section_path: 20th century
section_name: 20th century
paragraph_text: 20th century
  
  Numerous sources cite the 20th century as the bloodiest century in global history. Millions of civilian infants, children, adults, and elderly people died in warfare. One civilian perished for every combatant killed. Prior to World War II, war criminals did not face the possibility of prosecution, apprehension, or imprisonment. Britain's Prime Minister Winston Churchill favored the outright execution of war criminals. The United States was more lenient and called for a just trial. The British Government was convinced to institute the Nuremberg Trials, which left several legacies. These include worldwide jurisdiction for severe war crimes, the creation of international war crime tribunals, judicial procedures that effectively documented the history of colossal crimes, and the success of UN courts in holding impartial trials.
  
  South Africa operated under apartheid system from 1948 into the 1990s in violation of the 1973 Apartheid convention, which declared apartheid to be a crime against humanity. Following international action and backlash, the apartheid system was dismantled at the end of the 20th century.
  
  The UN highlighted the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC), specifically Article 7 (Crimes against Humanity), which defines large-scale acts of violence against a locality's civilian populace. These acts include murder, extermination, enslavement, deportation or forcible transfer of the population, imprisonment or other severe deprivation of physical liberty in violation of international laws, torture, forced prostitution and rape, persecution against certain groups, apartheid (racial discrimination and segregation), and other inhumane acts. A publication from Trial International mentioned that crimes against humanity have been codified starting in 1990. These include the 1993 Statute of the International Criminal Tribunal for Yugoslavia, the 1994 Statute of the International Tribunal for Rwanda, and the 1998 Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. The latter contains the latest and most extensive list of detailed crimes against civilians.