Polish Lawyers’ Contribution to the Work of the United Nations War Crimes Commission - Instytut Pileckiego

The United Nations War Crimes Commission (UNWCC, 1943–1948) was established in the fall of 1943 as the first international body of the Allied nations responsible for gathering documentation of crimes committed by Axis powers in occupied countries.

It was also tasked with developing a legal framework for assessing the collected documents and preparing postwar criminal proceedings, as well as with enhancing international cooperation in this matter. A pivotal role in the establishment of the UNWCC was played by the governments of occupied countries, particularly Poland and Czechoslovakia, who from the very beginning of the war sought to develop common principles among the Allies as regards the policy of investigating and prosecuting war criminals.

The goal of the project is to examine Polish and foreign archives and relevant literature devoted to the cooperation between the Polish authorities and  lawyers and the United Nations War Crimes Commission. Polish representatives were strongly involved in the UNWCC’s work from the very beginning and took up different positions within the Commission’s structures. In the first months of cooperation with the UNWCC, the Polish government filed the greatest number of indictments from among all Allied countries, and provided the dossiers on more than 1,000 suspects by July 1945. Until March 1948, Poland brought 7,805 charges to UNWCC against almost 8,000 suspects. The research is aimed at exploring the history of legacy of the UNWCC, the work of Polish delegates to the United Nations War Crimes Commission and the Polish lawyers’ contribution to the development of principles of international criminal law during World War II and in its aftermath.

Principal investigator: Dr. Dominika Uczkiewicz

foto: Meeting of the United Nations War Crimes Commission (1945)