{"id":7219,"date":"2024-07-17T13:29:16","date_gmt":"2024-07-17T23:29:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hawaiiankingdom.org\/blog\/?p=7219"},"modified":"2024-07-17T14:46:52","modified_gmt":"2024-07-18T00:46:52","slug":"who-prosecutes-hawaii-war-crimes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hawaiiankingdom.org\/blog\/who-prosecutes-hawaii-war-crimes\/","title":{"rendered":"Who Prosecutes Hawai\u2018i War Crimes?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

War crimes in the Hawaiian Islands are violations of international humanitarian law during military occupation. There are war crimes under customary international law, and there are war crimes listed in the Rome Statute<\/a><\/strong> that established the International Criminal Court<\/a><\/strong>. In a legal opinion<\/a><\/strong> for the Hawaiian Royal Commission of Inquiry<\/a><\/strong> (RCI), Professor William Schabas<\/a><\/strong>, identified certain war crimes under customary international law being committed in the Hawaiian Kingdom:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Usurpation of sovereignty during occupation, which is the unlawful imposition of American laws and administrative measures<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Compulsory enlistment, which is military draft<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Denationalization, which is the destruction of the national identity and national consciousness of the population<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pillage, which is the unlawful seizure of certain property for private use<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Confiscation or destruction of property of the State or individuals<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Deprivation of fair and regular trial, which is a court that operates without lawful authority<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Deporting civilians of the occupied territory<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Transferring populations into an occupied territory<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

The domestic courts of countries have primary responsibility to prosecute war crimes committed on its territory. If the State is occupied, it is the military government established by the occupant under the law of occupation that has the responsibility to prosecute war criminals. In addition to the military government, the occupying State could also establish an international tribunal for the prosecution of war criminals in occupied territories like the United States did when it occupied Germany and Japan during the Second World War. The International Criminal Court is the last resort to prosecuting war crimes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stemming from its duty to investigate war crimes committed in the Hawaiian Islands<\/a><\/strong>, the Council of Regency established the RCI on April 17, 2019. The RCI collects necessary evidence from reliable sources that are independent, impartial, and objective.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Where the collection of evidence constitutes a particular war crime\u2014the criminal act, the RCI will then determine whether there is evidence that constitutes the intent needed to commit the crime, which is the mental state of mind of the perpetrator. For example, Professor Schabas states that the elements of the war crime of usurpation of sovereignty during occupation are:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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1. The perpetrator imposed or applied legislative or administrative measures of the occupying power going beyond those required by what is necessary for military purposes of the occupation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2. The perpetrator was aware that the measures went beyond what was required for military purposes or the protection of fundamental human rights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

3. The conduct took place in the context of and was associated with an occupation resulting from international armed conflict.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

4. The perpetrator was aware of factual circumstances that established the existence of the armed conflict and subsequent occupation.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

The first element is the criminal act, and the last three elements go to the state of mind of the perpetrator. With respect to the last two elements of the war crime, Professor Schabas states:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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1. There is no requirement for a legal evaluation by the perpetrator as to the existence of an armed conflict or its character as international or non-international;<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2. In that context there is no requirement for awareness by the perpetrator of the facts that established the character of the conflict as international or non-international;<\/p>\n\n\n\n

3. There is only a requirement for the awareness of the factual circumstances that established the existence of an armed conflict that is implicit in the terms \u201ctook place in the context of and was associated with.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

If there is evidence that has met all of the elements of the war crime, the RCI will publish a war criminal report on its website<\/a><\/strong>. The next stage is to initiate the prosecution of the perpetrator by seeking a bill of indictment under Hawaiian Kingdom law. Unlike the United States, there is no grand jury that issues an indictment. Under Hawaiian law, the Prosecutor of the Crown must prepare a bill of indictment for the approval of a judge of the court that will prosecute the alleged perpetrator. After the bill of indictment is signed by the judge, an arrest warrant is issued to apprehend the perpetrator and to begin prosecution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The current system of governance in Hawai\u2018i is a product of the war crime of usurpation of sovereignty because it is a product of American legislation by the U.S. Congress. The State of Hawai\u2018i was established by the Congress in 1959 under the Statehood Act<\/a><\/strong>. Until the State of Hawai\u2018i is transformed into an American military government<\/a><\/strong> to administer Hawaiian Kingdom laws under the law of occupation, prosecution of war criminals cannot take place. However, should any of the perpetrators identified in the RCI’s published war criminal reports travel to foreign countries they could be apprehended and tried by the courts of these countries under universal jurisdiction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Human Rights Watch<\/a><\/strong>, “universal jurisdiction is the ability of the domestic judicial systems of a state to investigate and prosecute certain crimes, even if they were not committed on its territory, by one of its nationals, or against one of its nationals (i.e. crime beyond other bases of jurisdiction, such territoriality or active\/passive personality.)” Under the war crime of usurpation of sovereignty during occupation, every foreign national that traveled to the Hawaiian Islands is a victim of war crimes having been subjected to American laws and administrative measures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The current illegal situation in the Hawaiian Islands does not diminish the RCI’s published war criminal reports on its website because there are no statutory limitations for the prosecution of war crimes. In 2022, Germany convicted a 97-year-old woman for Nazi war crimes committed during the Second World War. War crimes being committed in the Hawaiian Islands should not be taken lightly.<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Associated Press<\/a><\/strong> reported, “A German court on Tuesday convicted a 97-year-old woman of being an accessory to more than 10,000 murders for her role as a secretary to the SS commander of the Nazi’s Stutthof concentration camp during World War II.”<\/p>\n\n\n

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Irmgard Furchner sits in the courtroom at the beginning of the trial day in Itzehoe, Germany, Tuesday, Nov. 9, 2021. Christian Charisius\/AP<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

War crimes in the Hawaiian Islands are violations of international humanitarian law during military occupation. There are war crimes under customary international law, and there are war crimes listed in the Rome Statute that established the International Criminal Court. In … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,5,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7219","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-international-law","category-national","category-war-crimes"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p31YBQ-1Sr","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hawaiiankingdom.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7219","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hawaiiankingdom.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hawaiiankingdom.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hawaiiankingdom.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hawaiiankingdom.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7219"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"https:\/\/hawaiiankingdom.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7219\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7243,"href":"https:\/\/hawaiiankingdom.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7219\/revisions\/7243"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hawaiiankingdom.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7219"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hawaiiankingdom.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7219"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hawaiiankingdom.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7219"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}