INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL LAW IN THE METAVERSE: DIGITAL ADAPTATION FOR CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY
Abdulmecit Nuredin, Tevfik Can İNAN
Abstract
The rapid expansion of the Metaverse as an immersive, interactive, and decentralized digital environment has introduced novel forms of criminal conduct that may constitute crimes against humanity under international law. While originally designed for entertainment, socialization, and commerce, these virtual platforms have demonstrated the potential to facilitate large-scale harms—including virtual genocide, digital human trafficking, and AI-assisted mass surveillance— posing severe risks to human dignity, cognitive freedom, and privacy. This paper examines the emerging legal and ethical challenges (Nuredin & Nuredin, 2023) posed by such conduct, focusing on the adaptation of the Rome Statute and jus cogens norms to the realities of virtual environments. It analyzes the jurisdictional dilemmas associated with borderless digital spaces, the evidentiary complexities of blockchain-based records, and the attribution of responsibility in decentralized architectures. Drawing on interdisciplinary perspectives from law, computer science, and human rights advocacy, the study proposes the recognition of the Metaverse as a sui generis legal entity, the establishment of rapid international intervention protocols, and the creation of multidisciplinary research consortia to address complex virtual harms. Furthermore, it advances a normative framework—the Digital Geneva Protocols—designed to embed human rights protections directly into the governance algorithms of virtual platforms. By synthesizing AI ethics principles with binding legal obligations (Nuredin, 2016), the proposed framework seeks to bridge the gap between technological innovation and fundamental human rights safeguards. The paper concludes with a call for the drafting of a Digital Geneva Convention, codifying universal jurisdiction over severe virtual crimes, ensuring platform accountability, and guaranteeing victim remedies, thereby aligning digital governance with the imperatives of international criminal law in the twenty-first century.