Marginal note:Genocide, etc., committed outside Canada

• 6. (1) Every person who, either before or after the coming into force of this section, commits outside Canada

  • (a) genocide,

  • (b) a crime against humanity, or

  • (c) a war crime,

  is guilty of an indictable offence and may be prosecuted for that offence in accordance with section 8.

• Marginal note:Conspiracy, attempt, etc.

  (1.1) Every person who conspires or attempts to commit, is an accessory after the fact in relation to, or counsels in relation to, an offence referred to in subsection (1) is guilty of an indictable offence.

• Marginal note:Punishment

  (2) Every person who commits an offence under subsection (1) or (1.1)

  • (a) shall be sentenced to imprisonment for life, if an intentional killing forms the basis of the offence; and

  • (b) is liable to imprisonment for life, in any other case.

• Marginal note:Definitions

  (3) The definitions in this subsection apply in this section.

  “crime against humanity”

  « crime contre l’humanité »

  “crime against humanity” means murder, extermination, enslavement, deportation, imprisonment, torture, sexual violence, persecution or any other inhumane act or omission that is committed against any civilian population or any identifiable group and that, at the time and in the place of its commission, constitutes a crime against humanity according to customary international law or conventional international law or by virtue of its being criminal according to the general principles of law recognized by the community of nations, whether or not it constitutes a contravention of the law in force at the time and in the place of its commission.

  “genocide”

  « génocide »

  “genocide” means an act or omission committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, an identifiable group of persons, as such, that at the time and in the place of its commission, constitutes genocide according to customary international law or conventional international law or by virtue of its being criminal according to the general principles of law recognized by the community of nations, whether or not it constitutes a contravention of the law in force at the time and in the place of its commission.

  “war crime”

  « crime de guerre »

  “war crime” means an act or omission committed during an armed conflict that, at the time and in the place of its commission, constitutes a war crime according to customary international law or conventional international law applicable to armed conflicts, whether or not it constitutes a contravention of the law in force at the time and in the place of its commission.

• Marginal note:Interpretation — customary international law

  (4) For greater certainty, crimes described in articles 6 and 7 and paragraph 2 of article 8 of the Rome Statute are, as of July 17, 1998, crimes according to customary international law, and may be crimes according to customary international law before that date. This does not limit or prejudice in any way the application of existing or developing rules of international law.

• Marginal note:Interpretation — crimes against humanity

  (5) For greater certainty, the offence of crime against humanity was part of customary international law or was criminal according to the general principles of law recognized by the community of nations before the coming into force of either of the following:

  • (a) the Agreement for the prosecution and punishment of the major war criminals of the European Axis, signed at London on August 8, 1945; and

  • (b) the Proclamation by the Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers, dated January 19, 1946.