78 INTERNATIONAL LEGAL PROTECTION OF HUMAN RIGHTS IN ARMED CONFLICT  Everyone has a duty to disobey a manifestly unlawful order. Orders to commit genocide or crimes against humanity are manifestly unlawful;  Individuals are criminally responsible for the international crimes they commit;  Commanders and other superiors are criminally responsible for international crimes committed pursuant to their orders and, beyond that, under the principle of command responsibility discussed in the next subsection;  Individuals shall be criminally responsible and liable for punishment for an international crime if the material elements of the crime are committed with intent and knowledge. These principles apply to the different types of crimes—ranging from grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions and violations of the laws or customs of war and of common article 3, to crimes against humanity and genocide—for which individual responsibility arises for any person who planned, instigated, ordered, committed or otherwise aided and abetted in their planning, preparation or execution. This standard is confirmed by the Statutes of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda and, subsequently, by the Rome Statute. The question also arises of whether individuals should be affiliated to a State entity in order to be criminally responsible for serious violations of international human rights and humanitarian law. Individual responsibility with regard to violations of international human rights and humanitarian law amounting to international crimes can be determined on the basis of international criminal law. For example, the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide stipulates that “[p]ersons committing genocide or any of the other acts enumerated in article III shall be punished, whether they are constitutionally responsible rulers, public officials or private individuals” (art. IV). The Statutes of the above-mentioned International Criminal Tribunals and the Rome Statute reaffirm this.

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