Crimes against humanity involve certain serious crimes knowingly committed against civilian populations as part of a widespread or systematic attack.227 War crimes include grave breaches of the 1949 Geneva Conventions and other serious violations of the laws of war. The ICC works under the principle of complementarity. There is an assumption that the state party will prosecute for war crimes or crimes against humanity committed within its jurisdiction, or by its nationals. It is only where that party cannot, or is unwilling to prosecute (or to prosecute effectively) that the jurisdiction of the ICC is engaged. Terrorism was not included among the crimes under the ICC jurisdiction “on a number of grounds. Chief among them was the alleged lack of an agreed definition of terrorism. (The other grounds were that: (i) the inclusion of the crime would have resulted in the politicisation of the Court, (ii) it was not sufficiently serious an offence to be within the Court’s jurisdiction, and (iii) terrorism would be more effectively prosecuted at the national level, if need be by co-ordinated action of individual States).”228 Accountability of states for actions of non-state actors Technically, human rights standards and obligations only attach to states. Human beings are the beneficiaries of human rights and states parties have the corresponding obligation to guarantee the rights contained in human rights treaties. It is incumbent, therefore, upon the state to have in place comprehensive laws, both criminal and civil, to deal with the consequences of terrorism as well as to protect from it. Failure to have in place such provisions would be a violation of human rights obligations imposed upon the state. As the enforcement mechanisms of international human rights treaties apply only to states parties, there are no procedures in respect of non-state actors. With the exception of international criminal law, there are no means to establish that a non-state actor has violated human rights. Therefore paramilitary organizations or terrorist groups cannot be held to account, internationally, for violation of human rights. However, acts of terrorism are crimes and, as such, the perpetrators can be prosecuted under domestic criminal law and any other appropriate domestic laws. States may be held responsible for violations arising from a failure to protect adequately against the actions of non-state actors. The circumstances where a state can be held responsible for a human rights violation committed by a non-state actor are as follows: 227 Rome Statute, Article 7 reads: “For the purpose of this Statute, ‘crime against humanity’ means any of the following acts when committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack directed against any civilian population, with knowledge of the attack: (a) Murder; (b) Extermination; (c) Enslavement; (d) Deportation or forcible transfer of population; (e) Imprisonment or other severe deprivation of physical liberty in violation of fundamental rules of international law; (f) Torture; (g) Rape, sexual slavery, enforced prostitution, forced pregnancy, enforced sterilization, or any other form of sexual violence of comparable gravity; (h) Persecution against any identifiable group or collectivity on political, racial, national, ethnic, cultural, religious, gender as defined in paragraph 3, or other grounds that are universally recognized as impermissible under international law, in connection with any act referred to in this paragraph or any crime within the jurisdiction of the Court; (i) Enforced disappearance of persons; (j) The crime of apartheid; (k) Other inhumane acts of a similar character intentionally causing great suffering, or serious injury to body or to mental or physical health.” 228 Op. cit., note 12, A. Cassese, International Criminal Law, pp. 124-125. 92 Countering Terrorism, Protecting Human Rights