The Beginning
Naruto Uzamaki, the titular character in Naruto, has a monster sealed within him through a sealing jutsu. This monster is what the show calls a “tailed beast.” The tailed beasts are considered demons and are referred to by the number of tails they have attached to them. Generally, the higher the number of the tails on the beast, the more powerful they are. Naruto has the Nine-Tailed Fox sealed within him which turned him into something called a “jinchuriki.” Naruto is not the sole bearer of this title as there are eight others that shoulder a similar burden. Although initially unable to control the imbued powers of the beast, Naruto has come to create a symbiotic relationship with the beast in order to defend his home – the Hidden Leaf Village (Leaf Village). However, Naruto didn’t choose to have this burden. He was forced to carry it because of his father – the Leaf Village’s Hokage – Minato Uzamaki.
At the time of Naruto’s birth, the Nine Tailed Fox was attacking the Leaf Village capital and was wreaking untold havoc within its limits. After battling the Nine Tailed Fox, and realizing that the Leaf Village was losing the fight, the Minato was faced with a choice: lose the entire Leaf Village or sacrifice his son by containing the beast within his son thus saving the leaf Village. Naruto’s father and mother agreed to make the sacrifice and sealed the Nine Tailed Fox within their son when he was born. In the immediate moment, this was good for the Leaf Village, but questions remain about this choice. This article will not focus on the ethics behind this choice; rather, it will look into the international status of the Hokage and see if Minato as the Hokage committed international law violations through the sealing of the Nine Tailed Fox within a child.
Child Endangerment
International humanitarian law (IHL) is the law that governs parties in international armed conflicts (IAC), think Russia vs. Ukraine, and non-international armed conflicts (NIAC), think US v. ISIS. IHL was built around IACs and provides more than 600 treaty rules to help protect parties that are participating in them. However, there is far fewer, think around 30 treaty rules designed to help people participating in NIACs. Within IHL and these conflicts, people are then classified based on their form of participation or non-participation in the conflict. These classifications include combatants, non-combatants, and civilians and each classification comes with a test. Why? The tests that determine a person’s “class” helps meet a core principle of IHL: the principle of distinction. Under IHL, distinction between classes helps us determine what protections you are afforded or what activities you are barred from doing.
Generally, combatants, think soldiers, are provided with many protections and are barred from less activities. Non-combatants, think religious or medical personnel, receive a decent amount of protections as well but have fewer activities they can participate in within a conflict. Civilians are enshrined as the most protected class and IHL foot stomps the fact that civilians should be protected at all costs. So much so, the fourth Geneva Convention treaty is dedicated to civilian protections. Even further, IHL has laws that are designed to prevent civilians from participating in conflicts. These laws layout that if civilians participate they don’t get the same protections like combatants and non-combatants do. Why? Because conflict is meant to remain within the realm of combatants and civilians are to be kept outside of it. As IHL protects civilians, it looks prospectively through its laws and treaties protecting an asset for the future: children. This can be seen in the United Nation’s Convention on the Rights of the Child.
Within Naruto, we see that the Hokage is a complex role. Not only does it confer head of state protections, which gives certain protections we’ll discuss in the next section but is also confers combatant status. To be a combatant, an individual must: wear a distinctive symbol, carry arms openly, adhere to IHL, and be a part of a party in the conflict. The Hokage here meets these qualifications. As stated, combatants are afforded a ridiculous amount of protections but not amongst these protections is the ability to experiment with or involve children in conflict. The Hokage did both with his son, Naruto. 
There are four Geneva Conventions and of the four civilians have one devoted entirely to them. It quite clearly lays out what protections they are afforded and what things they are prohibited from doing. Of note, is something called “Common Article 3” (CA3) which getsits moniker because it is found in each of the four Geneva Conventions. It states without needing to clarify that civilians will not have committed against them violence to life and person, in particular murder of all kinds, mutilation, cruel treatment and torture. Nor will they have outrages upon personal dignity inflicted upon them.
There is also a separate international treaty for the protection of children. Notably, it highlights that children are not to be used in armed conflicts and that all other international laws apply to them. Here, the Hokage violated the Fourth Geneva Convention and X Treaty through the experimentation of the jutsu on his son. Regardless if he had knowledge that it may have worked in other villages, there are eight others that are like Naruto, the child should never have been a consideration. His son was a civilian which is exempt from any form of experimentation, know that experimentation is totally banned to begin with, so that is a nonstarter. Furthermore, the sons age leaves him completely vulnerable and the Hokage took advantage of the child for the sake of the community writ large. By all accounts, the Hokage has violated jus cogens by experimenting upon his son. Jus cogens are “actions” that the international community universally condemns and provides no treaties to protect individuals who violate these norms. This includes things like: torture, genocide, civilian experimentation, and creating child soldiers. Thus, Minato is an international criminal; however, despite this violation, we run into the issue that is his position -“Hokage.”
