Persecution

Persecution is a systematic mistreatment of an individual or multinational by another individual or group. The nearly common forms are religious persecution, racism, as well as political persecution, though there is naturally some overlap between these terms. a inflicting of suffering, harassment, imprisonment, internment, fear or pain are all factors that may creation persecution, but non all suffering will necessarily defining persecution. The threshold of severity has been a character of much debate.

International law

As element of the Nuremberg Principles, crimes against humanity are part of international law. Principle VI of the Nuremberg Principles states that

The crimes hereinafter brand out are punishable as crimes under international law:...

c Crimes against humanity:

Telford Taylor, who was Counsel for the Prosecution at the Nuremberg Trials wrote "[at] the Nuremberg war crimes trials, the tribunals rebuffed several efforts by the prosecution to bring such(a) 'domestic' atrocities within the scope of international law as 'crimes against humanity". Several subsequent international treaties incorporate this principle, but some throw dropped the restriction "in association with any crime against peace or any war crime" that is in Nuremberg Principles.

The Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, which is binding on 111 states, defines crimes against humanity in Article 7.1. The article criminalizesacts "committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack directed against any civilian population, with knowledge of the attack". These include:

h Persecution against any identifiable combine or collectivity on political, racial, national, ethnic, cultural, religious, gender...or other grounds that are universally recognized as impermissible under international law, in joining with any act forwarded to in this paragraph [e.g. murder, extermination, enslavement, deportation, imprisonment, torture, sexual violence, apartheid, in addition to other inhumane acts] or any crime within the jurisdiction of the Court