Switzerland broke its 200-year long neutrality policy to sanction Moscow and its leaders.

What is the news?

• Switzerland announced that it would join the European Union (EU) in closing the Swiss airspace to Russian aeroplanes.
• It also wished for imposing financial sanctions on Russian President Vladimir Putin and other leaders.

Switzerland’s Policy of Permanent Neutrality

• The tiny Alpine nation the size of Haryana has had a neutrality policy in place since 1815.
• Its official website attests to this, noting that “permanent neutrality is a principle of Swiss foreign policy.”
• Though it serves as the headquarters of several diplomatic missions and as the venue for historic treaties like the Geneva Convention, Switzerland is not a part of the European Union or NATO.
• Historically, the Swiss had been famed warriors with expansionist ambitions until the 1500s when they lost the Battle of Marignano to the French.
• The years that followed saw the Swiss shift its foreign policy to that of being an armed impartial state during wartime, a stance which was sorely tested in the decades that followed.

The World Wars and Switzerland

• Switzerland shares borders with Germany, France and Italy.
• During WW II, Switzerland found itself surrounded by Axis forces, with Hitler describing the land-locked territory as “a pimple on the face of Europe”.
• It used a combination of military deterrence, strategic planning and economic neutrality to hold its own in 1940s Europe.
• Besides this, the Swiss pursued a policy of armed neutrality, putting into place compulsory military service (which continues till date) to maintain military readiness in event of an invasion.

Recent deviations

• Switzerland joined the United Nations as recently as 2002, putting an end to years to debate after 54 per cent of its population voting in favour of the move.
• The Swiss federal government had said that it had weighed its neutrality and peace policy considerations into account to reach its decision.
• The Swiss government has initially adopted a traditional and very narrow interpretation of neutrality, which translated to a decision to not issue any sanctions.
• However, the Swiss parliament and citizens strongly pushed back, arguing that Russia’s massive military aggression cannot be tolerated.
• This prompted the government to reconsider its position.

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The International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague announced that it would open an investigation into possible war crimes or crimes against humanity in Ukraine.

What are War Crime?

• War crimes are defined as serious violations of humanitarian laws during a conflict.
• There are specific international standards for war crimes, which are not to be confused with crimes against humanity.
• The definition is established by the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC).
• It is derived from the 1949 Geneva Conventions and is based on the idea that individuals can be held liable for the actions of a state or its military.
• There is a long list of acts that can be considered war crimes.
• The taking of hostages, willful killings, torture or inhuman treatment of prisoners of war, and forcing children to fight are some of the more obvious examples.

How to identify war crimes?

To decide whether an individual or a military has committed a war crime, international humanitarian law lays down three principles:

1. Distinction: This principle says that you have to be constantly trying to distinguish between civilian and belligerent populations and objects.
2. Proportionality: It prohibits armies from responding to an attack with excessive violence. If a soldier is killed, for example, you cannot bomb an entire city in retaliation.
3. Precaution: It requires parties to a conflict to avoid or minimize the harm done to the civilian population. For example, attacking a barrack where there are people who have said they no longer participate in the conflict can be a war crime.

Do war crimes constitute to genocides?

• The UN Office on Genocide Prevention and the Responsibility to Protect separates war crimes from genocide and crimes against humanity.
• War crimes are defined as occurring in a domestic conflict or a war between two states.
• However, genocide and crimes against humanity can happen in peacetime or during the unilateral aggression of a military towards a group of unarmed people.

Discrepancy in defining war crimes

• In practice, there is a lot of gray area within that list.
• The laws of war do not always protect civilians from death. Not every civilian death is necessarily illegal.
• Raids on a cities or villages, bombing residential buildings or schools, and even the killing of groups of civilians do not necessarily amount to war crimes — not if their military necessity is justified.
• The same act can become a war crime if it results in unnecessary destruction, suffering and casualties that exceed the military gain from the attack.
• Also civilian and military populations have become increasingly hard to distinguish

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