Power Behind The Title
Within Naruto the world is divided into individual Village’s that are equivalent to states like the United States or Canada. The Hokage is the Village’s leader which is equivalent to the head of state much like the President or Prime Minister. The Hokage’s role includes daily Village administerial duties and ambassadorial duties within the realm of foreign affairs as they work with other Villages on complicated issues. Because of this equivalency we will start our analysis there with what we consider “head of state” immunity.
“Head of State” immunity is a controversial topic within the international law community. This is because the immunity has the ability to excuse leaders who may have violated international laws. The immunity can be divided into two areas: first, immunity ratione materiae is attached to the functions of the official; and secondly, immunity ratione personae relates to the position of the official. The latter immunity protects high ranking government officials based on actions prior to and during their role in the high level of government. You might be wondering why do we protect people who violated laws? Well, these immunities are in place to ensure that the state is able to operate without disruption or direct interference from foreign states. The latter immunity, ratione personae, which is our focus here is not something that is given to every government official; rather, think of it being reserved for the heads of states and other senior officials near that level. The International Court of Justice in Case Concerning the Arrest Warrant of 11 April 2000 (Democratic Republic of the Congo v. Belgium) held four factors for when heads of state no longer hold immunity. Of the four, the third is critical and reads: “when the high-ranking State representative does not hold office anymore, other States “may try the former high-ranking officials in respect of acts committed prior or subsequent to his or her period of office, as well as in respect of acts committed during that period of office in a private capacity.” This third factor is not settled law yet but for sake of this argument I treat it as such.
The Hokage gets “head of state” immunity because of the virtue of his position as the leader of the Village. This means that he gets immunity ratione personae for any actions that he takes during his time as Hokage and for actions that may have occurred prior to his ascension to this role. However, this immunity does not exist forever. When the Hokage is done serving, the Hokage becomes vulnerable to an international court’s prosecution, if they have jurisdiction, for actions that he took in a private capacity. It then begs the question. Was the sealing of the nine tailed fox a private or official action and what courts might exist to hold the Hokage accountable?
This could be a private action. The Nine Tailed Fox’s assault was focused only on the Hidden Leaf Village. It did not spillover into another Village nor did foreign actors fight alongside the Nine Tailed Fox. This knocks out the thought that this could be an IAC or a NIAC. It was during the fight that the Hokage chose to seal the Nine Tailed Fox within his own son, Naruto. This is because the Hokage didn’t consult other government officials before doing the sealing jitsu and he was away from the battlefield. Lastly, the Hokage made this choice in agreement with his dying wife to seal the Nine Tailed Fox within his child. If this then qualifies as a private action then there is the possibility that an international court would him accountable because of the actions taken upon a child which is considered a protected class. Even going this far, it wouldn’t be likely because the other central Villages also committed the same actions. Setting this precedent would mean they would be leaving the door wide open to have their leaders targeted and no sane state would want to see that happen. Could it then be an official action?
The sealing of the Nine Tailed Fox is more aligned with an official action. The Nine Tailed Fox was attacking the Hidden Leaf Village and the Hokage had to act to protect the land and people he governed over. Although, the Hokage committed the action within his own family without consultation of other government officials, it was an official action taken within his capacity as the Leaf Village’s Hokage. Because this was taken as an official action it seems that as Hokage he is prevented from criminal prosecution. However, Article 27(1) of the Rome Statute gets rid of the supposed security of immunity rationae personae. This Article basically says regardless of title or position if you committed a violation of international law the Rome Statute can be applied against you. Article 27(1) hasn’t been weaponized yet against heads of state. The second paragraph of the same article then strips away any supposed “immunity” that would prevent the International Criminal Court from bringing the culprit forward. Candidly, it is very difficult nigh near impossible to hold a head of state accountable. I think Article 27(1),(2) hasn’t been successful in use because international courts are wary of it because of the precedent that would be established if they unleashed it. It is like the nuclear option, and we wont see it utilized either in our world nor within the realm of Naruto.
Conclusion
There is no doubt that the Hokage violated IHL when he experimented on his son through the sealing of the Nine Tailed Fox into Naruto. But is the Hokage protected from prosecution from this action based on head of state immunity? Yes and no. Most would be inclined to say yes because the Hokage’s action would fall under official action rather than personal action which would leave vulnerable to accountability. However, the Article 27(1) of the Rome Statute says otherwise. It cuts through this form of immunity and seeks to hold any party accountable for their IHL violations. This means the Hokage could stand trial. The real question at the end of the day though…is any party willing to bring him to court? Likely, no. Why? This is because each Hokage from the other Villages within this world have done the exact same thing as Naruto’s father. If he were to be held accountable, then they would become vulnerable. This is the last thing the Villages want as they are currently rebuilding after the Third Great Ninja War. Therefore, although the Leaf Village’s Hokage should be punished, he will not be for the sake of internal and international stability.
