NCJ Number
164879
Journal
International Review of Penal Law Volume: 67 Dated: (1996) Pages: 333-339
Date Published
1996
Length
7 pages
Annotation
The Constitutional Court of Hungary has recently examined laws dealing with human rights violations committed by the government during the revolution of 1956 and has made the first binding decision establishing individual responsibility for war crimes and crimes against humanity based on international law and regardless of the country's own law and conventions.
Abstract
Parliament passed laws in 1991 and 1993 to prosecute and punish criminal offenses and offenders who were not prosecuted in the Communist regime due to political reasons. The Constitutional Court stated that war crimes and crimes against humanity were not defined by an individual country and that the community of nations determined their fact patterns. It further stated that the rules relative to the punishment of war crimes and crimes against humanity are norms of international law, because these crimes threaten humanity and international coexistence in their foundations and that any country refusing to undertake this obligation may not be a member of the international community. Thus, a country's refusal to proceed in accordance with accepted international law does not change the authority of the international law, the obligation of the individual country, or the offenders' liability under international criminal law.