Ethnic Cleansing in International Law Between International Criminal Law and the Responsibility to Protect

Abstract

The inclusion of ethnic cleansing, a concept that has no legal significance of its own in international law, within the material scope of the responsibility to protect (R2P), together with crimes well-defined in international criminal law, has led to certain conceptual difficulties. This article presents the exploration, through the characterization of ethnic cleansing in international law and, in particular, its possible configurations as crimes under international criminal law, of the issues that such anomalous inclusion may pose in the interpretation of the material scope of the R2P. To this end, the origins and evolution of the concept of ethnic cleansing in international relations and its consideration by the United Nations organs are addressed. Then it presents the analysis in the light of international criminal law to determine whether it may constitute one or more of the recognized international crimes, taking into account international jurisprudence and applicable rules. Finally, the inclusion of ethnic cleansing in the context of the R2P and the issues it poses are explored in order to develop a possible solution based on the results of the analysis.