The Concept of Ethnic Cleansing: A Cautious Quest for Justice

Abstract

There are numerous moral and legal drawbacks in using the term of ethnic cleansing instead of the term genocide. However, one may observe that the mass media, legal community, politicians, diplomats, NGOs and medical community persistently use the term ethnic cleansing. Moreover the crimes against humanity which were committed in 1990s’ could be discussed and prosecuted by courtesy of that term. In addition the foregoing discussion about ethnic cleansing was essential in the establishment of International Criminal Court. Therefore, in this paper it is argued that, after the establishment of International Criminal Court, the term ethnic cleansing has lost its positive function.

Keywords: International Criminal Court, genocide, ethnic cleansing, Holocaust, humanitarian law.