War crimes: international legal norms and criminal legislation of the Republic of Azerbaijan

Abstract

In the article, the issues of combating war crimes were considered on the basis of mutual analysis of international legal norms and the criminal legislation of the Republic of Azerbaijan. First of all, it was noted that international legal norms play a priority role in the legal system of every civilized state. States usually include in their constitutions and laws the provision that international legal norms take precedence over national legal norms. In the legal system of the Republic of Azerbaijan, international legal norms have an effective influence and played an important role in the formation and development of various legal fields. However, along with the positive aspects, the occurrence of negative situations is also inevitable, mainly in the practice of law enforcement, such problems are inevitable. It should also be noted that the problems in the relevant sphere are not unique to the Republic of Azerbaijan, various collisions and problems arise in the application of international legal norms in other civilized states as well. At the end of the article, it is concluded that the main international norms related to war crimes are mainly concentrated in the Geneva Conventions of 1949, Additional Protocols of 1977 and 2005, and the Rome Statute of 1998. However, the Republic of Azerbaijan ratified only the Geneva conventions from these documents. However, almost all of the war crimes found in those documents have found a place in the Criminal Code of the Republic of Azerbaijan. Compared to some states whose legal system is close to the Republic of Azerbaijan, the level of implementation of international legal norms on war crimes in the Criminal Code of the Republic of Azerbaijan can be highly evaluated. Thus, in the Criminal Code of the Republic of Azerbaijan, separate chapters and articles are devoted to this category of crimes, and the requirements of international legal norms are taken into account during the normative determination of each war crime. Ultimately, significant changes in the Criminal Code of the Republic of Azerbaijan would be expected and significant even after the Republic of Azerbaijan became a member of the International Criminal Court.