Ethnic cleansing

The practice of “ethnic cleansing,” aims to artificially create geographic zones (usually using violent methods) in which the population is composed exclusively of persons of the same nationality or ethnicity. Such policies violate the rules of legitimate governance under common standards set out by the international community.

States have adopted resolutions, decisions, and conventions prohibiting racial or any other form of discrimination. The UN and other international actors may impose economic and diplomatic sanctions in protest against policies of apartheid, discrimintion or ethnic cleansing. Individuals who perpetrated acts of ethnic cleansing can be prosecuted under international criminal law as such practices amount to war crimes (during conflict) or crimes against humanity (in peace situations). International humanitarian law prohibits:

• methods of warfare which have as primary purpose to spread terror among the civilian population and
• forced displacement of populations and deportation.

The Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court provides precise definitions of crimes against humanity and war crimes. These include the main elements that constitute ethnic cleansing, such as widespread and systematic killings, disappearances, population transfers, rape, persecution, and other similarly inhumane acts.