The United Nations War Crimes Commission (UNWCC) initially called the United Nations Commission for the Investigation of War Crimes, was a commission of the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and international security, security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be ...

that investigated allegations of war crimes committed by

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...

and the other

Axis powers The Axis powers, ; it, Potenze dell'Asse ; ja, 枢軸国 ''Sūjikukoku'', group=nb originally called the Rome–Berlin Axis, was a military coalition that initiated World War II and fought against the Allies. Its principal members were ...

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

History

The Commission was constituted at the behest of the

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

government and the other sixteen

Allied An alliance is a relationship among people, groups, or states that have joined together for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose, whether or not explicit agreement has been worked out among them. Members of an alliance are called ...

nations at a meeting held at the British Foreign Office in London on 20th October, 1943, prior to the formal establishment of the

in 1945. The proposal of its establishment was made by the

Lord Chancellor The lord chancellor, formally the lord high chancellor of Great Britain, is the highest-ranking traditional minister among the Great Officers of State in Scotland and England in the United Kingdom, nominally outranking the prime minister. The ...

John Simon in the House of Lords on 7 October, 1942. A similar statement was issued by the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

government.

The Commission's objects and powers were conferred as follows:

# It should investigate and record the evidence of war crimes, identifying where possible the individuals responsible. # It should report to the Governments concerned cases in which it appeared that adequate evidence might be expected to be forthcoming.

One of the Commission's tasks was to carefully collect evidence of war crimes for the

arrest An arrest is the act of apprehending and taking a person into custody (legal protection or control), usually because the person has been suspected of or observed committing a crime. After being taken into custody, the person can be questi ...

and

fair trial A fair (archaic: faire or fayre) is a gathering of people for a variety of entertainment or commercial activities. Fairs are typically temporary with scheduled times lasting from an afternoon to several weeks. Types Variations of fairs incl ...

of alleged Axis war criminals. However, the Commission had no power to

prosecute A prosecutor is a legal representative of the prosecution in states with either the common law adversarial system or the civil law inquisitorial system. The prosecution is the legal party responsible for presenting the case in a criminal tria ...

criminals by itself. It merely reported back to the government members of the UN. These governments then could convene

tribunal A tribunal, generally, is any person or institution with authority to judge, adjudicate on, or determine claims or disputes—whether or not it is called a tribunal in its title. For example, an advocate who appears before a court with a single ...

s, such as the Nuremberg International Military Tribunal and the International Military Tribunal for the Far East. The Commission was headed by

Cecil Hurst Sir Cecil James Barrington Hurst, Order of St Michael and St George, GCMG, Order of the Bath, KCB, Queen's Counsel, QC (28 October 1870 – 27 March 1963) was a British international lawyer. He worked from 1929 to 1945 as a judge to the Permanent ...

from 1943 to 1945, then by Lord Wright until 1948 before being dissolved in 1949. According to British academic

Dan Plesch Dan or DAN may refer to: People * Dan (name), including a list of people with the name ** Dan (king), several kings of Denmark * Dan people, an ethnic group located in West Africa **Dan language, a Mande language spoken primarily in Côte d'Ivo ...

Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Nazi Germany, Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his death in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the le ...

was put on the UNWCC's first list of war criminals in December 1944, after determining that Hitler could be held criminally responsible for the acts of the Nazis in occupied countries. By March 1945, a month before Hitler's death, "the commission had endorsed at least seven separate indictments against him for war crimes." However limited its powers, the creation of the commission was a landmark in the history of human justice in the field of international law. Hudson (USA), Jhr Eysinga (Holland) Sir Hurst Cecil (Engeland), Erich (Finland) (cropped)

Hudson (USA), Jhr Eysinga (Holland) Sir Hurst Cecil (Engeland), Erich (Finland) (cropped)

Vahagn Avedian Vahagn or Vahakn ( hy, Վահագն), also known as Vahagn Vishapakagh ( hy, Վահագն Վիշապաքաղ, lit=Vahagn the Dragon-reaper, label=none), is a warrior god in Armenian mythology. Scholars consider him to be either the thunder, or s ...

states that the designation of the subsequent report as "restricted" might explain why it is relatively unknown in the literature and has been overlooked in many relevant discussions about e.g.

Crimes Against Humanity Crimes against humanity are widespread or systemic acts committed by or on behalf of a ''de facto'' authority, usually a state, that grossly violate human rights. Unlike war crimes, crimes against humanity do not have to take place within the ...

, the UN

Genocide Convention The Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (CPPCG), or the Genocide Convention, is an international treaty that criminalizes genocide and obligates state parties to pursue the enforcement of its prohibition. It was ...

and their applicability on historical cases. One such highly debated case is the

Armenian Genocide The Armenian genocide was the systematic destruction of the Armenians in the Ottoman Empire, Armenian people and identity in the Ottoman Empire during World War I. Spearheaded by the ruling Committee of Union and Progress (CUP), it was ...

, both within the scholarly and the political communities, but also in regard to the conducted UN Genocide studies (the 1973 Ruhashyankiko Report and the 1985 Whitaker ReportWhitaker, Benjamin (1985)
"Revised and updated report on the question of the prevention and punishment of the crime of genocide / prepared by B. Whitaker."
Retrieved 08 November 2022 – via Digital Library.). The UNWCC report dedicated an entire chapter to the historical background of the term

, a new indictment beside the two existing Crimes Against Peace and War Crime. The seven page historical background used mainly the Armenian massacres during WWI and the findings of the 1919

Commission of Responsibilities The Commission on the Responsibility of the Authors of the War and on Enforcement of Penalties was a commission established at the Paris Peace Conference in 1919. Its role was to examine the background of the First World War, and to investigate a ...

to substantiate the usage of the term

as a precedent for the

Nuremberg Charter The Charter of the International Military Tribunal – Annex to the Agreement for the prosecution and punishment of the major war criminals of the European Axis (usually referred to as the Nuremberg Charter or London Charter) was the decree issue ...

's Article 6, in turn being the basis for the impending review of the UN

. Considering the controversies surrounding both the Ruhashyankiko Report and the Whitaker Report, in which the Armenian case played a pivotal role, Avedian notes that the UNWCC Report were seemingly unknown to the entire

Sub-Commission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities The Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights (before 1999, known as the Sub-Commission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities) was a think tank of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights. It was wou ...

, including

Nicodème Ruhashyankiko Nicodème is a given name of French origin. It corresponds to the name Nicodemus Nicodemus (; grc-gre, Νικόδημος, Nikódēmos) was a Pharisee and a member of the Sanhedrin mentioned in three places in the Gospel of John: * He first ...

and Ben Whitaker (politician) and could have been a highly significant resource in justifying respective Rapporteur's arguments.

References

Citations

Sources

* *

External links

* Records o
the United Nations War Crimes Commission (UNWCC) (1943-1949)
at the United Nations Archives {{Authority control World War II crimes History of the United Nations