A/HRC/8/14* page 6 II. RELEVANT DEVELOPMENTS IN INTERNATIONAL LAW A. International courts and tribunals 1. International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia 6. Some recent rulings of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) contribute in important ways to the interpretation and application of certain rules identified in the Customary International Humanitarian Law Study, as well as to the development of international humanitarian law and international criminal law more generally. (a) War crimes 7. In The Prosecutor v. Stanislav Galić (hereafter Galić),4 the Appeals Chamber of the ICTY elaborated on the nature of the crime of “acts or threats of violence the primary purpose of which is to spread terror among the civilian population”. The Customary International Humanitarian Law study identified this behaviour, as contained in article 51 (2) of Additional Protocol I and article 13 (2) of Additional Protocol II to the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949, as a norm of customary international law applicable in both international and non-international armed conflict. 8. The Appeals Chamber in Galić recalled that the judgement only envisages such crime as encompassing the intent to spread terror when committed by combatants in a period of armed conflict and does not envisage any other form of terror. The Appeals Chamber stated that articles 51 (2) of Additional Protocol I and 13 (2) of Additional Protocol II “do not contain new principles but rather codify in a unified manner the prohibition of attacks on the civilian population”.5 The Appeals Chamber added that the principles underlying the prohibition of attacks on civilians, namely the principles of distinction and proportionality “incontrovertibly form the basic foundation of international humanitarian law and constitute ‘intransgressible principles of international customary law’ ”.6 In this sense, the Appeals Chamber considered that, “at a minimum, articles 51 (1), (2) and (3) of Additional Protocol I and article 13 of Additional Protocol II in its entirety constituted an affirmation of existing customary international law at the time of their adoption”.7 9. The Appeals Chamber in Galić further elaborated on the material element of the crime of acts or threats of violence the primary purpose of which is to spread terror among the civilian population, stating that it can comprise attacks or threats of attacks against the civilian 4 Case No. IT-98-29-A. 5 Ibid., para. 87. 6 Ibid. 7 Ibid.