Crimes of War: What the Public Should Know is a 1999 reference book edited by Pulitzer

Pulitzer Prize

The Pulitzer Prize is a U.S. award for achievements in newspaper and online journalism, literature and musical composition. It was established by American publisher Joseph Pulitzer and is administered by Columbia University in New York City...

-prize winning journalist

Journalist

A journalist collects and distributes news and other information. A journalist's work is referred to as journalism.A reporter is a type of journalist who researchs, writes, and reports on information to be presented in mass media, including print media , electronic media , and digital media A...

 Roy Gutman

Roy Gutman

Roy Gutman is an American journalist and author.In 1966, Gutman graduated from Haverford College with a major in History. In 1968, Gutman graduated from the London School of Economics with a masters degree in International Relations.Roy Gutman joined Newsday in January 1982 and served for eight...

 and David Rieff

David Rieff

David Rieff is an American polemicist and pundit. His books have focused on issues of immigration, international conflict, and humanitarianism...

 that offers a compendium of more than 150 entries of articles and photographs that broadly define "international humanitarian law

International humanitarian law

International humanitarian law , often referred to as the laws of war, the laws and customs of war or the law of armed conflict, is the legal corpus that comprises "the Geneva Conventions and the Hague Conventions, as well as subsequent treaties, case law, and customary international law." It...

", a subject that involves most of the legal and political aspects of modern conflict.

The book, published by W.W. Norton, has received international acclaim from human rights

Human rights

Human rights are "commonly understood as inalienable fundamental rights to which a person is inherently entitled simply because she or he is a human being." Human rights are thus conceived as universal and egalitarian . These rights may exist as natural rights or as legal rights, in both national...

 experts. The 352-page book contains 80 photographs, two maps and extensive sources.

In this A-to-Z guide, journalists, television reporters and photographers, together with leading legal scholars and military law experts, define the major war crimes and key terms of law and take a fresh look at nine recent wars using the framework of international humanitarian law.

Contributors include nine Pulitzer Prize

Pulitzer Prize

The Pulitzer Prize is a U.S. award for achievements in newspaper and online journalism, literature and musical composition. It was established by American publisher Joseph Pulitzer and is administered by Columbia University in New York City...

 winning reporters, recipients of Britain

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

's most prestigious journalism prizes and award-winning photojournalismts. Sydney Schanberg

Sydney Schanberg

Sydney Hillel Schanberg is an American journalist who is best known for his coverage of the war in Cambodia.-Life:Schanberg joined The New York Times as a journalist in 1959. He spent much of the early 1970s in Southeast Asia as a correspondent for the Times...

, William Shawcross

William Shawcross

William Hartley Hume Shawcross, CVO is a British writer and commentator.-Career:Shawcross was educated at St. Aubyns Preparatory School, Rottingdean, Eton College and University College, Oxford. He attended St. Martin's Art School to study sculpture after leaving Oxford. He worked as a journalist...

, Justice

Justice

Justice is a concept of moral rightness based on ethics, rationality, law, natural law, religion, or equity, along with the punishment of the breach of said ethics; justice is the act of being just and/or fair.-Concept of justice:...

 Richard Goldstone

Richard Goldstone

Richard Joseph Goldstone is a South African former judge. After working for 17 years as a commercial lawyer, he was appointed by the South African government to serve on the Transvaal Supreme Court from 1980 to 1989 and the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of South Africa from 1990 to 1994...

 and Christiane Amanpour

Christiane Amanpour

Christiane Amanpour, CBE is anchor of ABC News's This Week and formerly chief international correspondent at CNN, where she worked for 27 years. She is a Board Member at the IWMF .-Early years:...

 are among those included, with a foreword by Justice Richard Goldstone

Richard Goldstone

Richard Joseph Goldstone is a South African former judge. After working for 17 years as a commercial lawyer, he was appointed by the South African government to serve on the Transvaal Supreme Court from 1980 to 1989 and the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of South Africa from 1990 to 1994...

, the UN Tribunal's first prosecutor. Photographers include Gilles Peres and Annie Leibovitz

Annie Leibovitz

Anna-Lou "Annie" Leibovitz is an American portrait photographer.-Early life and education:Born in Waterbury, Connecticut, Leibovitz is the third of six children. She is a third-generation American whose great-grandparents were Jewish immigrants, from Central and Eastern Europe. Her father's...

.

Actress Angelina Jolie

Angelina Jolie

Angelina Jolie is an American actress. She has received an Academy Award, two Screen Actors Guild Awards, and three Golden Globe Awards, and was named Hollywood's highest-paid actress by Forbes in 2009 and 2011. Jolie is noted for promoting humanitarian causes as a Goodwill Ambassador for the...

 was photographed reading the book while filming in India

India

India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

. Crimes of War is also reported to have made it to former President of the United States

President of the United States

The President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....

 Bill Clinton

Bill Clinton

William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton is an American politician who served as the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. Inaugurated at age 46, he was the third-youngest president. He took office at the end of the Cold War, and was the first president of the baby boomer generation...

's desk in the Oval Office

Oval Office

The Oval Office, located in the West Wing of the White House, is the official office of the President of the United States.The room features three large south-facing windows behind the president's desk, and a fireplace at the north end...

.

The book is part of a comprehensive project started by Roy Gutman

Roy Gutman

Roy Gutman is an American journalist and author.In 1966, Gutman graduated from Haverford College with a major in History. In 1968, Gutman graduated from the London School of Economics with a masters degree in International Relations.Roy Gutman joined Newsday in January 1982 and served for eight...

 which includes educational initiatives and additional articles. It has been published in 11 languages, including Arabic, Spanish

Spanish language

Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...

, Italian

Italian language

Italian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...

, Hungarian

Hungarian language

Hungarian is a Uralic language, part of the Ugric group. With some 14 million speakers, it is one of the most widely spoken non-Indo-European languages in Europe....

, Serbo-Croatian

Serbo-Croatian

Serbo-Croatian or Serbo-Croat, less commonly Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian , is a South Slavic language with multiple standards and the primary language of Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Montenegro...

 and Chinese

Chinese language

The Chinese language is a language or language family consisting of varieties which are mutually intelligible to varying degrees. Originally the indigenous languages spoken by the Han Chinese in China, it forms one of the branches of Sino-Tibetan family of languages...

. A revised edition with updated articles was published in October 2007 by W.W. Norton.

Reviews

• "Crimes of War is fascinating and quite probably indispensable for anyone whose job it is to cover conflicts." --The Evening Standard
• "A riveting mixture of reporters' accounts of war crimes in every continent, coupled with essays by lawyers on international humanitarian law." --The Guardian
  The Guardian
  The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
  
  

Detailed release information

• Crimes of War: What the Public Should Know, Gutman, Roy, and David Rieff. W. W. Norton & Company, New York
  New York
  New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
  
  : 1999, ISBN 0-393-04746-6 ISBN 0-393-31914-8 (Pbk.)

External links

• Crimes of War Project http://www.crimesofwar.org
• W.W. Norton http://www.norton.com