International criminal law

As of 30 September 2026.

International criminal law concerns the individual criminal responsibility of persons, including political and military leaders, for genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and the crime of aggression. Two strands are relevant here. First, speech and media: the Genocide Convention makes direct and public incitement to commit genocide punishable in its own right, and international tribunals have applied this to radio and print media. Second, conduct through computer networks: the core instruments contain no cyber-specific provisions, but the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court stated in its December 2025 Policy on Cyber-enabled Crimes that the Rome Statute applies to conduct committed or facilitated through cyber means. The crime of aggression links this field to the rules on the use of force between States.

• Cyber aggression. Whether a cyber operation can be a “use of armed force” and thus an act of aggression under Art. 8 bis is discussed in State positions and expert works; no such case has come before the ICC.
• Jurisdiction over aggression. The conditions for ICC jurisdiction, including the exclusion of nationals of non-States parties, were reviewed at a special session of the Assembly of States Parties in July 2025, which agreed to reconvene in 2029.
• Online incitement. How “direct and public” incitement applies to social media content is discussed, including with reference to the UN fact-finding mission on Myanmar.
• State and individual responsibility. Inter-State proceedings under the Genocide Convention, such as The Gambia v. Myanmar, concern State responsibility rather than individual guilt.

• Rome Statute: crime of aggression – Art. 8 bis and the ICC Prosecutor's cyber policy.
• Genocide Convention (1948) – incitement and inter-State proceedings.
• Germany: constitutional peace provisions and cyber position – § 80a Criminal Code.
• Additional Protocol I to the Geneva Conventions (1977) – rules underlying war crimes.
• International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (1966) – propaganda for war and incitement.

• Use of force, intervention and cyber operations
• Propaganda, disinformation and elections
• Armed conflict – international humanitarian law
• Timeline · Glossary