The Prosecution of Crimes against Humanity: a National Perspective

Over the past years, Germany has successfully secured verdicts and conducted trials related to core international crimes committed in Syria and Iraq as well as in Rwanda and Gambia. The prosecution of crimes against humanity has been central to these efforts. German courts convicted members of the regime of Bashar al-Assad as well as foreign terrorist fighters, male and female, most of them cumulatively, for membership in a terrorist organization and crimes against humanity.

Focusing on the atrocities members of ISIS committed—for example, against the Yazidis—police, prosecutors, and judges faced many challenges. Questions that had to be answered were: How to prove the widespread and systematic attack of ISIS against Yazidis? How to identify perpetrators – especially those who could be tri