Ethnic cleansing refers to the forcible removal or transfer of a particular population from a territory. It is generally a form of bigotry and prejudice that involves the desire to create or secure an ethnically homogenous homeland or state. It also brings into focus issues of international law and international humanitarian law.
Although a treaty rule explicitly prohibiting ethnic cleansing has not yet been codified, the expression has gradually but somewhat incoherently been filled with legal meaning. It entered international diplomatic parlance in the context of armed conflicts and forcible population transfers that erupted upon the dissolution of Yugoslavia. It was widely condemned by a number of international forums, including the Commission of Experts established pursuant to UN Security Council Resolution 780 (First Interim Report) and the ICJ in Bosnia and Herzegovina v Serbia and Montenegro, Application of the Convention on Genocide (Bosnian Case).
The definition adopted by the Commission of Experts is broad. It encompasses ‘deportation or forcible mass removal or expulsion from their homes, in flagrant violation of their human rights, which is aimed at the dislocation or destruction of national, ethnic, racial or religious groups’ (Mazowiecki Third Report para. 89). In contrast, the ICJ in the Blagojevic case held that ‘the removal of a group does not necessarily amount to “ethnic cleansing” and does not have to involve the intention to physically destroy the group” (Bosnian Case [Appeal Judgment] para. 123).
The distinction between genocide and ethnic cleansing is important because a genocide perpetrated for the purpose of creating or securing an ethnically homogenous homeland or state could be considered a ‘deliberate attempt to destroy the group as a whole’ within the meaning of Article II of the Convention on Genocide, provided it was done with the necessary specific intent (dolus specialis) (Petrovic, Application of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide). However, an intent to physically remove the group in order to change its demographic composition does not qualify as genocide.
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