if they committed:
1) such crimes which are provided in an international treaty of the Republic of Armenia;
2) such grave and particularly grave crimes which are directed against the interests of the Republic of Armenia or the rights and freedoms of the RA citizens.
4. The rules established in part 3 of this Article are applicable if the foreign citizens and stateless persons not permanently residing in the Republic of Armenia, have not been convicted for this crime in another state and are subjected to criminal liability in the territory of the Republic of Armenia.
Non-application of statute of limitations:
Article 75 (provision 6) of the Criminal Code of 18 April 2003 concerning "Exemption from criminal liability as a result of expiry of the statute of limitation", provides that "The expiry of the prescription period is not applicable to persons who committed crimes against peace and human security envisaged in Articles 384, 386-391, 393-397 of this Code. Prescription periods are not applied to the persons who committed crimes envisaged in the RA international agreements, provided the agreement prohibits the application of the prescription period."
Article 81 (provision 5) of the Criminal Code of 18 April 2003 concerning "Exemption from punishment due to expiry of the accusatory court sentence" stipulates that: "The expiry date is not applicable to the persons who committed crimes against peace and human security, envisaged in Articles 384, 386-391, 393-397 of this Code."
Information submitted by the Republic of Armenia regarding the scope and application of the principle of universal jurisdiction.
General Assembly of the United Nations, Sixth Committee (Legal), sixty-fifth session (4 October to 11 November 2010) [ENG]
Criminal Code of the Republic of Armenia (18 April 2003).
(Non official translation). National Assembly of the Republic of Armenia. [ENG]
Adherence to Rome Statute:
Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court: Armenia signed the Rome Statute on 01 October 1999. Armenia is not a state party to the Rome Statute but has passed domestic legislation on all four core crimes, including the crime of aggression.
Criminal Code of the Republic of Armenia (18 April 2003). (Non official translation). National Assembly of the Republic of Armenia. [Last accessed Sep. 28, 2015]. [ENG]. [External Link]
Criminal Code of the Republic of Armenia (18 April 2003). (Original Armenian version. Includes links to all the amendments between Nov. 11, 2003 and Jun. 9, 2015). National Assembly of the Republic of Armenia. [Last accessed Sep. 28, 2015]. [ARM/HYE]. [External Link]
Legislation of the Republic of Armenia. National Assembly of the Republic of Armenia [Last accessed Sep. 28, 2015]. [ENG]. [External Link]
Constitution of the Republic of Armenia (with amendments). National Assembly of the Republic of Armenia [Last accessed Sep. 28, 2015]. [ENG]. [External Link]
Republic of Armenia legal acts and other documents: Laws.
Translation Centre of the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Armenia. [Last accessed Sep. 28, 2015]. [External Link]