Secretary of Defense
Confirmed as Secretary of Defense in January 2025. Publicly declared "no quarter, no mercy" for Iran — a per se war crime under Rome Statute Article 8(2)(b)(xii). Reversed the antipersonnel landmine ban, rescinded the humanitarian demining program, signed the cluster munitions purchase from Israel, dismantled the civilian harm mitigation program, and rebranded the Pentagon as the "Department of War."
Grade 5 of 5: International Crime (Rome Statute)
The US Defense Secretary's public declaration of 'no quarter, no mercy for our enemies' is assessed as a probable war crime under Rome Statute Article 8(2)(b)(xii), which criminalizes 'declaring that no quarter will be given.' Recognized authorities have applied the law to the statement; no court has ruled. This prohibition is among the oldest in the laws of war.
Grade 4 of 5: Critical Rights and Rule-of-Law Concern
A Tomahawk cruise missile struck a primary school in Minab, Iran, killing at least 156 people, including 120 to 123 children, in one of the deadliest single incidents of civilian harm in the 2026 Iran war. Media investigations, a preliminary US military inquiry as reported, and the UN fact-finding mission (A/HRC/63/61) attribute the strike to the US.
Grade 4 of 5: Critical Rights and Rule-of-Law Concern
A sustained pattern of strikes on Iranian hospitals, ambulances, and medical infrastructure has killed healthcare workers and forced the evacuation of six hospitals. The WHO verified 18 attacks on health sites through mid-March 2026, documenting systematic damage to protected medical facilities including Gandhi Hospital and Iranian Red Crescent centers. WHO counted 21 attacks on health workers and facilities by late March, with 17 Red Crescent centres struck and nearly 100 ambulances damaged or destroyed.
Grade 4 of 5: Critical Rights and Rule-of-Law Concern
Trump's explicit threats to destroy Iran's civilian power infrastructure escalated from 'obliterate' to a promise of 'complete demolition' of every bridge and power plant. Amnesty International characterised them as threats to commit war crimes; no tribunal or UN body has found a threat itself criminal, and a threat is not a listed Rome Statute act. Strikes that were later carried out on Iranian bridges and power infrastructure are assessed in their own entries.
Grade 5 of 5: International Crime (Rome Statute)
The United States launched a major war against Iran without congressional authorization, without a UN Security Council mandate, and while diplomatic channels remained open. The Brennan Center has called the strikes unconstitutional. International lawyers including Adil Haque and Brian Finucane (Just Security) and UN special procedures have characterized them as a manifest violation of the UN Charter and an act of aggression — what the Nuremberg Tribunal called 'the supreme international crime.'
Grade 4 of 5: Critical Rights and Rule-of-Law Concern
The Pentagon's civilian casualty prevention infrastructure was gutted in early 2025, removing institutional safeguards for complying with IHL precautions before the administration's subsequent military operations, in which serious civilian harm was documented.
Grade 5 of 5: International Crime (Rome Statute)
A sustained campaign of Hellfire missile strikes on suspected drug boats has killed at least 231 people (CBS News count, September 2026) without due process, public evidence of drug trafficking, or identification of the dead. The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, UN Special Rapporteur Ben Saul and Human Rights Watch characterise the strikes as extrajudicial killings; Saul's September 2026 briefing note to the Human Rights Council found reasonable grounds that they constitute a crime against humanity, as have several scholars (Lawfare, War on the Rocks).
Grade 5 of 5: International Crime (Rome Statute)
A 53-day US bombing campaign in Yemen produced an unprecedented civilian death toll, with Airwars documenting at least 224 civilian deaths — nearly matching the 258 it recorded over the previous 23 years of US operations in Yemen. Two incidents, the Ras Isa port strike and the Saada migrant detention centre strike, reach the war-crime threshold at the probable level.
Grade 5 of 5: International Crime (Rome Statute)
US airstrikes on Yemen's most critical civilian port infrastructure killed 84+ civilians including three children, port workers, truck drivers, and civil defense personnel. HRW found the strikes an apparent war crime: CENTCOM's stated aim of depriving the Houthis of fuel revenue does not make the port a military objective, and even if valid military objectives were attacked, the civilian harm most likely made the attack unlawfully disproportionate.
Grade 2 of 5: Major Abuse of Power
With the Nigerian government's approval, the US struck targets in Nigeria for the first time, in Sokoto State. Some locals disputed the ISIS narrative, unexploded ordnance fell in villages, and the domestic legal authority for the strikes, outside any clear AUMF coverage, remains contested.
Grade 3 of 5: Serious Rights Violation
US airstrikes in Somalia escalated dramatically in 2025, with AFRICOM claiming zero civilian casualties despite independent monitors documenting dozens of civilian deaths. AFRICOM stopped publishing casualty data and has never paid compensation for civilian harm in the country.
Grade 2 of 5: Major Abuse of Power
Over 10,000 troops were deployed to the US-Mexico border for immigration enforcement, with expanded authority to detain and search people in newly created military zones. In a separate case about Los Angeles, a federal judge found the administration 'willfully' violated the Posse Comitatus Act, the Reconstruction-era law separating military and civilian law enforcement.