The nature of the crime of persecution and the targeted groups.

The world has witnessed some of the most heinous, brutal, and atrocious crimes in history, committed in violation of human rights, which have resulted in tragedies and disasters that even the most pessimistic fail to express adequately. The international community has tried to address and prevent their recurrence by establishing means to protect human beings through security and justice. Likewise, the issue of persecution is one of great importance due to the dangerous effects these crimes have on essential interests and core values, which the international community has long sought to protect and safeguard. It involves aggression against vital interests that international criminal law and international humanitarian law are designed to protect specifically. Moreover, much has been said about the crime of persecution in terms of its centrality to international criminal law, representing one of the major challenges the world faces. In the present time, it remains a key issue that continues to preoccupy the international community, in terms of the threat it poses: not only to an individual but to the very entity and structure of the international community as a whole.