Complaint Action: Complaint to use in NATO member states not listed here

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I,
resident at (address)

Hereby make a complaint regarding the commission of war crimes and crimes against humanity.

The NATO Strategic Concept includes the deployment of nuclear weapons and allows the first use of them in times of war. NATO and its member states deploy 480 US nuclear weapons in Belgium, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Turkey and the United Kingdom. Pilots from these countries and the US train and prepare for the actual use of these weapons in times of war. SHAPE, the military headquarter of NATO, houses the targetting databases and the nuclear command and control system.
All NATO member states, including my country, participate in the Nuclear Planning Group where the nuclear strategy and this deployment of nuclear weapons is decided, and in the military structures where the actual use is prepared.

By this nuclear policy NATO and its member states, including my country, infringe the rules of international law as specified by the International Court of Justice at the Hague. These violations of international law fall under the definition of war crimes, crimes against peace and crimes against humanity. The deployed nuclear weapons are against international law.

In its judgement of July 8, 1996, the International Court of Justice indicated the fundamental rules of the international law which are valid for nuclear weapons. Firstly, it is necessary to make the distinction between combatants and civilians, therefore weapons with which this distinction can never be made are not allowed to be used. Secondly, it is forbidden to inflict unnecessary suffering on the combatants, and it is thus forbidden to use weapons which inflict such unnecessary suffering.

The consequences of the use of nuclear weapons cannot be limited in space and time. Consequently, the nuclear weapons deployed by NATO can never be used without these elementary rules of humanitarian law being transgressed. President Bedjaoui of the International Court of Justice considered nuclear weapons to be contrary to international law: "Nuclear weapons can be expected - in the present state of scientific development at least - to cause indiscriminate victims among combatants and non-combatants alike, as well as unnecessary suffering among both categories… Until scientists are able to develop a "clean" nuclear weapon which would distinguish between combatants and non-combatants, nuclear weapons will clearly have indiscriminate effects and constitute an absolute challenge to humanitarian law.”

The presence of nuclear weapons at these European bases implies the preparation of war crimes and crimes against humanity. Since the nuclear weapons can never be used without infringing the elementary rules of the laws of war, the use of nuclear weapons is a war crime and a crime against humanity. Moreover, the International Court of Justice placed the threat of use and use itself on the same legal footing.
The Romanian government participates in this preparation of war crimes and crimes against humanity by participating in the decision making and the planning of NATO nuclear policy.

The following people are thus guilty of the violations described above:
· Responsible ministers at the political level, and more specifically the Minister for defense, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and the Prime Minister.
· The military and diplomats of my country working at NATO HQ or at SHAPE for the Nuclear Planning Group and other structures in charge of nuclear affairs.

Please note that, within the context of war crimes, and crimes against humanity, it is not a defence to state that orders came from a higher authority, or that the actions were a governmental or legal responsibility.

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